to think if young people spent less on clothes/beauty treatments/gadgets,

[loftladder]

they would be far more likely to be able to save for big things like deposits for a house. I work with people of a wide age range. Those in their 20's and 30's bemoan the fact that they cant afford to buy a house/car/other large item. however, these are the people who visit the beautician regularly for nails/waxing/highlighting/tanning, buy at least a couple of items of clothing per week, and go on expensive holidays/change their phone as soon as a new one comes out..............have they never heard of saving, will the world end if they dont get their nails done, or use a good old bic razor. And are a couple of holidays a year essential. I may be a bit old fashioned, but i managed to do without any of these things, and it never did me any harm!!!

Your DS1 took two years to save for a house deposit in the south east?? Is the house a shed in your garden? Or is your DS Alan Sugar?

Two years? For a 10% deposit on a house?

On one hand you have a fair point, on the other hand life day-to-day would be pretty miserable without the odd takeaway/cinema outing (am not a fan of beauty treatments or technological gizmos).

But even then, I know that if I saved absolutly all of my disposable income (about £200 a month) then that would still only add up to £2400 a year. I live in London so it'd probably take me about £20 years to save up. (can't move, DPs much better job than mine is London specific)

I feel a bit glum now :(

How much did your DS and his GF save OP?

2 years seems kind of quick.

Slightly off topic but I'm constantly astounded by the ridiculous price of bog standard houses in London & the SE and can completely understand why people just give up on the idea of saving for a house. We live in Scotland where prices are much more reasonable and whenever we see things like Location Location on tv we are stunned at the ridiculous prices of horrible poky wee houses. Who buys them? And where do people with "normal" jobs live?

ds1 and his fiance have just bought first house,saved hard to get deposit, but they allowed themselves "pocket money" each month,

I didn't allow myself pocket money and it took well over 5 years to save and we had good incomes and didn't buy in the south.

Took over 2 years with repayment mortgage before we were equal to the same as rent in the area - we were after stability for schools.

Charity shops round here are full of over priced tat and no high end labels - which are usually sold on e-bay though that varies according to location in UK.

It's not that I don't believe you it's just my experience of reality is apparently very different to yours.

I didn't buy all that stuff when I was young, had savings, got made redundant long before I had enough for a deposit, ate through said savings. Kind of wish I'd spent them treating myself now.

Way to generalize OP.

DH and I both work full time (well I'm on mat leave at the moment, but usually), we don't have a car, we haven't been on holiday since our honeymoon 3 years ago, seldom if ever go to the cinema/out for dinner, and I'm still wearing clothes I bought before I fell pregnant with DS1 (21m). We are incredibly careful with our money. By the time we've paid out £725 a month on the rent, £120 on council tax, when you factor in other bills and food we're lucky if we've got anything left to fritter away. We worked out that, unless a hitherto unknown wealthy relative dies and leaves us a fortune, it'll take us about forty years to save a deposit. And then we'd be pushing it. I'm 28 and DH is 33 btw.

Littlerobots - £20 a week is £1000 a year!

www.natwest.com/personal/mortgages/how-much-can-i-borrow.ashx

According to this website, a person earning £20,000 (no other debts, dependents, incomes), would be able to borrow £106,250, with a 10% deposit or equity. This means they would be able to buy a house worth £118,056, with a £1180.56 deposit.

Looking around the are I would like to buy in there is very little under £200,000, and all that would buy you is a 1-bed flat.

To buy a £200,000 1 bed flat, with the mortgage of £106,250, a person earning £20,000 gross (16,418 net) would need to save £93,750 as a deposit (over 5 years net salary!) I should imagine in reality it would take someone earning £20,000 around 15 years to save that, assuming they are spending money every month on food, rent, heating, lighting and other essentials.

Your post has actually made me very angry!

I never go to the beauticians, and spend very very little on home beauty products (think poundland and superdrugs own brand).
I haven't had my hair cut for a year, and that's the norm for me.
I drive but don't own a car as I walk everywhere I can.
I own an iPhone yes but on contract for £30 a month, when its time for an upgrade I shall stay with the phone I have for a £15 a month contract.
I rarely splash out on clothes, but get a generous uniform allowance from the very nice clothes store I work in and buy the rest of my stuff in the sales.
Since I have been an "adult" and paid for my own holidays they have been basic hostel city trips costing me no more than £250 and that's been less than once a year.

Do you have any idea how much rent and bills are nowadays?!?

In the OP's defence I can see what she's saying. I'm reading it that the younger generations take mobile phones, iPad, nails/hair done, fake tan for an occasion as "a given" and not a treat/luxury.

I agree that because of southern prices it would mean saving for half a century though

I'm 30 and I have friends who have been very blasé about money/savings or working at keeping a job for longer than 12 months. As such they're now struggling to save money because they're so used to their 'luxurious' life style and won't cut things out because they need them.

I fluttered money away when I was 20/21/22 but started to save for a house after Uni; i would miss nights out unless for an occasion and started cutting my own hair and shopping on eBay for clothes. DP did similar (cut his hobby back to once every 2 months, instead of every month). 8 years later we could afford to buy our house together. It's the little savings that do add up. We're north west though so a lot cheaper to live and buy.

You sound unbearably smug OP especially in your follow up post.

By all means its great your son and his fiance have managed to afford their mortgage after only a couple of years of saving but they must be bloody minted but not everyone is that lucky.

I am a "young person" and I'm currently sewing up the hole on the arse of my favourite £20 new look jeans because I can not afford to buy new ones. Because I've pissed away all my deposit money on having my nails done and buying loads of gadgets obviously

!exactly ouryve!! It would take at least 20 years to save for a deposit saving that amount!

And that's assuming you're in a place with cheap housing. You can't simply get on the housing ladder with 100per cent mortgage anymore.

Wow .

You're massively out of touch if you think that's the reason why 'young people' (are we a collective entity now?) can't afford a house deposit.

I can't even afford to feed myself more than one meal a day. How about looking at the ridiculous price of renting, or the fact that minimum wage isn't even enough to live on without having a 'top-up' from the government.

Very unreasonable, OP.
I have my nails done, and it costs me £20 every 4 weeks.
Admittedly, a luxury I probably won't be able to afford when I go on maternity leave in December.
But to give you some perspective, my tube travel to and from work costs me £112 in the same time period.

I have a deposit saved and a good job but can't get a mortgage worth a damn until my DP gets a permanent full time job, something that took me 4 years out of uni to do with a good degree. With house prices rocketing again and buy-to-let rampant, it's easy to see why young people might not even bother attempting to save. YABU.

YABU and totally ridiculous to generalise like that. But you knew that.

I've just turned 30. Never stepped into a nail bar/beauticians in my life. Camping holidays in the UK. No car. Cycle everywhere. Clothes from eBay/charity shops. Occasional takeaways, certainly no expensive restaurants. No iPad/tablet, one (second hand) laptop I share with DH. Tiny TV that we inherited when my granny passed away.

We do have a mortgage despite living in London. But this is only possible because I am on a professional salary earning much more than most people my age. My siblings haven't a hope in hell of buying here.

I think you have a point OP, but it isn't just "young people" who spend money on non-necessities, and some people just don't have the option to do so. What I do know, is that my 20 yo DS, who lives at home and rarely goes out (once or twice a month) and works part time in a supermarket has managed to save nearly £8,000 in a year, after paying me £60 a month rent. I have friends who are permanently "skint" and "brassic" who happily spend £70 on a haircut or £100 on a handbag , I'd love to be that skint

firstly, i am truly sorry if i have offended anyone, as i know that things are difficult for lots of people. DS and fiance basically sofa surfed for 2 years between various relatives, and just paid for food, hence able to save circa 2k a month, but they were fortunate to be able to do this. Prior to this they were renting, and would never been able to raise a deposit. I am very aware that i am generalising, but i think as someone said, a lot of what i mentioned have become the norm, look at martin lewis "money saving expert" and his calculation about how much is spent each year just on one take out coffee a day, and i know this may be a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things, but all these drops add up. i guess when we bought our 1st house, there werent all these lifestyle type things to distract us, we had to save, as had just done phds, and no money at all. So the pressures are totally different today, and house prices really are totally bonkers.

When our parents bought houses they were something like 4x the annual wage. Now prices are more like 10x the annual wage. So of course it was easier for you!

As for sofa surfing for two years, nice if you can get rent-free living but really not an option for most of us who have to pay for bills and rent and travel and and and...