How we saved a deposit and became first time buyers in under a year!

As first time buyers, we spent many years wondering if we would ever be able to save enough money to buy our first home. It was becoming more common for people to rent like us and many under 30’s were still living at home with their parents.

Getting onto the property ladder is becoming increasingly harder. People can’t afford current rent prices alongside saving. For many their’s nothing left to save!

We had already cut back on luxuries. Shopping, takeaways, subscription services that we didn’t ‘need’. We still had the odd treat but made sure we were being Savvy about it in order to prepare for our future!

Using vouchers and finding codes at places such as My Voucher codes were a great way to still enjoy ourselves without spending as much.

We also had a spreadsheet that gave us a forecast of how many years it would take to save our deposit, and it was going to take a while. Around 5 years.

So how did we do it under one year? It wasn’t the easiest option and it isn’t something everyone is fortunate enough to be able to do…

It took a terrible landlord, a broken boiler and a cold Christmas with our baby to give us the push we needed. We moved out and we stopped having to pay rent. Without this change, we couldn’t have saved as much as we did, as quickly as we did!

We moved into my in-laws for 10 months. This meant 10 months of being able to save both of our salaries. No rent and utilities to pay were the biggest saving imaginable. Had we have still been renting this would never have happened. It was a sacrifice, moving into a relatives home isn’t the easiest, especially with a toddler in tow. But it was worth it.

We also avoided putting the little one into a nursery for this duration. His grandma was able to watch him, something that was a huge sacrifice on her part and saved us over £900 a month.

If you’re looking to save a deposit try something like my first home calculator, it can help you decipher where you can cut back and save more.

Use a reputable estate agent whether they be on the high street or an online agent such as Hatched, do your research as buying a house isn’t the same as choosing a place to rent. This is your future and an investment.

Once we had our house the saving didn’t stop there. There were things we needed to do in order to make it a home that required more money. We bought a new build house and what you see is not necessarily what you get. Not for the asking price anyway. What you actually get is the bare bones of the property you fell in love with at the show home. Making it a home is up to you.

Unless you account for an extra 10k+ to add all of the extras the developers offer you won’t get what you saw in a show home. And I don’t mean the luxury items such as integrated appliances or wall to wall mirrors. Of course, I didn’t expect those.

But you’ll need to foot the bill for flooring. We opted to do our own as it worked out cheaper, we still haven’t done it all! It’s a work in progress. We weren’t offered any incentives. We laid our own luxury vinyl flooring and wood flooring throughout. Buying a new build isn’t the same as buying a used house. You don’t get any carpet or tiles unless you’ve budgeted for it. Doing this ourselves, including fitting, meant a huge saving on our part. And we weren’t restricted to the choices that are on offer by the developers, we could have any flooring we desired.

Our next challenge is to furnish the house, we’ve been here for 8 months now. And although it is furnished with everything we had, it’s not our dream home just yet. I intend to be savvy again making use of offers, Oak Furniture Company often has great deals on furniture, and I have my eye on a new dining table from there. I’ll also be keeping an eye on My Voucher Codes for any offers we can get on furnishings. Just because you have the house, doesn’t mean you can’t still save!

If you’re saving for a new home make sure you check out some of our tips, use the calculator tool above and get savvy! It is possible, it may take longer than it did for us, but don’t give up. Your new home is out there!

 

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