To think we could manage a £2200 mortgage payment

[Dyr]

on a take home pay of £4k.
After purchasing the house we would have £40k - £50k left in savings / investments.
The repayments would be about £2.2k per month but our combined take home would be £4k, and due to the jobs we are in its unlikely to increase. late 30s/early40s with 2 kids (primary school age)

I think it would be helpful to know whether OP is renting their current home and what the rent is. 45% of my salary goes on my mortgage but the length of the mortgage is short on account of my age, I have no dependents and a 25% LTV so it’s manageable for me so far. I’d probably be paying the same or possibly more in rent for a comparable property.

He much is your rent at the moment ?
Will you be changing council tax bands?
What is the square footage of your current house and what is the EPC rating? How will size and heating costs compare when you move?
Contents and Buildings insurance v contents only when renting.
Think about possible Maintenance costs, new boiler? Roof repairs, electrical costs, bathrooms?

No. If anything major happens, you’ll be screwed. It’s way too high.

I think stepchange budget is great, makes you think about a those little things you take for granted and is free and anonymous if you wish.

I don’t see how you can possibly be granted a mortgage that costs £2200 per month if your combined monthly salaries amount to only £4000 after tax and NI. You don’t have enough coming in.

Mortgage 2200
Gas elec 200
CT 200
Food 500
Telly phone 150
Car + petrol 200 (without finance)
Water 50

Leaving 500 for savings, clothes, kids sports clubs, holidays, daytrips etc...
Price of living is not gonna come down either.
Kids might be only primary but the time to save for uni is now.

You would regret doing this.

Put the £50k down to reduce interest paid… or the term of the mortgage!…. The money you’ll save can then be put aside each month to build back up savings … but no one needs £50k for a rainy day…. A few thousand yes but the amount of interest you’ll save by putting most of that into the deposit will pay for itself 3 times over!

Mortgage
council tax
home insurance
Car insurance… yearly service, MOT, new tyres. fuel.(probably times two as you probably have a car each.
Gas/electric
water
food.
day trips
child care during school holidays.
plus the extras (sky/Netflix/TV licence)
prescription costs.
school uniform/shoes
dentist costs/eye tests..

hair cuts

id want to earn £6k plus to be paying out a mortgage like that…. The last thing you need as a young family is to have to count pennies… it’s great to know they’d lend you that much but try to find a house for as little as possible!

If there was a chance that your salaries would increase then I would say go for it. We had a mortgage that was £3k a month and was then joint salary pm of £6k not including annual bonus (financial services). This was just before the 2008 financial crash. However, we did not have children and we worked long hours - so fed by work in evenings. We also had low outgoings except the mortgage. Funnily enough we now earn £6k pm between us but not within investment banking and our mortgage is a lot lower. I could not do that now with children and their expenses and with COL etc.

Just because they say they'd lend you a huge amount doesn't mean you should do it.

It’s tight, as a rule of thumb you should spend no more than 1/3rd on rent or mortgage.

could you extend the term to get they payments down?

Grocery bill is trimmed already...I shop exclusively at Lidl and cook for all 5 of us from scratch.

I'm sorry, but I find that very hard to believe. I do food shopping at a combination of Ocado/Local veggie box/milkman (none of which are the cheapest options) and feed 3 adults for about £100 per week without really trying to cut back. Our take home is a bit higher than yours so I don't need to. I know that I could trim it if needed.