House-buying budget - how much did you keep in savings?

[MNUse]

Not really an AIBU, and I’m really sorry if the title is annoying/offensive or to some given that house-buying at all let alone house-buying with savings reserved is so hard at the moment. But if you did buy a house and were in a position to reserve some savings as well, how much did you keep for savings vs spending on house budget? Basically looking to buy and wondering whether to try and spend at the top of my budget in order to try and get somewhere I love and could stay a long time in (with say about a fifth of my total money kept in savings) or buy something that’s ok and keep a more substantial amount in savings (about a third of my total money). How did you decide?

YABU - prioritise savings
YANBU - prioritise house budget (calling this YANBU since that’s what I’m inclined to do)

When we were FTBs and in our early 30s we threw everything we had at our first place, we did keep a bit back for furniture etc.

When we upsized last year we were older (and wiser) and have had 3 redundancies between us and one main earner. We've kept back six months post tax salary as I just wasn't comfortable not having accessible cash and will overpay the mortgage.

We decided to keep back a safety net of 10k.

We had nothing left in savings after we bought our first house and paid for moving. In fact, we slept on a duvet on the floor for the first month as we couldn't afford to buy a bed. It was worth it, though.

I think you should think about how long you would live there, the costs of moving again (very expensive), whether you have family and friends to fall back on if problems arise, and your ability to rebuild your savings after purchase. Good luck.

Also do some research into costs if you are looking at buying somewhere that needs work (eg you want to put in a new kitchen / diner, knock down walls, new bathroom) and think very carefully about whether you will realistically be able to afford this. Some of the quotes just for single storey extensions / new kitchens seem to be getting crazy at 100k plus. New windows / doors could be 20k / garden work 10k. Be very realistic, think about where you will
be in 5 years time.

If you see yourself with 2 children, part-time wages / nursery costs then don’t go for a house that needs 100k work you’ll never be able to afford (ahem, possibly speaking from experience here..)

Our current house we had a 30% deposit and kept £60k back for contingencies. Draining the savings wouldn't have got us a better interest rate as it wouldn't have got us to a 60% LTV vs the 70%, and as a result wouldn't have reduced our monthly payments a huge amount. We're a one income family so like to have 6 months of liquid living expenses in case of job loss.

Ah, should say as FTB we only kept about £10k in savings and only had a 15% deposit. Sorry, it's very different as a FTB.

£0 - had to scrape anything and everything together to buy, cover costs and then worried about what next, with us renovating as and when we saved the money, generally doing most everything ourselves to save labour costs, which we repeated 4 times, including the removals! However, we also made sure that we had no other debts, credit cards etc., which helped with budgetting going forward.

We didn't consciously keep any in savings. We moved ourselves, literally with our and dh's friend's van, so no removals costs. We do have a business, so when in doubt, dh could always pay out extra in a given month if we needed more money (my income is more static as I'm salaried). But we didn't really 'need' any extra money above and beyond the costs of mortgage fee, conveyancing, the usual. We did eventually get a new bed/mattress and we did some decorating, but decorating was like a few tins of paint and we slept on our old mattress on the floor for a few months, so new bed wasn't urgent.

£10k which swiftly went on a kitchen and the back garden. We are mid 40s and I earn quite well. In the 4 years we have lived here we have done pretty much everything apart from loft insulation and boarding. Ironically just about to increase the mortgage to do an extension, but I'd rather die than move again.

We took the maximum amount of mortgage that we could afford at that point in time, rather than invest the "cash" in the house if that makes sense? So we kept back about £50K from the house sale which we then used for emergency repairs to unforeseen circumstances and also was something to fall back on if one month we were struggling to pay the mortgage for whatever reason.

Now the rates have changed I'm not sure I'd do the same again and would argue that "cash is king".

I think you’d be insane to make a huge financial commitment like a house and NOT have savings (or at least something to fall back on like a good credit score etc) - we've all seen on here how much peoples circumstances suddenly change + unexpected costs.

It’s all relative though to deposit/house value and whether you can afford to.

My LTVR was 65% (i.e 65% upfront and only 35% mortgage on the value of the property). So I kept back a large amount of savings and just overpay on my mortgage instead of saving now…

First house at 25 took every single Penny and I lived in overdraft for two years doing it up.

Moving atm and this time hoping to keep about 10K in reserve

Last time we moved, we threw everything at it, and then some, to be able to afford the house we've had the privilege of living in for the last 20 years. We even 'borrowed' from our dcs' savings accounts - they were too young to know.
We both had secure jobs. Nothing needed doing on the house. It was initially out of our budget but was just 'the one' after looking for some time at houses that all needed some compromise.

So, we had no savings. Zero. Zilch. Negative, in fact, in that we had to pay back our dc.

But, if you are buying somewhere uninhabitable, that won't apply.
If you are in less than secure jobs, then that won't apply.

All circumstances are different.

On this for the love of God get income protection when buying.

Thank you so much to everyone who has posted - lots of important stuff to think about here