Want to apply for mortgage but bank statements are shocking!

[Shnazzyshot]

Hi we are trying to get a mortgage and have been in touch with a mortgage advisor. We haven't been actively been saving. The moment we have in the bank is just what's 'left over'. I hope that makes sense. We aren't on a high income by the way but we don't have any debts or finance, sky packages and we haven't ever been on holiday. We live in the north east so our living costs are lower.

Anyway. Because we haven't been actively saving or planning for a mortgage, our bank statements have loads and loads of little transactions for coffees, take aways and other little things. I'm talking every day. We spend about £100 on junk basically a week. (yes I know I'm so ashamed) we went through our statements the other day and have stopped all spending but obviously we can't change our previous statements which look awful. We can afford all these things by the way it's not like we are spending money we don't have and we are still always up at the end of the month.

Anyway we've seen a house we want to buy so my question is have we got any chance of getting a mortgage now or should we wait 3 months to have squeaky clean bank statements but risk loosing the house?

I've spoken to a mortgage advisor and when he asked when we spent each week on treats, I said £50 but it's actually like £100. I didn't lie on purpose I just didn't realise it was so much. Obviously we know we can just cut this spending but I'm worried the mortgage company won't view it like this. Mortgage advisor is ringing us back today so I will tell him the correct figure.

Please don't be too harsh!

Thank you.

Needmoresleep I've just seen your post about candy crush, sorry but that really made me laugh exactly how I feel about our coffee and takeaways haha.

I would spend a few months cleaning your bank statement s and not spending on the 'stuff'.

I wasn't planning on buying a house when I started the process and so my bank statements showed some chunky spending and my mortgage offer got reduced by a little bit from the AIP consequently.

That's what I was worried about 5rivers. Still waiting for the mortgage advisor to ring back so I'll see what he says.

This is partly why I use cash for the small stuff!
It just clutters up the statements and I can't see the important stuff (check my regular payments etc).
£40 cash out every week or so for "pocket money" is much better IMO.

That's a really good idea iHeart. I'll be doing that from now on.

I use a credit card for all these small transactions and then pay it off in full each month. Builds my credit up , get some points/cash back and also keeps my bank statement tidy!

Even better idea chewie! Honestly I wish we had been planning on buying a house so we could have done all this earlier.

Mortgage advisor didnt ring us back today so could even ask his opinion.

Well we got a mortgage in principle but haven't spoken to to mortgage advisor yet which is a bit annoying.

That's great!

Well it is but I'm still worried about the state of the bank statements and the mortgage in principle was based on spending £50 a week on treats instead of the real amount of £100. Will have to ring the mortgage advisor on Monday as he was supposed to ring me this week but didn't.

Tbh mortgages and house buying can take weeks, so if you start cutting down now, by the time you actually get the mortgage you'll have shown that you can control your spending!

I have a slightly similar situation - getting a pay rise at the end of this month, but I know it'll take forever, and by the time they actually need the proof of income I'll have it...

@Shnazzyshot this is a very old post but I am in the exact same position and worried! Did you get an offer or pulled up on the constant spending ?