To not have a bloody clue how we are ever going to get on the property ladder?!

[DarylDixonsJockstrap]

As the title says really...we currently rent a flat for £850pcm not including any bills, we have a 3 year old and both work and earn above average wages. However we are always down to our last few quid at the end of the month. We don't have any major debt and manage to save small amount each month but nowhere near enough to save up the enourmous deposit we would need to buy our own home. It's really depressing.

Just seeking advice/ideas from people who have managed it? TIA xx

I could only afford to buy as I left where I was brought up (London) and moved to a shit hole (Swindon). We bought a tiny house on a shit road. We were able to save a 10% deposit on not amazing salaries. The most we've ever earned was £48,000 pa.

We were saving £800 a month and ran a very, very old car. I took the bus instead of driving which meant my six mile commute to work took an hour by bus. It wasn't easy. I've also had the same phone since university and my contract is only £10 a month. We also had shit holidays and didn't go anywhere fun for three years.

We were very lucky to be able to buy in the days of 100% mortgages.
If you are interested in making big changes in order to save for a deposit then moneysavingexpert is the place to go. There are some seriously dedicated people on there who will give you loads of advice and tips.

Our rent is £1300pcm not including any bills, this is average for where we are. There is no way in hell we are ever getting on the property ladder. Even though we would be saving a good few hundred per month if we could get a mortgage on the same house equivalent, but the banks say we cannot afford the cheaper mortgage, so crack on paying a shed load more instead!!

Try to change to an attitude that everything you do that costs a pound a day is 365 a year, every takeaway that costs 10 pounds a week is over 500 a year etc. The BBC series by Alvin Hall on paying off your mortgage in a year was very good on saving, and on maximising income. Not sure if it's on Youtube

The only way I could do it was by taking a room in a shared house and saving like mad. And then when I did manage to buy, I needed to rent my spare room to a lodger for a while to make life comfortable. I didn't have a child then though. Shared living and lodgers are possible but undoubtedly less desirable when you have children.

We were lucky in that, when we rented, we rented from our landlord directly - there was no agency involved. He never once raised the rent and it was only £600pcm for a 2bed detached cottage in the SE! However, even though that meant we could save up a bit, we still wouldn't have been able to buy when we did without the substantial donation my parents gave us.
And things have gotten even worse now; I don't think we'd be able to buy now if we were still renting as the prices have shot up so much (and so have the rents!). We wouldn't even be able to rent the house we own now, as the rental for similar houses in our road is a LOT higher than our mortgage!

No advice but lots of sympathy for you. My dcs are both unable to buy anything in our area, despite earning reasonable money. One DC and their partner are renting and the others still at home. They need to live nearby as this is where their employment is but realistically they are waiting for us to die before they stand any chance of having enough money to use as a deposit.

You have to move away from all your friends and family like we did

We moved to Milton keyens there was no way we could have afforded to buy in London and we had a council home are were offered 100k discount the house still would have been 350k so we had no chance

We now have a 4 bed house with a very large kitchen

We only got on the property ladder because my parents gave us the deposit, otherwise we would still be renting. Lots of young people who I know are only managing to save for a deposit by living with parents for a couple of years so paying no rent. I appreciate this is difficult with a young child though.

I think you have to save 30 grand then apply for a job in a cheaper area then move that's it

When we brought our house the estate agent told us over 60% of people are people now moving out of London

We managed it by doing help to buy on a new build. We were very lucky in that I was coming to the end of maternity leave and we'd saved up prior to ds arriving and still had some left which we put towards the 5% deposit and my parents loaned us the rest. If we'd had to get the full amount ourselves or needed more than 5% deposit we would still be renting.