To think I could possibly save £15k in a year?

[newyorklover1]

I'm posting here for traffic.

So basically We rent a house and it's prefect for my family. We've rented lots over the years and this is definitely the best one for us.

Landlord told us recently that he may be looking to sell next year when the current mortgage deal expires and asked if we would be interested. We have been hap hazardly saving (thinking that he wouldn't be selling for another 2 years) and haven't really made much headway with the saving up to now.

We have about £1000 spare income each month.

I get a yearly net bonus of £1500

Is it possible to save that kind cash in a year? I.e no treats or eating out/days out etc?

We either move and rent again which I really don't want to do or bust a gut trying to find the money?! Aibu to think we can manage this?

You can do it if you have a goal in sight.

See a mortgage advisor, open a savings account. Sell what you can.

Good luck

Just to add the 15k gives us a 10% deposit

Just to add the 15k gives us a 10% deposit

Absolutely. I did it as a single Mum with an average job but did loads of overtime. Banked 1500 a month for 2 years. Was lucky enough to get free rent but you have a partner for that.

you can do, you will also need to pay solicitors fees. Go for it!

What's your credit rating like?that's just as important to work on as saving a deposit.

It's very possible to make cuts and save cash in order to put a house deposit together. It's a relatively short term over which to exercise self control.

Money saving expert has a good budget template.

Are you under 40 and in the UK? If so you need to check out lifetime individual savings accounts (LISA) If you qualify you can take out one each and put in upto £4000 into it. At the end of the year the government tops it up 25%.

Look at Help to Buy savings account. That might add a bit to your savings. Both you and your OH can get one each if neither of you has owned property before.

Isn’t there some savings account for first time buyers where you get higher interest or the g’ment bumps up your savings? Worth browsing moneysavingexpert.

This one - www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-ISA/

Just to add about the lifetime USA abd help to buy isa, in case you haven't heard of them, when you want to buy is crucial to which account you open.

The help to buy isa you can use after there's £1600 in the account, which if you put in the initial £1000 to open and then £200 a month, would take 3 months.

For the lifetime isa you must have had the account open for at least 12 months. So if you would need to buy in less than 12 months, it's no use to you.

Both accounts offer the 25% government top up, but you can only pay £200 a month into the help to buy (plus the initial up to £1000 to open) whereas the Lisa is £4000 a year.

And you and your partner can both have an account, as long as you are both first time buyers.

Tbh my credit rating isn't good I have some defaults from when I previously separated and had to manage on my own but since then all good. Defaults don't drop off for two years. I would be asking a family member to go guarantor so hoping this will help the situation.

I just need to convince my dh that we can do this as he's not convinced.

I previously owned a property so some of the government schemes don't apply to me

I would investigate the requirements you need to meet to get a mortgage. Not all lenders are the same. If you contact a mortgage broker they will be able to offer advice on the best type of product for your situation and what lenders will want.

I think that so long as you don’t have any unexpected disasters you could do it. Would any family members chip In? Worth asking if you have a good relationship and it is appropriate.

Go to L&C, they do no fee mortgage advice (they get a commission from the lender but they deal with loads of them). They were really good with us - we only had a 5% deposit to play with.

We unexpectedly had to find extra money for the deposit so we sold some stuff on Ebay. It was a pita but we raised £600 in a week.

Yes you can, might help if one of you can get a second job for the short term , you'll need to cover legal fees etc too

Don't forget with help to buy ISA you can't claim the bonus if the property is about £250k (or greater in London)

I’d start saving as much as you can as soon as you can . Even if this house isn’t the one for you there will be others and at least you’ll be prepared .
Have you been spending over £13 grand a year on treats and days out? I’m surprised with that amount of disposable income you don’t have a few thousand saved already tbh.

Yes purpletiger and we both buy lots of new clothes and I get my hair done regular etc two holidays etc etc. We really do need to stop it all and concentrate on saving.

Sounds like it’s definitely possible. Your £1000 per month plus your bonus gets you to £13,500 - so you only need to find save another £1500. That’s a saving of £125 per month. Only you know where you can make that saving - do you buy lunches at work? Coffees? Friday night takeaways? Do you go to the pub regularly? Can you make cutbacks on your grocery shopping?

It is doable, I saved a similar amount each month for a year to go towards our wedding. The trick is to move the 'spare' cash into your savings account at the start of the month then checking your account every day to make sure you are living within your new means rather than thinking you will reduce your spending then sweep any excess over at the end of the month as you are more likely to come up short that way.

I know it gets said to death on here but it really is true, the biggest change we made to help us save was to meal plan. Good luck x

(and avoid Which mortgage advisors if you do use a broker, we've just used them to help remortgage and they were beyond awful!)

You can absolutely do it. Get on the credit crunch/no spending threads on here and get saving.

Stopping spending feels hard for a few months, and then it gets a lot easier, you get used to it and you start to see your savings grow which is exciting.

Could you live off one income and save ALL of the other income? Just for a year?

Speak to a mortgage broker - there are still places offering 95% mortgages, which would reduce the size of deposit you need.

Meal plan - if you don't already shop at Aldi or Lidl then I'd recommend it, because you can save a lot but it helps if you know exactly what you need to buy. Wandering round not sure of what you want to eat is a guaranteed way of overspending. If you plan your meals then you can list your ingredients out and only buy what you need. Don't forget that you can freeze bread.

Don't buy takeaway coffees. Get yourself an insulated cup and make your own. This can save a fair bit of cash! Ditto buying bottled water - get a sports bottle and refill it yourself.

Pack your lunches and take them to work with you. Most meal deals are £4 or so a day - so that's £40 per week for the both of you.

I'm loving these ideas thank you.

I think our biggest hurdle is not going out and spending. To pass the time we go shopping lots and inevitably spend spend spend.

I think I get a bit of a thrill out of spending money so it will hit me hard!

So during the year we will need to do things that are low cost or free I.e parks/museums etc as I go stir crazy in the house and so do the kids.

Yes you can. Get a first buyers (or whatever they're called) ISA. Write out a budget (and look at your bank statements to make sure it's accurate). Cancel any direct debits that aren't essential. Look at reducing your weekly shop. When you write your budget start from your largest bill and work out how to reduce it then go downwards. Obviously you can't change things like council tax but gas and electric, phone bills, TV & internet if you pay for extras can all be reduced.

If you have trouble sticking to a budget try taking out cash to last the week - it makes it much easier to keep track and resist temptation when that cup of coffee would mean breaking into a tenner.

Depending on the ages of the kids you could possibly choose one annual pass for a local attraction and the rest of the time explore free museums, parks etc.