To ask how you saved for a deposit?

[Newmummy1234]

How on earth do you save for a deposit for a house when you are renting? Pay a small fortune in rent and just not enough money left to save. Don’t spend money on much and have really strict budget for food. No luxuries either :(
How do you do it? X

@Northernsoullover If I had been on my own I would have still wanted to buy and would have gone for a 1 bed flat. For that I would have needed about 9k rather than needing the 30k we had to save for a house. So still doable eventually. But things depend a lot on where you live and how much your earn. We live in the SE so it is not the cheapest, but it is not impossible to buy. You might just not get the dream house.

House prices are just too expensive. For example a house that I know of brought in in 1997 for 70k grand is now worth 400k! Wages haven’t gone up that much!
I own but recognise that we’re all doomed
because prices have priced everyone out of the market. House prices are a victim of their own success.
I think that people who brought in the 90s with a typical 25 year mortgage are really fortunate.

I had no life for 4 years. I was basically a working peasant. I had the same clothes and handbag for 4 years. My shirts had even started to fade. Luckily I moved jobs 3x in those years so wasn't noticed so much by colleagues. Probably by the third job they were internally thinking christ get a new shirt but hey ho. It was ultimately fairly depressing and boring lifestyle and I wish it in no one. But we would not have been able to buy otherwise and rent is so expensive it was a relief to finally get out of renting.

Oh and to add although I ended up buying with dh I was originally aiming to buy alone so would have managed to except I put the entire deposit down and dh paid mortgage after we had dc. I don't think i could have saved with dc because rent would probably have been higher and more expenses that can't be avoided.

Gift of 50k & some savings. We couldn't afford what we have now if it wasn't for that.

I believe the average ftb deposit in London is now 100k, it's a lot of saving!

It's no "all" 'we' Aroundtheworldyet - I bought my first place before meeting dh. There are 6 or 7 others that have said "I" as well.

Lived in a houseshare/squat/one of those property guardianship schemes, worked a LOT, and postponed parenthood.

Simple. Did it while renting. Made sacrifices and saved everything I could. Went without haircuts, new clothes, nice holidays etc and budgeted. Did it before starting a family. It is possible but takes time and determination, and ideally before little ones come along.

Budgeted and moved money into a separate account on pay day. Both of us were working full time, pre-dc, no debt whatsoever. We still had money to do things with and we kept the savings accessible in case we needed them for anything and then moved money into our LISAs (we had one each) before the end of the year to get the bonus. Took two years to raise just over 10% deposit. We live in the north too which helped with prices.

We saved a small bit and are doing shared ownership. Half of it it now rwnt and half going into the mortgage, then when we come out of that we will have enough for a proper deposit.

Worked three jobs and lived in a crap house. Had one day off a fortnight and no days off as holiday for three years.

But it worked

Lived in teeny tiny one bed flats for for years and prioritised saving. Some months were better than others and I could put away £500. Most months, I averaged around £300.
Finally made it to £17k after 4 years. It was a flipping slog and lots of sacrifices made along the way. It is doable but not remotely fun.

I lived in a bedsit (bedroom, separate tiny kitchen of my own along the communal hallway, shared bathroom) and worked while also studying part time for a qualification that would get me a better paid job. I worked near central London but lived right at the edge making sure I had a direct bus route to work as it was cheaper than the train.
No car. When I got the better paid job, I stayed put and all the extra money went toward building a deposit.

I looked for a house in an inexpensive area that was an unpopular style for that area, although it's style would have made it more expensive where I was moving from. The house was also cheaper as the only bathroom was off one of the bedrooms but that didn't matter to me as I was living there alone.

We're a "we" but living in London, both earning below average salaries. Less than a year ago our combined incomes were barely higher than one average London salary. We just paid a 20% deposit on the property we are buying and still have savings left for an emergency. We are also planning on replacing the kitchen as soon as we complete the purchase, without touching our savings.

We flatshared for a few years, but not for as long as we could have, as they were not pleasant experiences, but otherwise we saved every penny we could.

We don't have a tv, sky or netflix (we do have prime video but that is bundled with our food shopping and it is quite recent). We didn't have smartphones for a long time and even when we finally got them they were low budget and without phone contracts (pay as you go limited to essential use only, my wife once made £10 phone credit last 6 months). We now have a £10 phone contract each.

We do not go to coffee shops, we don't have takeaway, we didn't dine out except for special occasions. We've gotten a bit more relaxed in the last year or so. We always take home cooked meals to work. Every single day.

We cut down on a lot of expenses but we still manage to go on holiday at least once or twice a year, albeit not very expensive ones. Theatre, cinema, etc are occasional luxuries not weekly events (2 west end shows in 6 years). We get cinema vouchers from completing surveys online and amazon vouchers that help bring down our supermarket bill from the same source.

We buy new clothes only to replace old unwearable ones. I realised the other day one of my work tops is 5 years old and still in great condition.

We don't have a car and always take public transport. For years we would take the bus for an hour each way to go to work, to save on the tube fare, which would be more than double the cost of the bus. I now feel very indulgent taking the train.

3 years ago, when we had saved enough, we bought a flat abroad and paid cash. We knew the market and hoped it would be a good investment. We just sold it, making some profit and we are finally in a position to buy here.

We do not have children yet, though, as we decided to wait until we bought our own home and felt financially stable enough to have a family. I am sure things would have been quite different with little ones.

We lived in a pretty shitty and quite cheap flat with another couple for 7 years. To be fair, the bedrooms were big and the woman of the couple was one of my oldest friends but it was tough. We pretty much both worked all the time to save money We bought a small flat that was a doer upper and did most of the work ourselves. Then moved on to another slightly larger flat that also needed doing up. This was all in our 20's so it wasn't too bad but it certainly wasn't easy.

I’ve got an evening job x3 evenings a week, I’m a SW which pays well but my rent is 55% of my wage and utilities and other bills take up the rest, what’s left over which isn’t much goes on the kids needs. My evening job brings me in some cash to save.

I’m on my own in London. Am moving into a friends house and will pay £400 all in instead of £1000 excluding bills at the moment. I’m lucky to be able to do this. Also have a plum account that saves without me noticing. Have £700 in there. Have a long way to go.

We moved to a city that was more affordable and then spent a year living on one income and banking the second. We might never have been able to buy if we hadn’t moved.

I didn’t. I got one of the last 100% mortgages and (thankfully) resisted getting a 125% northern rock mortgage

I have absolutely no idea how I would have saved for a deposit if needed at the time, it would have to have been a second job I think

Rent in my area is ridiculous, and i've no idea how people can rent and save for a deposit

Inheritance. Wouldn't have happened otherwise.

I bought as a single person, 1 bedroom flat. I house shared, no car, no holidays, no luxuries, worked full time and worked in a bar a few evenings a week plus weekends, plus had an antiques stall in the local market. When I got my mortgage the interest rate was 8%, when it reached 15% I was struggling so much I lived in my living room and rented out my bedroom. I know you think it was easy back then, but it didn't feel like it to me and friends at the time.

Lived with in-laws and had three jobs 1985.

Went and lived in the Middle East for 2 years. I earned about £20k but as the company was paying for housing etc I saved enough for a deposit.