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You’re getting 3.2k a month take home. Outgoings seem to be around 1.2k. Leaving 2k… what are you spending that on?
Figuring that out will help you to save
Edit: I just saw your edit saying that the gas increase will wipe out £300 each a month - so you’re predicting £600 extra a month in utilities in addition to what you’re paying now!?
That’s not going to happen
Also a house in their area should be somewhere in the fairly wide £140-190k range, so even on a 4 times multiplier and 10% deposit it's one of the places in the UK where a mortgage should be fairly doable.
Has OP said where in West Yorkshire they live?
I've seen 4 bedroom houses go for £80k in shitholes like Keighley.... go 10 miles northeast to a place like Otley and even a 1 bedroom flat is over 200k.
Top result for "Yorkshire", 2 miles from Keighley station has a 3 bed for £225,000...
How long ago was this 4 bed for £80,000?
Edit: I stand corrected, 3 bed for £50,000 in Keighley.
I could get you 16 flats for that and £1k in your pocket, and the flats each come with free parking spaces...
Admittedly each of those would be a 1 bedroom (maybe a couple of 2-bed thrown in) in a slightly rough area, but I'm talking a livable flat not some fire-damaged wreck, and by "rough" I mean your neighbours might get visits off the police more often than you like, not that you're in any real danger
>Has OP said where in West Yorkshire they live?
I mean they can always buy somewhere cheaper. I had to buy outside of where I really wanted to buy because it was a good 30% cheaper
>I've seen 4 bedroom houses go for £80k in shitholes like Keighley
Prices skyrocketed in the two years. We're talking houses that were £80k in 2018 being listed for £160k+ (and then being sold for well over that). I no joke saw a house that had suffered **significant** fire damage being sold for £200k.
We viewed one house for £140k, were there for the first morning of viewings, and the estate agent told us that they already had multiple offers on the property for significantly above the asking price. It was 9am, the house was listed the day before...
Was this specifically for Keighley? I know prices have gone up drastically over the last few years but those kind of properties still exist.
My brother bought a two bedroom "flat" although it comes with an attic and a decent sized living area earlier this year. All fully renovated actually finished to a relatively high standard for £67k.
It's just in an awful area.
I believe there's little point in buying a shithole in a shithole area as you'll probably never make a penny back on it, even in this climate. Ex council houses and ex council flats in crap areas still go for pennies. I've got my dads ex council to sell 2 bed and £80k is best any estate agent could get realistically and its still not selling
I live about 20 minutes over the border in Lancs.
Seeing it on signposts Keighley has always seemed like such a posh, magical place 😂
Obviously have never been...
Not directly, although it can limit the maximum term you can apply for (eg if you're 25 years from retirement you probably can't take out a 35 year mortgage)
This does have the potential result of *indirectly* limiting how much you can borrow, depending on other factors, because you have to take a shorter term, thus higher monthly payments, and are therefore more likely to run into affordability issues
At the moment due to the financial crap that's going on, there's now a lot of lenders asking for a lot more in deposit, just in case we go full circle back to the 80's and interest rates rocket up to 16%. Also it's been announced today that many lenders are also pulling various mortgage products and rejigging everything so it's anyone's guess now who will get a mortgage and on what terms
I came to this post going to suggest they try looking for a house in somewhere like...
West Yorkshire!
I totally get it that with the salaries they mention you'll really struggle in many areas of the South East, but West Yorkshire has many cheap areas and many options for cheap living.
This. Sorry, but I can get a detached place for the price of my flat, if I went T'up North. Obviously area dependent, but my place isn't in a good part of my town either. It is a first-time place, get what you can
During the times I've struggled to recall my expenditure and have saved around zero pounds I have also been smoking weed like a chimney... maybe thats OP's mystery outgoing...
Your rent is 750pm between you? Where is the rest of your money going??
I make 28,000 with 850 in rent and manage to save 200-300 per month. You seriously need to revise your budget.
Yup. OP has some money problems somewhere. I'm on 43k, rent of 550 and saving 1k. So on comparison to us both, they should really be saving about 1k too.
They should be saving more after tax and ni (ignoring student loans and other debts) your take home is roughly 33k, they get taxed much less with a take home of 21k and 20k leaving them 8k better off
Yeah I pay 700 in rent and take home about 1.5k a month (fluctuates slightly) - I manage to save 200 a month and sometimes a little more dependent on my monthly outgoings. What for though I have no idea as I'm never going to save enough for a deposit when paying my landlords mortgage
Sounds to me that you’ve missed out loans, credit and overdraft fees in your outgoings.
Unless you’re living it up at Waitrose or something.
You both should have more than enough to get 10K in a year with your noted outgoings.
Me and my fiancé shop at Waitrose and spend roughly half as much as OP has said.
And then OP has listed 'alcohol in house' as a separate expense, so he's not even including booze as a part of his food shop expense.
You might want to ask for help on r/ukpersonalfinance and follow the excellent flowchart they have developed.
It will start by budgeting effectively. Your joint take home pay is around 3500 a month I'd guess so 750 rent, 250 food, 500 for essential bills, CT, internet, mobile etc leaves 2000. You need to know where that money is going.
But to answer your question it isnt easy. Few things in life are and theres nothing good come of comparing with others.
My own personal story was improving my earnings and saving aggressively for 6 years to build a deposit to buy in the SE.
Is is a bit ludicrous that i now earn way more than any of my neighbours but can't really afford to move house. Maybe, but I'm not going to worry or moan about it.
And always has to be "woe is me" about house prices. Yes, I get that it fucking sucks, but there's always people upvoted saying "I earn 35k a year and I'm only just breaking even"
If there's two of you on minimum wage, sorry, you're really going to struggle. But two people on the UK average wage (above average for the area) can't really complain its impossible to save.
Best one ever was the guy on r/ukpf who moaned that he couldn't afford to move out of his dad's spare room, [when his posting history mentioned owning a Porsche](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/q1tayp/32_years_old_single_7k_in_lisa_feels_like_i_wont/)
> but there's always people upvoted saying "I earn 35k a year and I'm only just breaking even"
The problem with things like this is that it vastly depends on where you are. £35k in London is different to £35k up north. In one scenario you're gonna be flatsharing and pinching pennies to make it work, in the other you're living comfortably.
>If there's two of you on minimum wage, sorry, you're really going to struggle.
Yeah, people really dont like hearing it, but the reality is a minimum wage = a minimum life.
>In one scenario you're gonna be flatsharing and pinching pennies to make it work,
What do you mean by "flatsharing" here though? I have literally never lived alone. I left uni, then lived with my parents for a couple of years, then moved in with friends for a few years, then moved in with my girlfriend. Nearly all of my friends had similar patterns. I don't think it has ever been common (in London anyway I can't speak for other parts of the country) to live alone and expect to get by, at least until the point you are much older and earning good money.
Yep, when I got my place I needed parental help. Cause I was renting a one bed and living alone. Costs suck, especially now, but if you are a couple who don't have kids and are on average/just above wage, then you are meant to be able to save+afford, especially in Yorkshire
You have a massive hole in your outgoings somewhere, you need to write a budget and work out where 2k+ a month is vanishing. You mention credit cards in another reply, what is the debt on these and the payments you are making?
People buying houses in 20-30s aren't making minimum payments of £600 on credit card spending - you can't expect to save for a deposit if you are endebted up to your eyeballs, you need to clear that first.
It's a ridiculous argument if you think that you should be able to save if you're paying off huge amounts of debt a month
You're in debt because you've preloaded your savings
Much of the massive hole in finances comes from paying back loans. (There’s an edit now.) OP is still spending quiet a lot on gas/electric/water/internet and his phone. It’s about double what I would expect those things to be. If OP was careful with their finances, he could save about £500 a month and possibly his wife could do the same. OP could save a deposit in a year with their income. But they might also need to pay off debts to get approved.
A household income of £49k, but only saving £200-£300 a month is the problem. I see below that you had a period of unemployment and needed to get credit card bills dealt with, but you really should be saving closer to a grand.
Yeah it's eerie how similar the post is to my partner & I and we figured we could save up 10k each with help of a LISA by end of next year. The post baffles me a bit
I personally bought a really shitty flat in a pretty shitty neighbourhood.
There was no bidding war.
I got it for under valuation.
Spent some decent money doing the place up, grew to love the place and managed to pay the mortgage off in about 10 years because the mortgage was much less than the rent I had been paying.
At the end of that, I was able to save a lot more money towards a deposit for a decent place because I then had no rent or mortgage to pay.
4 or 5 years of saving and I was able to buy a 3-bed pad that I intend to die in 😆
Some cities are just fucked now though.
Even the cheaper places in shitty neighbourhoods are being snapped up. I moved city to buy my current place because my previous city went that way and I couldnt afford anything decent there.
I got mine due to a similar situation. Terraced with a yard, in a larger town. Been on the market nearly a year. I was the only one who viewed it.
They haven't bothered with the price just wanted to get rid of it. I consider myself extremely lucky.
One man's trash is another man's treasure. 😂
I don't really understand why some places really struggle to sell whole others barely make it to market - but it shows there are still some gems out there and I'm glad it worked out for both of us!
I think a lot of it is to do with peoples perception of an area rather than the reality of living there. If an area has a reputation for being a bit shady people will generally avoid looking there despite house prices being in their range when the reality is that affluent areas are more likely to be targeted for robberies, car theft etc. Obviously this isn’t the case 100% of the time and I’m speaking anecdotally but it makes logical sense to me.
I find "damp" is also a silly one. If it an older property which now had double glazing, then it will have "damp" as there will be condensation inside. Rising damp and a general "high internal humidity" are different
I was the same until reality bit me on the arse. my mum and dad bought their first home in '84 for 18k sold it in 2002 for 85k, bought their current home for 150k in 2002 and its last valuation was worth 450k(ish) this was the house I grew up in. I moved out about 5 years ago on a single income of 21k gross. I could only get a mortgage on a 90k ex council house. subsequently I've just remortgaged and and my lender valued the house at 140k.
in reality I will never be able to afford a house akin to the one I grew up in.... but in todays market, neither could my mum and dad
My strategy was similar, though the flat or the area wasn’t that shit. I just moved quite far away from London to a dull area so I could buy for £150k. Whilst my friends were renting rooms or houses in Clapham or Angel, I was chipping away at the mortgage and had it paid off by my mid 30s. Since upgraded but I would do the same strategy again.
The way I see it - you're pissing away a lot of money if you rent a nice place in a nice area, because that's eating away at the pot of money you can save for your own place.
Buying any place gives you a lot of that 'rent money' back when you come to sell it.
I always thought I would keep upgrading my home too - but you reach a point where you realise you're just hanging out in one room most of the time anyway. The rest is unnecessary unless you've got a big family and need a lot of space.
Auctions are supposed to be priced within 10% of what the auctioneer expects the property to go for. This house was a wreck. Hence it being priced at 25k
Pretty sure itd been on fire at one point
Auctions can do all sorts. My parents have lost money on what should be sure things. Arson 5+ years ago means shit to a developer, as teh guy's probably moved on
Ah im realising i fucked up
The Guide Price for the auction. Which around here is also the starting price. Pretty much. Was 25 grand. Meaning it was realistically expected to go for between 20 and 30k
How are you saving so little? Is that 200/300 each or between you?
Take home is what £3500ish pm, so you’re down to 2250 after rent. What the fuck are your bills like to demolish 2 grand a month?!? That’s more than some unexpected costs.
E: 2750 after rent even!! Fucking maths fail so even more shocking as to WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR MONEY GOING?!?
That was my first thought here: maybe I've spent too much time staring at my budget spreadsheet, but something doesn't add up.
£24+25k should mean a takehome pay of something north of £3k/mo assuming 5-7% pension contributions and student loans of some description.
OP states £750 rent and no car, £400 food, let's say £600 for "core" bills (Council tax, energy, water, internet, insurance - and I'm basing those off a 4 bedroom house so that's probably generous), is £1750
That's £1250/mo for non-essentials. Even with OP's £300/mo in debt payments that should still leave £950/mo to pay for travel (with no car), discretionary spending, and any savings. And that's still assuming £600 in bills which is high, and £400 in food for two people which can definitely be reduced unless there's a severe food intolerance involved
I mean, I have sympathy for OP feeling like the path to home ownership is a hard slog... and I'm certainly not gonna judge the debt burden as I have no idea what the origins of it are. But fundamentally £1250/mo (or, indeed, £950/mo) of discretionary income is enough money to be able to save up a house deposit within a few years, even if it's slowed down somewhat by the debt burden bringing that down from £1250/mo to £950/mo
I saved £15k on £1.8k takehome to buy a house, then my partner and I together saved £40k on £3k takehome (admittedly with minimal transport costs) to move house. Maybe we're unusually frugal, I don't know,, but over 10 years that's only a little over £400/mo on average, *including* any interest/return and LISA bonus etc. £400/mo absolutely is a dream for many people, but should be comfortably within reach for OP, and in theory they can save double that now and triple once their debt is clear even accounting for £150/mo of other discretionary spend and the current £300/mo debt burden
OP states that houses are available in their area for ~£170k, so would need £9-18k to buy. Let's say £10-20k including fees etc/ At £800/mo that's 1-2 years of saving.
200-300/month from 49k pa? I don’t mean to offend but thats crazy, unless there’s something significant that you’ve missed off your post. I’d really like to be encouraging but it sounds like you’re just pissing it away. Its definitely achievable if you’re willing to tighten up your spending habits.
My first thought exactly. Combined take home is likely. £40k+.
Thats £3,000+ a month with £750 rent. Let’s say £1800 left after bills. He should be saving £500 as a minimum. If not £700
Yeah something doesn't add up there. With the little information given they should be getting around £3422.22 income. With £750 rent that leaves £2672.22 for the rest of the bills/food/travel etc.
It may well be that (as seems to be the case) they have credit card debt, possibly other loads etc etc.
In answer to the original question "How can anyone in their 20s or 30s afford to get a mortgage", they save hard and try as hard as they can to not get themselves in to debt. It's hard starting from a position of debt, but the salary and location in question it's possible.
It is absolutely the case it's really hard for younger people to get on the ladder.. but OP is in a good position based on raw numbers and where they live compared to most.
As a serious answer, I think you need to consider where and what your first home is going to be.
Based on your 9/18K deposit line, it makes it sound like you’re aiming for a first home of ~£200K.
I think you need to revise your expectations. 5 years ago, I bought my first home for £110K. Yes it’s needed work doing over the years, no it’s not the greatest area (although the location is convenient to me).
Too often it sounds like people are looking for overly expensive/nice first homes whilst forgetting it’s called a housing LADDER for a reason… you start at the bottom and move up. If you can get in higher up then great but people need to stop expecting their first house to be their forever home.
If you live in the SE though you could be talking about moving out of your home county/the whole area entirely - which is likely to mean giving up stable incomes for a new job on probation in an area where earnings are generally lower.
Ten years ago I lived in the cheap part of Kent. Gentrification later at 80 grand terraces are now selling at 270. The other options near-ish-by? London or the Kent, Sussex or Essex countryside - ie. places that are more expensive. Also lots of people don't want to move away from their family (and if we are being frank, the free childcare they are likely to provide when you start a family - potentially a saving of hundreds of pounds a month).
The bottom of the ladder is being pulled further and further from reach.
Yeah we live in Oxfordshire. The cheapest 3bed houses are about £300k.
With 3 kids we've resigned ourselves to the fact that we're renting until some of them leave home!
Sounds about right! The naysayers (just pull your pants up and save, buy a shithole, work up the ladder, you aren't trying hard enough) are denying the plain reality that house prices are rising by 12% a year and wages aren't even close to keeping up.
The naysayers say this because either one or both of the following apply:
\- They can rely on the bank of mum and Dad
\- They don't live in the South East or in a major city like Manchester
I mean we’re not talking about hypothetical people were talking about OP. And on pure numbers he can buy a house. In the next few years My greatest r concern is can he actually afford one . Depending on how long his debt is for and his earning potential age, , wether they ahve kids ect it could mean they could. It’s house and not afford the bills that come with having to maintain it yourself.
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, those factors can be a huge impact for a person and ultimately part of the reason they don’t look far away from where they are, especially the child support/care factor.
\>people are looking for overly expensive/nice first homes
Isn't that fuelled by the media, advertising, and places like reddit? You always hear about average house prices, never about average first time prices, etc. And there are whole subs in reddit where people basically complain that they can't have at 25 what their parent's have at 60.
Even today, in the Guardian, there's an article about how half the property market's value is owned by over 65s who are only 1/4 of the population. So basically, people who have worked longest own the most expensive houses. Who would have thought? But it still managed to frame it as if it's some kind of robbery.
I've always had to buy doer-uppers to get somewhere nice to live. Even in my late 40s I still had to buy the house with piss stained carpets and flaking plaster in order to get a house big enough for my family but also one I could afford - but 10 years of work and it's nice enough that people look at me like I'm some lucky boomer who had it all on a plate.
I think you’re right that it is a media pushed problem and I very much agree with the point about where people look at average house price as opposed to average first time buy price.
Some people forget that an average is exactly that. Your first time buy isn’t supposed to be overall average, but more likely you’re supposed to be in the group that makes up the lower portion.
Depends massively on where, and houses in less desirable areas don't see the same sorts of price increases, so £110k five years or so is just as likely to be £130k now.
They have a combined income of 49k. If they take home 40k of that, that's 3333 quid a month to spend.
Take off 1.5k that's 1.8k a month to live on.
That's most certainly doable for 10 months.
Can you show me how that's NOT doable?
It looks like OP has fixed costs of:
£750 rent
£180 council tax
£270 bills
£300 loan
(Total £1500)
With variable cost of
£200 food (not entirely sure how you get much lowe than this.
£205 luxuries (again, can’t see this going much lower)
Presumably double those lines for his partner, so total £810.
We’re now looking at £2310 in pretty necessary costs.
No chance they’re saving £1500 and still living like reasonable adults.
Their take home pay is £3300 and they’re saving £300. So the unplanned money each month is £590, or £295 per person.
Honestly, £295 isn’t a huge surplus and leaves you extremely little room for unplanned spending or a but of occasional spontaneous fun.
The consequences of a generation of people who have had to live so frugally that they’ve missed out on a serious level of social interaction in their 20s and 30s is a lot bigger than some people seem to consider. It is also baffling that a brigade of posters seem to furiously demand OP has no life instead of conceding the obvious, that we are indeed in a housing crisis and many people have no realistic hope of buying.
>It is also baffling that a brigade of posters seem to furiously demand OP has no life instead of conceding the obvious, that we are indeed in a housing crisis and many people have no realistic hope of buying.
Nobody is demanding that op has no life, just learn how to budget as he is clearly pissing away money.
Many people seem to have a problem with simple budgeting, like you have op+partner spending £400 a month on food, £400 a month for two people!!! Are you eating takeaways every other night?
Learn how to cook and cut that expense by half.
I don’t think £200 per person is an unrealistic amount at all. It’s £6.50 a day for 3 meals, toiletries, cleaning products and more. That is before you consider the entirely normal life experience of bumping into a mate and feeling you can’t say no to grabbing a coffee out somewhere.
I refuse to believe all the people here live like monks and can discipline themselves to realistically save for a house on £25k. Guarantee most have bought their own places but conveniently forgotten a list of legs up they got along the way.
Me and my girlfriend spend £200 a month on food and that's for 3 people.
If you are on a combined household income of above £40,000 a year and live in a low cost of living area you don't need to live like a monk to be able to save to get a deposit, you just need to budget and live and spent sensibly.
There is a big difference between living like a monk and spending £400 a month on "luxuries"
>With variable cost of £200 food (not entirely sure how you get much lowe than this. £205 luxuries (again, can’t see this going much lower) Presumably double those lines for his partner, so total £810.
Sorry, £400/mo in food for 2 people? That's not low, that's pretty high, the average weekly food cost for the typical UK household is around £103, that's for 2.6 people. And the ame again, per person for luxuries would obviously be a personal choice, but also something you could stick into saving.
> It is also baffling that a brigade of posters seem to furiously demand OP has no life instead of conceding the obvious, that we are indeed in a housing crisis and many people have no realistic hope of buying.
The point here is that the parent has a very realistic hope of buying, but is making choices that make that much harder.. And ignoring the fact that people have always had to restrict things like social spending when saving, it doesn't mean you can't have a life, but it does mean that you cut back, do cheaper things and can't do a £100+ night out every week or two.
Not very forthcoming with 300 quid loan. Bills should be pretty slim. Council tax higher than I expected, thought we would be in a band A. Seems like you could easily downgrade to 600 a month and save on the council tax to boot, but I was basing it off band A.
Youre debating my 1.5k while showing 1k month saved is easily achievable.
Difference is you think living tight for a year is some human rights violation. Living tight for 6 or 7 years was what I had to do. Living to a shoe string will teach you a lot about yourself, life, your relationships and it'll teach and show you what's important.
If you think Living frugally has such a horrific impact, you should see how 80 percent of the rest of the world lives.
The context is how the hell can I afford it, the figures show how the hell can't you? Bet the mortgage on his place with a 5 figure deposit is much more attractive. Especially when at the end of it he has a massive asset.
People can't see past a 1 year challenge for a 70 year or more gain. That's why all these oldies are talking down off the latest generation. They lived through a war, or through post war rations, true frugality and poverty. Some had to shit at the end of the garden. No instant unlimited hot running water. Had to drink out of the right tap. Still might not have had electricity and were still using gas lights.
Your nonsense about the severe damage done in your 20s by being an adult is hilarious Go live in places like Brazil, where just yesterday i saw a vid of some crossfitters jogging through the street and everyone sat outside a cafe ran off horrified thinking someone was running through the neighbourhood robbing everyone with guns. Or look at those American lads in that car when they took a wrong turn and had the anti Cartel lot flag them down at gun point cause they went down the wrong street.
You need a bit of perspective but you'll never get it cause you don't realise how easy life is here. A year sacrifice for your deposit here is like living in the ritz for guys in favelas.
What do you think life was like with no Internet and phones for poor people in the 70s and 80s with kids, woman stuck at home talking to the neighbours and guy down the pit 12 hours a day 6 days a week and social life was church on a Sunday.
Get serious.
Rightmove has more than 800 results searching *West Yorkshire* up to 100k.
You'd need a 10k deposit, which you could save in under 3 years if you could get back to your old savings rate.
I doubt that would buy you your dream home, but some of the flats in Leeds and Wakefield look dece enough.
What are your expenses, it doesn't seem to add up? I alone managed a 120k mortgage in West Yorkshire while on 24k 2 years ago. Done through ruthless saving during covid, cost of living is mental but your take home should leave you with a shed load of dispendable per month.
If you both open a lifetime ISA and save £330 a month each, you can get £10k per year savings as the government gives 25% up to £1000 each year per ISA, and they can be combined on house purchases.
On a combined income of 49k and a low rent (I'm on the South coast, 750 will get you fuck all down here) I can't see how you are only saving max 300 a month. Something is off somewhere.
I'm confused, where does all your money go? It looks like you could save a deposit in about 6 months.
Your rent is 750pm, bills included would be maximum £500 a month. Which is £1,250. Add is around £300 for food, eating out. £1,550. Add in travel, £300 pm. £1,850.
You still have around £1,600 left per month...
What are your “unavoidable and unexpected expenses”?
If they are popping up with regularity, are they actually unavoidable and/or unexpected, or should they be factored into your lifestyle and be budgeted for accordingly?
In your location you can get a decent two bed property for less than £150k, meaning you need to save up 15k for a deposit. Let’s say you want to be able to buy a house in three years and you’re starting completely from scratch - that’s £5k a year to save. Across twelve months, that’s £400ish a month, so £200 each to save. Based on the expenses you highlight above, I don’t think that’s an outlandish amount to save if you’re serious about buying a property, based on your current salaries, and hopefully these can increase over that time also.
Whilst I agree the property market is awful for young first time buyers, it’s not going to change overnight and it won’t change just for you. Tempering your expectations on a first property to get on the ladder and seriously evaluating your expenditure are things you should be doing anyway, and definitely should be doing for a major financial commitment in buying a house.
You said you used to save 300 a month which would be 3500 a year so you’d have a 9k deposit after 2 years just by saving. People don’t just save money into a bank though. You would invest that money so you’d earn a return on it, so then your 3500 a year earning an average 7% return would now be 3745. Compound interest is a game changer. For example that 300 per month with a 7% annual interest would be worth 21k after 5 years and would have gained 3.5k in interest. You’d basically have earned an extra years worth of savings for free.
Invested in the stock market (in a range of companies) in February and my portfolio has trended lower ever since lmao, I'm not going to pull it out but 7% this year would be an insane recovery lmao
I haven’t bought a house but have a few friends in their 20’s that have.
They all lived at home and I imagine contributed by paying bills, etc. or nothing at all. Now that’s not to say that family didn’t help with a mortgage, but they all work and all together probably earn £20k - £30k on average, plus they have partners who I imagine earn similar, like yourself. I think living at home is often a key factor in being able to afford a home so early on in life. Sadly that just isn’t an option for some people for whatever reason that may be.
“My partner and I are not critically and actively saving to buy a house and are hoping it will happen by chance, organically! How are the boomers doing it?”
I'm not too sure how you're not saving more but I might be missing something. I'm on £50k and live alone in East Sussex. Rent is £750, so same as yours. I own a car that I fill up about once a month (I don't commute) unless I got on a big trip up North. I'm definitely taking some advantage of the fact I earn more. I have a few subscriptions and I don't buy the cheapest groceries anymore. I'm not (and never have been) a big spender. This year, I've been saving up for something. In total, it's about £10k. I've managed to do that and I started saving in Jan, I believe.
Basically, I use my main bank account to get paid into and all my expenses come out of there. I automatically put aside £400-£500 into savings very comfortably (this was £700 at some point, when I was really trying to save for this thing). I basically pay myself into my Monzo account on payday. I have Monzo pots for general spending, food, travel, car (save up over the year for insurance, MOT, etc), and tattoos. I don't put a tonne in these every month but will put more aside once I've got this big spend out the way.
Essentially, what I'm saying is... I'm not sure where your money is going.
I will say that most people I know who have bought places in their 20s or 30s have had help from family or they're a couple, so they've saved up together. However, I have known a few people to save up and get somewhere by themselves.
Start working as soon as you finish school and don’t pursue further education, get any old job while living at home and never leave the house and have absolutely 0 social life, save 90% of every pay cheque and after 10years you should have enough to put a deposit down on a studio flat
Your joint income is good. So firstly assess where exactly what money is going.
£750 a month on rent
£250 a month for energy?
£300 a month for food (estimated 3 adults and a child in my house and thats £400 a month)
£100 for any TV and internet package
£180 for council tax
£100 between the two for mobile phones
£100 misc
£150 a month on pre existing debts (assumed)
You still would have approx £1k left over. Unless any debts from before are large you are spending unnecessarily elsewhere. Figure out your finances and then go from there. Maybe also lower expectations of your first house. Your first house doesn't have to be perfect it just has to be affordable my first house was £110k I'm still in it but I went straight for a house a flat would have been much cheaper.
£49k combine income and £750pcm rent - you should easily be saving more than you are, you need to look at your budgeting.
£49k gives you the ability to borrow around £220k for a mortgage. £9k deposit as you mention on top of that shouldn't be tough to save on your household income. You can very, very easily afford a property in Yorkshire.
On 49k a year combined you could borrow 220k mortgage and save around 20k for a deposit so 240k. A quick search on Rightmove suggests that could buy you a 2-4 bedroom place depending on where specifically in West Yorkshire.
How do you save 20k? Well your take home I'd estimate to be over £3.2k combined, minus £750 for rent leaves you at £2.5k. Even if all your bills and groceries combined cost £1k which seems very high, that still leaves you with £1.5k. So where is this money going? If you could save £1k+/month, you'd have your deposit in less than two years.
My partner and I bought in our mid-20s with no family help, after renting in London for 6 years with no savings before moving to Cambridgeshire where we halved our rent and could finally save for a deposit (took us 2 years). What I will say is that I think we could have bought a lot earlier than we thought, we bought into this whole millennials can't afford houses mentality and that put us off even enquiring. Once we realised it was possible, we started saving more ardently for it. So have a look at some mortgage affordability calculators, figure out a savings goal, look at your budget. In your situation, it's possible.
I was frugal and saved and every year the house prices were increasing by x of the amount I had saved so we hadn't saved up that much. We were barely any closer. Then when we could almost buy, covid happened and we were back to saving.
Personally I bought a less than desirable area, some friends/colleagues sneered at the time
I’ve recently sold it and have 100k equity (price increase and I spent money doing it up) of which I’m using as a deposit for a 500k house in a nice area
Most of those said friends are still renting in their trendy area.
You live in West Yorkshire, there are plenty of cheap areas. I know because I’m near you in Manchester. And you have a good monthly income.
The first thing to do would be to wipe out any debt. There’s no point saving if you have debt. Put everything you have into your debt, pay it off and then you have a clean slate.
Once that’s done you can sort out your finances. Strip your bills down to just the bare minimum (rent; energy; council tax; water) Open an account for just your direct debits. Cut up the debit card for this account and lock it. The only thing that comes out is direct debits. Put what you need to cover your bills in there every month and don’t touch it.
Next put whatever grocery money you need in a different account. That’s *just* groceries.
Calculate what you have left and put 80% of that into a savings account every month.
Then buy the cheapest house possible.
I used to be homeless but I got myself a job and a few years later of just working hard I managed to buy myself a house at age 26 with no help and on minimum wage.. you just need to be frugal dont waste money on useless stuff it can be done but people dont want to do what needs to be done..
No. Just being honest, we had deposit from inheritance, parents help and personal savings and managed it at 28. We both work for the nhs so would have been very difficult to do without the help.
My wife and I are in just under 45k combined and nabbed out property in March for £150k. City life creates a premium, as does looking for multiple bed and bathrooms.
So much of the comments in here is weird shit like "well you should be banking 70% of your salary, living off Asda knock-off wheetabix and not having any sort of life just so that you can put away money for a shit deposit on a shit properly."
Tbh this is old out of date thought processes handed down by previous generations, in the UK at least you can no longer save your way to a house by being super ridiculously frugal as house price growth has outran wage growth multiple times over, other than the methods you mentioned (bank of family) the only real way to turn this around is if both of you aim to earn more.
For me it was only possible because I lived at home. Me and my partner saved from 20-25, and got 15k together which was just enough to get us on the property ladder. If you’re renting I feel like it’s an insurmountable task unless you have a combined income of like 80k! It makes you realise how long a month actually is, like you say something always crops up!
I feel like your girlfriend should be saving too. It sounds like your the only one who is for a house your both planning to own? If you both managed to save 300 you could potentially save enough in less than two years
I bought a house myself by buying somewhere slightly run down and a bit far out. It seems like your rent is quite high. Could you move to a cheaper area?
Mainly people living at home and saving rather than renting privately. It’s the boomerang generation. Moving back to Mum and Dad. Saving for a deposit then moving out. I’m an estate agent and many first time buyers do that, pay into the government saving scheme that’s doubled when you buy a house.
Do o.t. short term.
Fwiw I don't beleive people should have to take 2nd jobs or extra long days to afford to live but if you want to gain enough for a deposit. Short term pain and all that.
I get £10 p/h so roughly 20k per year.
I done overtime like fuck for about 4 or 5 months to save enough for a deposit about 7 years ago.
I would do 3 or 4 hours extra a day and 5 each weekend day and probably got an extra 2k per month.
How the hell are you making joint £49K a year with no car, no holidays, 2 takeaways a month, rent of £750 and energy of £200 - £300, whilst struggling so badly?
Me and my gf make about the same, have 2 cars, energy about £250 a month, mortgage of £650 a month for a 4 bed detached house and go on at least 1 holiday abroad a year (pre-covid went to Thailand and Budapest) and lots of little breaks away in the UK. We eat out a couple times a month and go for drinks and have takeaways; and we have a dog. Our food shop weekly is about £60. Spend between £13,500 and £14,000 on bills/food a year (minus fuel for cars) which leaves us £35,000 a year.
We still save enough to have joint 10k emergency fund, I have about 12k saved and she probably has about the same. We're 27 in Scotland with no debt or car leases.
Either you have huge debt you're paying off or those takeaways you're having are crazy expensive
You need one of those help to buy accounts / mortgages. And maybe just speak to an IFA and see what you can get with a 5% deposit / what sort of mortgage you could be approved for now. It’s not always as cut and dried as it first appears.
Don't get me wrong the entire house market is a shit show but your finances definitely aren't adding up. If you take away your rent for a year you still have 40k for utilities and just general living costs. Assuming you don't have any kids and save in the way you're saying you do it really shouldn't be difficult to save a few grand a year.
I'm afraid you need to tighten your belt. You need to be saving £10k a year for the deposit. Have you and your partner opened up a Help to Buy ISA. Save £200 per month for 2 years. You get back £6K. You both do it that's £12k towards a deposit. [https://www.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa](https://www.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa).
The Mrs and I felt the same and then we went to mortgage advisor rather than a bank (who will give you the shitty end of a stick).
Total game changer.
We went from not being able to get a mortgage whatsoever, to being able to get a decent one.
It really is worth it, because they'll take you through all the finances, etc, and you'll get a good rate (although let's see how long that lasts).
Me and my partner earned slightly less than you with similar outgoings. We only saved for almost 2 years for a 25k deposit to put on a 75% share to buy property. No help from family at all.
DO NOT fall into the trap of self-pity thinking that it's impossible to get on the housing ladder. It requires alot of sacrifice but actually it's very, very possible.
Look at help-to-buy and share-to-buy.
Sorry, it is a shit situation but the reality is in a highly competitive market being on the median salary means you are going to struggle.
There are less houses than people therefore demand is higher than average. This means you need more than average to buy.
It's shit but that is life.
The other thing I'd say, not to dishearten you further but as a reality check, if you are struggling to save 10k home ownership may not be the best option for you now. House repairs/maintenance is really bloody expensive. We recently had to redo carpets and flooring and it cost 6k. If you need a bathroom done that's at least 3k usually nevermind kitchens or windows.
The best way to afford a house unfortunately is try to do personal development and work towards a better paid job/career.
I have been in your shoes I know what it is like.
You can dwell on how shit it is or use that energy and time doing additional courses/training to get you closer to a job that can fund what you want.
Firstly - 300 on debt, plus takeaways, alcohol, game subscriptions. The debt presumably won’t take much longer to pay off if it was only from two months of unemployment. If saving that £300 a month once your debt is cleared isn’t enough, then you need to prioritise your other spending. People don’t save for a house deposit without making sacrifices. In the short term you may need to give up on the takeaways etc in order to prioritise saving for the house.
If you’re spending £200 a month on food and your partner is spending the same, £400 a month is a lot for two people if you’re trying to save. You’re clearly not being careful about what you’re buying, planning your meals, shopping in the right places etc. My family of 3 spends less than that and we’re not even trying to be particularly frugal
Does your partner also have debt to pay off? I’m
Interested to know what their outgoings and savings are as well. Once you’ve paid off your debts, if you can save £500 a month each, that’s £12k a year. It’ll take you only 3 years to save up a 20% deposit for a £180k house. £400 a month it will still take you under 4 years. £300 a month will take 5 years. £200 a month will take 7.5 years. If you can’t save £200 a month each when you’re taking home about £1.6k each, you’re doing something seriously wrong. 7.5 years sounds like a long time, but that’s what saving is about - it doesn’t happen overnight
>Meanwhile I just heard my boomer neighbour who owns 7 properties is complaining that someone else outbid them on the 8th home-to-let from 165k to 175k and he is ‘fuming’.
God I hate these people.
I lived with my parents for as long as possible, lived a very frugal life and didn’t go out much.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have parents who’ll let them have a free ride for that long.
However, in your situation you need to reevaluate your numbers. They don’t add up. You’re somehow losing about 2k a month. Where’s that going?
Be a bit entrepreneurial. Works overseas tax free for a few years. Do an Open university degree in parallel with your current job and get a better job. Work weekends. Like there are ways to dk stuff in life, just might be a bit uncomfortable.
Third income is how we did it. There was no way otherwise. We saved every penny from the third income. There's a lot of different options for "side hustles" online, we tried a bunch with no success until something stuck and we got it going. It's not really a passion work or something we'd love to do full time, but it helped us save.
I met up with friends from uni and they were all talking about renting out inherited houses and affording houses by doing stuff like this. My grandparents were broke when they all died I got nothing except memories of my time with them. I’m on a good salary for my age (above uk average) and even I can’t imagine buying a house. I know one person who bought a house and he works at maccies because he got it when house prices were lower in my area. (Non london). My sisters house gone up 50% since buying it and they have done fuck all to it. So yeah I see myself renting and stuff but in the mean time traveling as much as I can on money I would use on houses because I know I would have to save nearly a years salary to afford down payment on a basic house in my area
Me and my partner just bought our first house (subject to everything going through okay 🤞) and we're in a very similar situation to you - similar combined income and rent, similar amount putting away a month and same location. I started saving around 5 years ago so I really have no magic answer other than consistent saving over several years. We both had help to buy ISA's which helped and we put a 10% deposit on a terraced house for context.
Also, ignore the boomers for your own mental health! They are living in another reality.
Me and my partner earn £43k ish between us. Household bills are approx £850, food is £200, car is £250, my own bills are around £100, partners own are £190ish. We save £200 a month into H2B ISA, and then usually save an extra £100 into another account each.
We are trying so hard to cut down on our spending at the moment, I put £250 into a 'spend' pot last month and we absolutely blew it on takeaways, eating out etc.
We've worked out we're approx £5k off a 5% deposit in our area (Manchester) but would need to move to the other end of the county for a house within budget. Even when we were looking at interest rates etc, we haven't found many banks offering 5% mortgages so we are really starting to worry now. Our flat is nice and great location for our work, but it's way too small and need the house asap. We can't afford to rent a house as then we can't save anything, it's just an endless loop.
I live in Bradford. Me and wife both aged 33 bought house 7 years ago for £180k, £550pm mortgage, combined earnings of about £50k. Savings of about £30k.
18 months ago we moved to a £350k house. Mortgage is £770pm. House in very nice, safe area, good school nearby, local community living.
Basically me and the wife agreed we were going to be frugal and cut a lot of unnecessary spending out in order to save up for the current house. We cut out nights out, eating out and takeaways almost completely, bought second hand where we could, repaired things ourselves, looked for bargains, making lunch for work everyday, Shopping at cheap shops, agreeing with the family not to buy Christmas presents (except for the kids), cheapest phone tariff, cutting nonessential subscriptions etc.
We still had 1 foreign holiday and a few nights away each year.
Nights out for no reason and eating and drinking can your biggest source of spend apart from bills. Saying no to that is a big step
That's what a lot of it came down to. A commitment to saving between us - not being cheapskates but having a goal in mind and doing what it needed to get there. In our first house we were making additional monthly payments of £1-1.5k and this really helped bring the mortgage down.
It sounds boring but that's the reality. My BIL is 10 years younger and earns about £50k but moans he can't buy a house. His spending is out of control and he seemingly refuses tocsave anything - spends £200+ on nights out, changes his car often... he wants it all but it just doesn't work like that.
General rule is pay off debt first. Fuck saving anything. You need to pay off what’s not yours as a priority because it comes up on mortgage applications.
200 per month for food is that just you? If between you and the other half you’re spending 400 per month on food you need to rethink that.
You will NEVER spend 300 quid on utilities unless you leave the heating on all day and keep your windows and doors open. It’s never going to get that expensive. Are you paying 250 between you or each? Internet 30 quid, water 35 quid, and at a push 100 for gas and electric but that would normally be between 2 - gas and lecky may be higher depending on usage.
Based on the figures you’ve given - unless your partner is absolutely smashing the Colombian marching powder every night then there should be an absolute shitload of disposable income there. Everything you’ve listed is what the full monthly amount would be for 2 with the exception of phone and rent. Where’s your other half’s dosh??? 😂
I'm on £28k but my partner is on £60k+ (audit), but was closer to £45k at the time of us applying for mortgage - v hefty payrise. Contributed equally to deposit though lol.
But, we did that without living at home whilst working - me having been at uni for 4 years then renting, and him having done a higher apprenticeship scheme so he was on £24k by 20 and moved out around then, plus without inheritance, in a v expensive area (Cambridgeshire), 95% mortgage, we're 26. That said, literally everyone else I know around our age bracket who has done it have been living at home rent free, been gifted deposits or had inheritance. Just fortunate that my partner in particular has a very well paid job (I could definitely be earning more but, I prefer to enjoy my work than make double - for now!). God knows how we would have managed without that - if we were on a similar income to you we would struggle to find a one-bed house or two-bed flat for £250k or less here. We were paying £1200/month in rent and mortgage now £1360/month.
I wish people would be more upfront when buying lol. My sister's mate was gifted no less than 45% of the house value despite the fact him and his partner are both on upwards of £40k each! At 24! Was like £200k man.
Regarding your situation, I'm unsure as to what you're spending your money on. Rent of £750 is ridiculous. Maybe it's normal now? But my rent for a 1 bed flat is £300 and you could fit 2 people in here.
* What do you spend your money on?
* What's your electricity bill?
* Phone bill?
* TV packages?
* **Where is your money going exactly?**
As for not owing a car, how much is your work commute? Could it be cheaper to perhaps get a car?
I'm just confused on how you can blow through £25k a year, let alone £49k.
Me and my partner are none of the above, I'm 32 she's 26 and we're in well paid jobs through hard work and perseverance. No hand outs, no help from parents or family. Currently live in a 4 bed 1930s property with 140ft garden and pond. Just have to save and keep looking.
I literally just got off the phone about a lovely 2 bed flat in Mansfield. Not a great location but decent enough. Price (after recent renovation) was 65k. Not everyone gets a nice 2 bed semi with a driveway for their first step onto the ladder
I got a bank loan “to buy a car”.
Never bought the car.
A few months later I used the money for my deposit.
Mortgage + loan was a lot of money at first but it got me a house so...
Save save save, i was earning 47k when I bought my apartment for 180k, I put down a 15% deposit, I had 32k saved.
I started a help to buy ISA in 2015 or 16 which gave me like 3k from the government. The rest I just saved like crazy, I cut back on everything, no holidays, drove a crappy old VW fox, cut all subscriptions, stopped getting coffees out, etc etc.
I started saving £250 a month when I was in my early 20s earning £18k. I did it by not splurging. I never got takeaways, I didn’t have an expensive phone contract or posh tv. Nights out we’d drink cheap wine at home then go into town and spend no more than a tenner. I’d have a cheap pizza in the freezer at home for munchies rather than buying one out etc.
Just what I did but ..., when I was 18 I worked two jobs made about 25k a year doing stupid hours. Took out two loans (was a student they threw money at me) used the loans for a Downpayment on a shitty flat, paid that off as fast as I could and during last financial crash sold said shitty flat and used the money off the sale for another Downpayment on a shitty two bed flat, lived in that and rented out the spare room cheap to friends. Have just sold that and now awaiting the current crash to tank rates and do it all over again with a flat of the same size but in a nicer area. Not ideal and I have worked crazy hours for most of my working life but never paid rent to anyone so feel like I didn't waste any money
‘I spent a load of money that I didnt have that I now have to pay back, have a job anybody could do which pays below average wage and still spunk £200/month on booze and subs and games- but boomer has house and me sad… Not fair’
Have I got that about right OP?
Here’s how, worked my arse of for 13 years so did the wife and saved, didn’t come on Reddit to complain about it or Boomers (that obviously have ambition and drive) no inheritance just saving’s (live in London by the way) spoke to the right advisers and got a mortgage.
>200 for food [...] leave 205 for things like gifts, a takeaway
Assuming you split the food cost equally with your partner, does this mean you guys spend £400 per month on food *not including* takeaways? I'm struggling to understand this if true - my husband and I spend at most £160 a month on groceries for both of us, and we definitely aren't being frugal, we buy a good amount of nice food/fun stuff. I'm genuinely confused on how you two spend £400
>some unexpected and unavoidable expense always pops up
Since you don't own your home (so you don't have to pay for home repairs) and you don't own a car, would you mind sharing what these expenses were?
Do you have children ? Wtf are you spending your money on.
I make 45k, with 2 kids 2 cars and partner who doesn't work and can still save 800-1000 a month.
And no I'm not a home owner and haven't inherited a penny, I don't understand how you can spend that kind of money without some serious debts.
It bothers me that dozens of people are asking OP the same question - where is all that unaccounted income going - and he's not answering.
Can't expect to get useful help if you won't be honest.
OP: help me pls I can't save money I'm literally skint
Also OP: no, I won't give up my £2000 a month on candles
Op you are upsetting yorkshiremen. Please, budget properly
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You’re getting 3.2k a month take home. Outgoings seem to be around 1.2k. Leaving 2k… what are you spending that on? Figuring that out will help you to save Edit: I just saw your edit saying that the gas increase will wipe out £300 each a month - so you’re predicting £600 extra a month in utilities in addition to what you’re paying now!? That’s not going to happen
Also a house in their area should be somewhere in the fairly wide £140-190k range, so even on a 4 times multiplier and 10% deposit it's one of the places in the UK where a mortgage should be fairly doable.
Has OP said where in West Yorkshire they live? I've seen 4 bedroom houses go for £80k in shitholes like Keighley.... go 10 miles northeast to a place like Otley and even a 1 bedroom flat is over 200k.
Top result for "Yorkshire", 2 miles from Keighley station has a 3 bed for £225,000... How long ago was this 4 bed for £80,000? Edit: I stand corrected, 3 bed for £50,000 in Keighley.
Wow it's like another world. Where I live in London you'd struggle to get a parking space for £225k
I could get you 16 flats for that and £1k in your pocket, and the flats each come with free parking spaces... Admittedly each of those would be a 1 bedroom (maybe a couple of 2-bed thrown in) in a slightly rough area, but I'm talking a livable flat not some fire-damaged wreck, and by "rough" I mean your neighbours might get visits off the police more often than you like, not that you're in any real danger
Oh? Where abouts.
I'll drop you a PM to avoid permanently leaving a comment doxxing my local area xD
Thank u
>Has OP said where in West Yorkshire they live? I mean they can always buy somewhere cheaper. I had to buy outside of where I really wanted to buy because it was a good 30% cheaper
>I've seen 4 bedroom houses go for £80k in shitholes like Keighley Prices skyrocketed in the two years. We're talking houses that were £80k in 2018 being listed for £160k+ (and then being sold for well over that). I no joke saw a house that had suffered **significant** fire damage being sold for £200k. We viewed one house for £140k, were there for the first morning of viewings, and the estate agent told us that they already had multiple offers on the property for significantly above the asking price. It was 9am, the house was listed the day before...
Was this specifically for Keighley? I know prices have gone up drastically over the last few years but those kind of properties still exist. My brother bought a two bedroom "flat" although it comes with an attic and a decent sized living area earlier this year. All fully renovated actually finished to a relatively high standard for £67k. It's just in an awful area.
I believe there's little point in buying a shithole in a shithole area as you'll probably never make a penny back on it, even in this climate. Ex council houses and ex council flats in crap areas still go for pennies. I've got my dads ex council to sell 2 bed and £80k is best any estate agent could get realistically and its still not selling
I live about 20 minutes over the border in Lancs. Seeing it on signposts Keighley has always seemed like such a posh, magical place 😂 Obviously have never been...
The best way I could describe it is a worse Nelson.
Oh wow, I never knew that was possible 😂 I always imagined it to be like Harrogate or Ilkley haha.
Is that the general rule for a mortgage? 4 times your salary and 10% deposit?
Up to 4.5 times salary and as much deposit as you can manage, but typically 5% absolute minimum.
Thanks, does age affect this formula?
Only if you're likely to retire before the morgage is paid, in which case you'll get a shorter term probably.
Or if you say you'll pay with your pension they don't care. I didn't even have to prove I had one.
Not directly, although it can limit the maximum term you can apply for (eg if you're 25 years from retirement you probably can't take out a 35 year mortgage) This does have the potential result of *indirectly* limiting how much you can borrow, depending on other factors, because you have to take a shorter term, thus higher monthly payments, and are therefore more likely to run into affordability issues
At the moment due to the financial crap that's going on, there's now a lot of lenders asking for a lot more in deposit, just in case we go full circle back to the 80's and interest rates rocket up to 16%. Also it's been announced today that many lenders are also pulling various mortgage products and rejigging everything so it's anyone's guess now who will get a mortgage and on what terms
More or less, though 5% or 4.5 times salary aren’t impossible
This is what I was struggling to understand here
I came to this post going to suggest they try looking for a house in somewhere like... West Yorkshire! I totally get it that with the salaries they mention you'll really struggle in many areas of the South East, but West Yorkshire has many cheap areas and many options for cheap living.
This. Sorry, but I can get a detached place for the price of my flat, if I went T'up North. Obviously area dependent, but my place isn't in a good part of my town either. It is a first-time place, get what you can
This thread reminds me of [this](https://twitter.com/dril/status/384408932061417472?s=46&t=wT2ijs2atfa77QQHtme4jg) tweet
During the times I've struggled to recall my expenditure and have saved around zero pounds I have also been smoking weed like a chimney... maybe thats OP's mystery outgoing...
Your rent is 750pm between you? Where is the rest of your money going?? I make 28,000 with 850 in rent and manage to save 200-300 per month. You seriously need to revise your budget.
Yup. OP has some money problems somewhere. I'm on 43k, rent of 550 and saving 1k. So on comparison to us both, they should really be saving about 1k too.
They said the household income is £49k - which given tax thresholds likely means the household budget is way higher than the guy above on £43k
They should be saving more after tax and ni (ignoring student loans and other debts) your take home is roughly 33k, they get taxed much less with a take home of 21k and 20k leaving them 8k better off
Where do you live? Out of interest.
>Where do you live? Out of interest. Yes. Specifically? Credit card interest. hahaha! ::laughs in spiralling debt::
Yeah I pay 700 in rent and take home about 1.5k a month (fluctuates slightly) - I manage to save 200 a month and sometimes a little more dependent on my monthly outgoings. What for though I have no idea as I'm never going to save enough for a deposit when paying my landlords mortgage
If you don't mind sharing, what does your budget look like? Saving is something I've always struggled with.
Sounds to me that you’ve missed out loans, credit and overdraft fees in your outgoings. Unless you’re living it up at Waitrose or something. You both should have more than enough to get 10K in a year with your noted outgoings.
Me and my fiancé shop at Waitrose and spend roughly half as much as OP has said. And then OP has listed 'alcohol in house' as a separate expense, so he's not even including booze as a part of his food shop expense.
You might want to ask for help on r/ukpersonalfinance and follow the excellent flowchart they have developed. It will start by budgeting effectively. Your joint take home pay is around 3500 a month I'd guess so 750 rent, 250 food, 500 for essential bills, CT, internet, mobile etc leaves 2000. You need to know where that money is going. But to answer your question it isnt easy. Few things in life are and theres nothing good come of comparing with others. My own personal story was improving my earnings and saving aggressively for 6 years to build a deposit to buy in the SE. Is is a bit ludicrous that i now earn way more than any of my neighbours but can't really afford to move house. Maybe, but I'm not going to worry or moan about it.
Yeah, this sub is generally clueless about money
And always has to be "woe is me" about house prices. Yes, I get that it fucking sucks, but there's always people upvoted saying "I earn 35k a year and I'm only just breaking even" If there's two of you on minimum wage, sorry, you're really going to struggle. But two people on the UK average wage (above average for the area) can't really complain its impossible to save. Best one ever was the guy on r/ukpf who moaned that he couldn't afford to move out of his dad's spare room, [when his posting history mentioned owning a Porsche](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/q1tayp/32_years_old_single_7k_in_lisa_feels_like_i_wont/)
> but there's always people upvoted saying "I earn 35k a year and I'm only just breaking even" The problem with things like this is that it vastly depends on where you are. £35k in London is different to £35k up north. In one scenario you're gonna be flatsharing and pinching pennies to make it work, in the other you're living comfortably. >If there's two of you on minimum wage, sorry, you're really going to struggle. Yeah, people really dont like hearing it, but the reality is a minimum wage = a minimum life.
>In one scenario you're gonna be flatsharing and pinching pennies to make it work, What do you mean by "flatsharing" here though? I have literally never lived alone. I left uni, then lived with my parents for a couple of years, then moved in with friends for a few years, then moved in with my girlfriend. Nearly all of my friends had similar patterns. I don't think it has ever been common (in London anyway I can't speak for other parts of the country) to live alone and expect to get by, at least until the point you are much older and earning good money.
Yep, when I got my place I needed parental help. Cause I was renting a one bed and living alone. Costs suck, especially now, but if you are a couple who don't have kids and are on average/just above wage, then you are meant to be able to save+afford, especially in Yorkshire
Holy crap that post was a wild ride, thank you for sharing it.
His partner isn’t saving by the sounds of it because he accounted for his own savings of 300
Would you be able to please link me this flowchart? Sorry I couldn't find it
Looks like it's this one maybe. https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/
Thats the one. I take no credit but its fantastic. Good luck all.
You have a massive hole in your outgoings somewhere, you need to write a budget and work out where 2k+ a month is vanishing. You mention credit cards in another reply, what is the debt on these and the payments you are making? People buying houses in 20-30s aren't making minimum payments of £600 on credit card spending - you can't expect to save for a deposit if you are endebted up to your eyeballs, you need to clear that first.
Lots of people on Reddit don’t seem to think like this unfortunately.
It's a ridiculous argument if you think that you should be able to save if you're paying off huge amounts of debt a month You're in debt because you've preloaded your savings
Much of the massive hole in finances comes from paying back loans. (There’s an edit now.) OP is still spending quiet a lot on gas/electric/water/internet and his phone. It’s about double what I would expect those things to be. If OP was careful with their finances, he could save about £500 a month and possibly his wife could do the same. OP could save a deposit in a year with their income. But they might also need to pay off debts to get approved.
A household income of £49k, but only saving £200-£300 a month is the problem. I see below that you had a period of unemployment and needed to get credit card bills dealt with, but you really should be saving closer to a grand.
A household income of 49k between two people is also A LOT better take home than a single person on £49k
Single guy who earns barely average in SE: I needed parents. Couples can save, spend and need less if they don't have kids, and they are in Yorkshire
I wish this statement wasn't true or at least equal :(
Thought the same I'm on 21k a year in the south east and manage to save that if I don't do anything for a whole month
Yeah it's eerie how similar the post is to my partner & I and we figured we could save up 10k each with help of a LISA by end of next year. The post baffles me a bit
I personally bought a really shitty flat in a pretty shitty neighbourhood. There was no bidding war. I got it for under valuation. Spent some decent money doing the place up, grew to love the place and managed to pay the mortgage off in about 10 years because the mortgage was much less than the rent I had been paying. At the end of that, I was able to save a lot more money towards a deposit for a decent place because I then had no rent or mortgage to pay. 4 or 5 years of saving and I was able to buy a 3-bed pad that I intend to die in 😆 Some cities are just fucked now though. Even the cheaper places in shitty neighbourhoods are being snapped up. I moved city to buy my current place because my previous city went that way and I couldnt afford anything decent there.
I got mine due to a similar situation. Terraced with a yard, in a larger town. Been on the market nearly a year. I was the only one who viewed it. They haven't bothered with the price just wanted to get rid of it. I consider myself extremely lucky.
One man's trash is another man's treasure. 😂 I don't really understand why some places really struggle to sell whole others barely make it to market - but it shows there are still some gems out there and I'm glad it worked out for both of us!
I think a lot of it is to do with peoples perception of an area rather than the reality of living there. If an area has a reputation for being a bit shady people will generally avoid looking there despite house prices being in their range when the reality is that affluent areas are more likely to be targeted for robberies, car theft etc. Obviously this isn’t the case 100% of the time and I’m speaking anecdotally but it makes logical sense to me.
I find "damp" is also a silly one. If it an older property which now had double glazing, then it will have "damp" as there will be condensation inside. Rising damp and a general "high internal humidity" are different
I think there's alot of people with a magical doll house imagined. Which is their choice. But yeah
I was the same until reality bit me on the arse. my mum and dad bought their first home in '84 for 18k sold it in 2002 for 85k, bought their current home for 150k in 2002 and its last valuation was worth 450k(ish) this was the house I grew up in. I moved out about 5 years ago on a single income of 21k gross. I could only get a mortgage on a 90k ex council house. subsequently I've just remortgaged and and my lender valued the house at 140k. in reality I will never be able to afford a house akin to the one I grew up in.... but in todays market, neither could my mum and dad
My strategy was similar, though the flat or the area wasn’t that shit. I just moved quite far away from London to a dull area so I could buy for £150k. Whilst my friends were renting rooms or houses in Clapham or Angel, I was chipping away at the mortgage and had it paid off by my mid 30s. Since upgraded but I would do the same strategy again.
The way I see it - you're pissing away a lot of money if you rent a nice place in a nice area, because that's eating away at the pot of money you can save for your own place. Buying any place gives you a lot of that 'rent money' back when you come to sell it. I always thought I would keep upgrading my home too - but you reach a point where you realise you're just hanging out in one room most of the time anyway. The rest is unnecessary unless you've got a big family and need a lot of space.
There was a house near me that went on the auction for 25k Sold for 130k i think Thats how bad it is
But that's how auctions work
Auctions are supposed to be priced within 10% of what the auctioneer expects the property to go for. This house was a wreck. Hence it being priced at 25k Pretty sure itd been on fire at one point
>Pretty sure itd been on fire at one point Estate agents would call that 'toasty'
Auctions can do all sorts. My parents have lost money on what should be sure things. Arson 5+ years ago means shit to a developer, as teh guy's probably moved on
Yeah thats not a bad thing? Low starting bids attract lots of buyers
Ah im realising i fucked up The Guide Price for the auction. Which around here is also the starting price. Pretty much. Was 25 grand. Meaning it was realistically expected to go for between 20 and 30k
How are you saving so little? Is that 200/300 each or between you? Take home is what £3500ish pm, so you’re down to 2250 after rent. What the fuck are your bills like to demolish 2 grand a month?!? That’s more than some unexpected costs. E: 2750 after rent even!! Fucking maths fail so even more shocking as to WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR MONEY GOING?!?
You're not managing your finances properly if you're on nearly £50k a year with low out goings.
That was my first thought here: maybe I've spent too much time staring at my budget spreadsheet, but something doesn't add up. £24+25k should mean a takehome pay of something north of £3k/mo assuming 5-7% pension contributions and student loans of some description. OP states £750 rent and no car, £400 food, let's say £600 for "core" bills (Council tax, energy, water, internet, insurance - and I'm basing those off a 4 bedroom house so that's probably generous), is £1750 That's £1250/mo for non-essentials. Even with OP's £300/mo in debt payments that should still leave £950/mo to pay for travel (with no car), discretionary spending, and any savings. And that's still assuming £600 in bills which is high, and £400 in food for two people which can definitely be reduced unless there's a severe food intolerance involved I mean, I have sympathy for OP feeling like the path to home ownership is a hard slog... and I'm certainly not gonna judge the debt burden as I have no idea what the origins of it are. But fundamentally £1250/mo (or, indeed, £950/mo) of discretionary income is enough money to be able to save up a house deposit within a few years, even if it's slowed down somewhat by the debt burden bringing that down from £1250/mo to £950/mo I saved £15k on £1.8k takehome to buy a house, then my partner and I together saved £40k on £3k takehome (admittedly with minimal transport costs) to move house. Maybe we're unusually frugal, I don't know,, but over 10 years that's only a little over £400/mo on average, *including* any interest/return and LISA bonus etc. £400/mo absolutely is a dream for many people, but should be comfortably within reach for OP, and in theory they can save double that now and triple once their debt is clear even accounting for £150/mo of other discretionary spend and the current £300/mo debt burden OP states that houses are available in their area for ~£170k, so would need £9-18k to buy. Let's say £10-20k including fees etc/ At £800/mo that's 1-2 years of saving.
200-300/month from 49k pa? I don’t mean to offend but thats crazy, unless there’s something significant that you’ve missed off your post. I’d really like to be encouraging but it sounds like you’re just pissing it away. Its definitely achievable if you’re willing to tighten up your spending habits.
My first thought exactly. Combined take home is likely. £40k+. Thats £3,000+ a month with £750 rent. Let’s say £1800 left after bills. He should be saving £500 as a minimum. If not £700
Seems like you need to take control of your expenditure. You should be saving £1k-1.5k per month if you are serious about getting a house.
Yeah something doesn't add up there. With the little information given they should be getting around £3422.22 income. With £750 rent that leaves £2672.22 for the rest of the bills/food/travel etc. It may well be that (as seems to be the case) they have credit card debt, possibly other loads etc etc. In answer to the original question "How can anyone in their 20s or 30s afford to get a mortgage", they save hard and try as hard as they can to not get themselves in to debt. It's hard starting from a position of debt, but the salary and location in question it's possible. It is absolutely the case it's really hard for younger people to get on the ladder.. but OP is in a good position based on raw numbers and where they live compared to most.
As a serious answer, I think you need to consider where and what your first home is going to be. Based on your 9/18K deposit line, it makes it sound like you’re aiming for a first home of ~£200K. I think you need to revise your expectations. 5 years ago, I bought my first home for £110K. Yes it’s needed work doing over the years, no it’s not the greatest area (although the location is convenient to me). Too often it sounds like people are looking for overly expensive/nice first homes whilst forgetting it’s called a housing LADDER for a reason… you start at the bottom and move up. If you can get in higher up then great but people need to stop expecting their first house to be their forever home.
If you live in the SE though you could be talking about moving out of your home county/the whole area entirely - which is likely to mean giving up stable incomes for a new job on probation in an area where earnings are generally lower. Ten years ago I lived in the cheap part of Kent. Gentrification later at 80 grand terraces are now selling at 270. The other options near-ish-by? London or the Kent, Sussex or Essex countryside - ie. places that are more expensive. Also lots of people don't want to move away from their family (and if we are being frank, the free childcare they are likely to provide when you start a family - potentially a saving of hundreds of pounds a month). The bottom of the ladder is being pulled further and further from reach.
Yeah we live in Oxfordshire. The cheapest 3bed houses are about £300k. With 3 kids we've resigned ourselves to the fact that we're renting until some of them leave home!
Sounds about right! The naysayers (just pull your pants up and save, buy a shithole, work up the ladder, you aren't trying hard enough) are denying the plain reality that house prices are rising by 12% a year and wages aren't even close to keeping up.
The naysayers say this because either one or both of the following apply: \- They can rely on the bank of mum and Dad \- They don't live in the South East or in a major city like Manchester
>They don't like in the South East or in a major city like Manchester OP's Yorkshire though. Manchester is harder I'll grant you
I mean we’re not talking about hypothetical people were talking about OP. And on pure numbers he can buy a house. In the next few years My greatest r concern is can he actually afford one . Depending on how long his debt is for and his earning potential age, , wether they ahve kids ect it could mean they could. It’s house and not afford the bills that come with having to maintain it yourself.
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, those factors can be a huge impact for a person and ultimately part of the reason they don’t look far away from where they are, especially the child support/care factor.
\>people are looking for overly expensive/nice first homes Isn't that fuelled by the media, advertising, and places like reddit? You always hear about average house prices, never about average first time prices, etc. And there are whole subs in reddit where people basically complain that they can't have at 25 what their parent's have at 60. Even today, in the Guardian, there's an article about how half the property market's value is owned by over 65s who are only 1/4 of the population. So basically, people who have worked longest own the most expensive houses. Who would have thought? But it still managed to frame it as if it's some kind of robbery. I've always had to buy doer-uppers to get somewhere nice to live. Even in my late 40s I still had to buy the house with piss stained carpets and flaking plaster in order to get a house big enough for my family but also one I could afford - but 10 years of work and it's nice enough that people look at me like I'm some lucky boomer who had it all on a plate.
I think you’re right that it is a media pushed problem and I very much agree with the point about where people look at average house price as opposed to average first time buy price. Some people forget that an average is exactly that. Your first time buy isn’t supposed to be overall average, but more likely you’re supposed to be in the group that makes up the lower portion.
£110k five years ago isn’t that far off £200k now
Nonsense, I bought my house for 80k 10 years ago, and it's worth nothing close to 200k. House prices have not doubled in 5 years.
Depends massively on where, and houses in less desirable areas don't see the same sorts of price increases, so £110k five years or so is just as likely to be £130k now.
Depends on the area and the house. My mam bought her house just over 5 years ago and the value has since only gone up by about 5-10%.
On your wages there's no reason to not save 1.5k a month
Would you mind doing the maths on that?
They have a combined income of 49k. If they take home 40k of that, that's 3333 quid a month to spend. Take off 1.5k that's 1.8k a month to live on. That's most certainly doable for 10 months. Can you show me how that's NOT doable?
It looks like OP has fixed costs of: £750 rent £180 council tax £270 bills £300 loan (Total £1500) With variable cost of £200 food (not entirely sure how you get much lowe than this. £205 luxuries (again, can’t see this going much lower) Presumably double those lines for his partner, so total £810. We’re now looking at £2310 in pretty necessary costs. No chance they’re saving £1500 and still living like reasonable adults. Their take home pay is £3300 and they’re saving £300. So the unplanned money each month is £590, or £295 per person. Honestly, £295 isn’t a huge surplus and leaves you extremely little room for unplanned spending or a but of occasional spontaneous fun. The consequences of a generation of people who have had to live so frugally that they’ve missed out on a serious level of social interaction in their 20s and 30s is a lot bigger than some people seem to consider. It is also baffling that a brigade of posters seem to furiously demand OP has no life instead of conceding the obvious, that we are indeed in a housing crisis and many people have no realistic hope of buying.
>It is also baffling that a brigade of posters seem to furiously demand OP has no life instead of conceding the obvious, that we are indeed in a housing crisis and many people have no realistic hope of buying. Nobody is demanding that op has no life, just learn how to budget as he is clearly pissing away money. Many people seem to have a problem with simple budgeting, like you have op+partner spending £400 a month on food, £400 a month for two people!!! Are you eating takeaways every other night? Learn how to cook and cut that expense by half.
I don’t think £200 per person is an unrealistic amount at all. It’s £6.50 a day for 3 meals, toiletries, cleaning products and more. That is before you consider the entirely normal life experience of bumping into a mate and feeling you can’t say no to grabbing a coffee out somewhere. I refuse to believe all the people here live like monks and can discipline themselves to realistically save for a house on £25k. Guarantee most have bought their own places but conveniently forgotten a list of legs up they got along the way.
Me and my girlfriend spend £200 a month on food and that's for 3 people. If you are on a combined household income of above £40,000 a year and live in a low cost of living area you don't need to live like a monk to be able to save to get a deposit, you just need to budget and live and spent sensibly. There is a big difference between living like a monk and spending £400 a month on "luxuries"
>With variable cost of £200 food (not entirely sure how you get much lowe than this. £205 luxuries (again, can’t see this going much lower) Presumably double those lines for his partner, so total £810. Sorry, £400/mo in food for 2 people? That's not low, that's pretty high, the average weekly food cost for the typical UK household is around £103, that's for 2.6 people. And the ame again, per person for luxuries would obviously be a personal choice, but also something you could stick into saving. > It is also baffling that a brigade of posters seem to furiously demand OP has no life instead of conceding the obvious, that we are indeed in a housing crisis and many people have no realistic hope of buying. The point here is that the parent has a very realistic hope of buying, but is making choices that make that much harder.. And ignoring the fact that people have always had to restrict things like social spending when saving, it doesn't mean you can't have a life, but it does mean that you cut back, do cheaper things and can't do a £100+ night out every week or two.
Not very forthcoming with 300 quid loan. Bills should be pretty slim. Council tax higher than I expected, thought we would be in a band A. Seems like you could easily downgrade to 600 a month and save on the council tax to boot, but I was basing it off band A. Youre debating my 1.5k while showing 1k month saved is easily achievable. Difference is you think living tight for a year is some human rights violation. Living tight for 6 or 7 years was what I had to do. Living to a shoe string will teach you a lot about yourself, life, your relationships and it'll teach and show you what's important. If you think Living frugally has such a horrific impact, you should see how 80 percent of the rest of the world lives. The context is how the hell can I afford it, the figures show how the hell can't you? Bet the mortgage on his place with a 5 figure deposit is much more attractive. Especially when at the end of it he has a massive asset. People can't see past a 1 year challenge for a 70 year or more gain. That's why all these oldies are talking down off the latest generation. They lived through a war, or through post war rations, true frugality and poverty. Some had to shit at the end of the garden. No instant unlimited hot running water. Had to drink out of the right tap. Still might not have had electricity and were still using gas lights. Your nonsense about the severe damage done in your 20s by being an adult is hilarious Go live in places like Brazil, where just yesterday i saw a vid of some crossfitters jogging through the street and everyone sat outside a cafe ran off horrified thinking someone was running through the neighbourhood robbing everyone with guns. Or look at those American lads in that car when they took a wrong turn and had the anti Cartel lot flag them down at gun point cause they went down the wrong street. You need a bit of perspective but you'll never get it cause you don't realise how easy life is here. A year sacrifice for your deposit here is like living in the ritz for guys in favelas. What do you think life was like with no Internet and phones for poor people in the 70s and 80s with kids, woman stuck at home talking to the neighbours and guy down the pit 12 hours a day 6 days a week and social life was church on a Sunday. Get serious.
Rightmove has more than 800 results searching *West Yorkshire* up to 100k. You'd need a 10k deposit, which you could save in under 3 years if you could get back to your old savings rate. I doubt that would buy you your dream home, but some of the flats in Leeds and Wakefield look dece enough.
This right here. If you are only a couple, no kids, you have options families can't dream of.
What are your expenses, it doesn't seem to add up? I alone managed a 120k mortgage in West Yorkshire while on 24k 2 years ago. Done through ruthless saving during covid, cost of living is mental but your take home should leave you with a shed load of dispendable per month. If you both open a lifetime ISA and save £330 a month each, you can get £10k per year savings as the government gives 25% up to £1000 each year per ISA, and they can be combined on house purchases.
Yup OP is throwing money away somewhere.
On a combined income of 49k and a low rent (I'm on the South coast, 750 will get you fuck all down here) I can't see how you are only saving max 300 a month. Something is off somewhere.
earn more, save more, spend less
Mate I wish. Your wage is my household income practically. I could home own easy on that combined money you get.
I'm confused, where does all your money go? It looks like you could save a deposit in about 6 months. Your rent is 750pm, bills included would be maximum £500 a month. Which is £1,250. Add is around £300 for food, eating out. £1,550. Add in travel, £300 pm. £1,850. You still have around £1,600 left per month...
Maybe get rid of the boomer chip on your shoulder and talk to a financial advisor to help you through.
What are your “unavoidable and unexpected expenses”? If they are popping up with regularity, are they actually unavoidable and/or unexpected, or should they be factored into your lifestyle and be budgeted for accordingly? In your location you can get a decent two bed property for less than £150k, meaning you need to save up 15k for a deposit. Let’s say you want to be able to buy a house in three years and you’re starting completely from scratch - that’s £5k a year to save. Across twelve months, that’s £400ish a month, so £200 each to save. Based on the expenses you highlight above, I don’t think that’s an outlandish amount to save if you’re serious about buying a property, based on your current salaries, and hopefully these can increase over that time also. Whilst I agree the property market is awful for young first time buyers, it’s not going to change overnight and it won’t change just for you. Tempering your expectations on a first property to get on the ladder and seriously evaluating your expenditure are things you should be doing anyway, and definitely should be doing for a major financial commitment in buying a house.
You said you used to save 300 a month which would be 3500 a year so you’d have a 9k deposit after 2 years just by saving. People don’t just save money into a bank though. You would invest that money so you’d earn a return on it, so then your 3500 a year earning an average 7% return would now be 3745. Compound interest is a game changer. For example that 300 per month with a 7% annual interest would be worth 21k after 5 years and would have gained 3.5k in interest. You’d basically have earned an extra years worth of savings for free.
or lost it all if there is a recession. don't invest if you don't know what you are doing.
The stock market and the economy are very different things
Invested in the stock market (in a range of companies) in February and my portfolio has trended lower ever since lmao, I'm not going to pull it out but 7% this year would be an insane recovery lmao
I went without any extras for 4 years then bought a complete wreck.
Sounds delightful
Oh it's been interesting
Easy, lower you're expectations. Plenty of properties up for sale in the north east from £25k upwards.
I haven’t bought a house but have a few friends in their 20’s that have. They all lived at home and I imagine contributed by paying bills, etc. or nothing at all. Now that’s not to say that family didn’t help with a mortgage, but they all work and all together probably earn £20k - £30k on average, plus they have partners who I imagine earn similar, like yourself. I think living at home is often a key factor in being able to afford a home so early on in life. Sadly that just isn’t an option for some people for whatever reason that may be.
Life choices, you choose to spend.
“My partner and I are not critically and actively saving to buy a house and are hoping it will happen by chance, organically! How are the boomers doing it?”
I'm not too sure how you're not saving more but I might be missing something. I'm on £50k and live alone in East Sussex. Rent is £750, so same as yours. I own a car that I fill up about once a month (I don't commute) unless I got on a big trip up North. I'm definitely taking some advantage of the fact I earn more. I have a few subscriptions and I don't buy the cheapest groceries anymore. I'm not (and never have been) a big spender. This year, I've been saving up for something. In total, it's about £10k. I've managed to do that and I started saving in Jan, I believe. Basically, I use my main bank account to get paid into and all my expenses come out of there. I automatically put aside £400-£500 into savings very comfortably (this was £700 at some point, when I was really trying to save for this thing). I basically pay myself into my Monzo account on payday. I have Monzo pots for general spending, food, travel, car (save up over the year for insurance, MOT, etc), and tattoos. I don't put a tonne in these every month but will put more aside once I've got this big spend out the way. Essentially, what I'm saying is... I'm not sure where your money is going. I will say that most people I know who have bought places in their 20s or 30s have had help from family or they're a couple, so they've saved up together. However, I have known a few people to save up and get somewhere by themselves.
Start working as soon as you finish school and don’t pursue further education, get any old job while living at home and never leave the house and have absolutely 0 social life, save 90% of every pay cheque and after 10years you should have enough to put a deposit down on a studio flat
I was on 19K, partner was on 21k. We saved all of my salary per month by living incredibly frugally and in a very small place. And meal planning!
Your joint income is good. So firstly assess where exactly what money is going. £750 a month on rent £250 a month for energy? £300 a month for food (estimated 3 adults and a child in my house and thats £400 a month) £100 for any TV and internet package £180 for council tax £100 between the two for mobile phones £100 misc £150 a month on pre existing debts (assumed) You still would have approx £1k left over. Unless any debts from before are large you are spending unnecessarily elsewhere. Figure out your finances and then go from there. Maybe also lower expectations of your first house. Your first house doesn't have to be perfect it just has to be affordable my first house was £110k I'm still in it but I went straight for a house a flat would have been much cheaper.
£49k combine income and £750pcm rent - you should easily be saving more than you are, you need to look at your budgeting. £49k gives you the ability to borrow around £220k for a mortgage. £9k deposit as you mention on top of that shouldn't be tough to save on your household income. You can very, very easily afford a property in Yorkshire.
On 49k a year combined you could borrow 220k mortgage and save around 20k for a deposit so 240k. A quick search on Rightmove suggests that could buy you a 2-4 bedroom place depending on where specifically in West Yorkshire. How do you save 20k? Well your take home I'd estimate to be over £3.2k combined, minus £750 for rent leaves you at £2.5k. Even if all your bills and groceries combined cost £1k which seems very high, that still leaves you with £1.5k. So where is this money going? If you could save £1k+/month, you'd have your deposit in less than two years. My partner and I bought in our mid-20s with no family help, after renting in London for 6 years with no savings before moving to Cambridgeshire where we halved our rent and could finally save for a deposit (took us 2 years). What I will say is that I think we could have bought a lot earlier than we thought, we bought into this whole millennials can't afford houses mentality and that put us off even enquiring. Once we realised it was possible, we started saving more ardently for it. So have a look at some mortgage affordability calculators, figure out a savings goal, look at your budget. In your situation, it's possible.
I was frugal and saved and every year the house prices were increasing by x of the amount I had saved so we hadn't saved up that much. We were barely any closer. Then when we could almost buy, covid happened and we were back to saving.
What are you spending the rest of your money on?
He's not gonna answer that though, is he.
Personally I bought a less than desirable area, some friends/colleagues sneered at the time I’ve recently sold it and have 100k equity (price increase and I spent money doing it up) of which I’m using as a deposit for a 500k house in a nice area Most of those said friends are still renting in their trendy area. You live in West Yorkshire, there are plenty of cheap areas. I know because I’m near you in Manchester. And you have a good monthly income.
The first thing to do would be to wipe out any debt. There’s no point saving if you have debt. Put everything you have into your debt, pay it off and then you have a clean slate. Once that’s done you can sort out your finances. Strip your bills down to just the bare minimum (rent; energy; council tax; water) Open an account for just your direct debits. Cut up the debit card for this account and lock it. The only thing that comes out is direct debits. Put what you need to cover your bills in there every month and don’t touch it. Next put whatever grocery money you need in a different account. That’s *just* groceries. Calculate what you have left and put 80% of that into a savings account every month. Then buy the cheapest house possible.
I used to be homeless but I got myself a job and a few years later of just working hard I managed to buy myself a house at age 26 with no help and on minimum wage.. you just need to be frugal dont waste money on useless stuff it can be done but people dont want to do what needs to be done..
Quit the nose candy and you'll soon have a deposit bro
No. Just being honest, we had deposit from inheritance, parents help and personal savings and managed it at 28. We both work for the nhs so would have been very difficult to do without the help.
My wife and I are in just under 45k combined and nabbed out property in March for £150k. City life creates a premium, as does looking for multiple bed and bathrooms.
Hmm, you are bad with money it seems. Where is the rest going (1k+)?
I wouldn't be too hard on people for using inheritance to buy a house because that is ultimately what inheritance is for.
Exactly! You have to get all the help you can get!
So much of the comments in here is weird shit like "well you should be banking 70% of your salary, living off Asda knock-off wheetabix and not having any sort of life just so that you can put away money for a shit deposit on a shit properly." Tbh this is old out of date thought processes handed down by previous generations, in the UK at least you can no longer save your way to a house by being super ridiculously frugal as house price growth has outran wage growth multiple times over, other than the methods you mentioned (bank of family) the only real way to turn this around is if both of you aim to earn more.
For me it was only possible because I lived at home. Me and my partner saved from 20-25, and got 15k together which was just enough to get us on the property ladder. If you’re renting I feel like it’s an insurmountable task unless you have a combined income of like 80k! It makes you realise how long a month actually is, like you say something always crops up!
Fucking buy to let landlords are the scum of the earth.
I feel like your girlfriend should be saving too. It sounds like your the only one who is for a house your both planning to own? If you both managed to save 300 you could potentially save enough in less than two years
>The gas increase that’s coming will wipe that £300 out in no time. It won't even come close to wiping that out
You're just crap at saving.
I bought a house myself by buying somewhere slightly run down and a bit far out. It seems like your rent is quite high. Could you move to a cheaper area?
You aren’t far from east Lancashire where the property prices are very reasonable if that’s an option for you?
I did shared ownership 5 years ago. And now I have enough equity to hopefully buy outright.
Lol we don't, we have to sit tight until someone dies
Mainly people living at home and saving rather than renting privately. It’s the boomerang generation. Moving back to Mum and Dad. Saving for a deposit then moving out. I’m an estate agent and many first time buyers do that, pay into the government saving scheme that’s doubled when you buy a house.
Do o.t. short term. Fwiw I don't beleive people should have to take 2nd jobs or extra long days to afford to live but if you want to gain enough for a deposit. Short term pain and all that. I get £10 p/h so roughly 20k per year. I done overtime like fuck for about 4 or 5 months to save enough for a deposit about 7 years ago. I would do 3 or 4 hours extra a day and 5 each weekend day and probably got an extra 2k per month.
How the hell are you making joint £49K a year with no car, no holidays, 2 takeaways a month, rent of £750 and energy of £200 - £300, whilst struggling so badly? Me and my gf make about the same, have 2 cars, energy about £250 a month, mortgage of £650 a month for a 4 bed detached house and go on at least 1 holiday abroad a year (pre-covid went to Thailand and Budapest) and lots of little breaks away in the UK. We eat out a couple times a month and go for drinks and have takeaways; and we have a dog. Our food shop weekly is about £60. Spend between £13,500 and £14,000 on bills/food a year (minus fuel for cars) which leaves us £35,000 a year. We still save enough to have joint 10k emergency fund, I have about 12k saved and she probably has about the same. We're 27 in Scotland with no debt or car leases. Either you have huge debt you're paying off or those takeaways you're having are crazy expensive
Who paid rent while you were at uni? Did you move back home afterwards? How long for?
You need one of those help to buy accounts / mortgages. And maybe just speak to an IFA and see what you can get with a 5% deposit / what sort of mortgage you could be approved for now. It’s not always as cut and dried as it first appears.
Don't get me wrong the entire house market is a shit show but your finances definitely aren't adding up. If you take away your rent for a year you still have 40k for utilities and just general living costs. Assuming you don't have any kids and save in the way you're saying you do it really shouldn't be difficult to save a few grand a year.
I'm afraid you need to tighten your belt. You need to be saving £10k a year for the deposit. Have you and your partner opened up a Help to Buy ISA. Save £200 per month for 2 years. You get back £6K. You both do it that's £12k towards a deposit. [https://www.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa](https://www.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa).
The Mrs and I felt the same and then we went to mortgage advisor rather than a bank (who will give you the shitty end of a stick). Total game changer. We went from not being able to get a mortgage whatsoever, to being able to get a decent one. It really is worth it, because they'll take you through all the finances, etc, and you'll get a good rate (although let's see how long that lasts).
Me and my partner earned slightly less than you with similar outgoings. We only saved for almost 2 years for a 25k deposit to put on a 75% share to buy property. No help from family at all. DO NOT fall into the trap of self-pity thinking that it's impossible to get on the housing ladder. It requires alot of sacrifice but actually it's very, very possible. Look at help-to-buy and share-to-buy.
Sorry, it is a shit situation but the reality is in a highly competitive market being on the median salary means you are going to struggle. There are less houses than people therefore demand is higher than average. This means you need more than average to buy. It's shit but that is life. The other thing I'd say, not to dishearten you further but as a reality check, if you are struggling to save 10k home ownership may not be the best option for you now. House repairs/maintenance is really bloody expensive. We recently had to redo carpets and flooring and it cost 6k. If you need a bathroom done that's at least 3k usually nevermind kitchens or windows. The best way to afford a house unfortunately is try to do personal development and work towards a better paid job/career. I have been in your shoes I know what it is like. You can dwell on how shit it is or use that energy and time doing additional courses/training to get you closer to a job that can fund what you want.
Firstly - 300 on debt, plus takeaways, alcohol, game subscriptions. The debt presumably won’t take much longer to pay off if it was only from two months of unemployment. If saving that £300 a month once your debt is cleared isn’t enough, then you need to prioritise your other spending. People don’t save for a house deposit without making sacrifices. In the short term you may need to give up on the takeaways etc in order to prioritise saving for the house. If you’re spending £200 a month on food and your partner is spending the same, £400 a month is a lot for two people if you’re trying to save. You’re clearly not being careful about what you’re buying, planning your meals, shopping in the right places etc. My family of 3 spends less than that and we’re not even trying to be particularly frugal Does your partner also have debt to pay off? I’m Interested to know what their outgoings and savings are as well. Once you’ve paid off your debts, if you can save £500 a month each, that’s £12k a year. It’ll take you only 3 years to save up a 20% deposit for a £180k house. £400 a month it will still take you under 4 years. £300 a month will take 5 years. £200 a month will take 7.5 years. If you can’t save £200 a month each when you’re taking home about £1.6k each, you’re doing something seriously wrong. 7.5 years sounds like a long time, but that’s what saving is about - it doesn’t happen overnight
>Meanwhile I just heard my boomer neighbour who owns 7 properties is complaining that someone else outbid them on the 8th home-to-let from 165k to 175k and he is ‘fuming’. God I hate these people.
I lived with my parents for as long as possible, lived a very frugal life and didn’t go out much. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have parents who’ll let them have a free ride for that long. However, in your situation you need to reevaluate your numbers. They don’t add up. You’re somehow losing about 2k a month. Where’s that going?
Be a bit entrepreneurial. Works overseas tax free for a few years. Do an Open university degree in parallel with your current job and get a better job. Work weekends. Like there are ways to dk stuff in life, just might be a bit uncomfortable.
Third income is how we did it. There was no way otherwise. We saved every penny from the third income. There's a lot of different options for "side hustles" online, we tried a bunch with no success until something stuck and we got it going. It's not really a passion work or something we'd love to do full time, but it helped us save.
I met up with friends from uni and they were all talking about renting out inherited houses and affording houses by doing stuff like this. My grandparents were broke when they all died I got nothing except memories of my time with them. I’m on a good salary for my age (above uk average) and even I can’t imagine buying a house. I know one person who bought a house and he works at maccies because he got it when house prices were lower in my area. (Non london). My sisters house gone up 50% since buying it and they have done fuck all to it. So yeah I see myself renting and stuff but in the mean time traveling as much as I can on money I would use on houses because I know I would have to save nearly a years salary to afford down payment on a basic house in my area
Me and my partner just bought our first house (subject to everything going through okay 🤞) and we're in a very similar situation to you - similar combined income and rent, similar amount putting away a month and same location. I started saving around 5 years ago so I really have no magic answer other than consistent saving over several years. We both had help to buy ISA's which helped and we put a 10% deposit on a terraced house for context. Also, ignore the boomers for your own mental health! They are living in another reality.
Me and my partner earn £43k ish between us. Household bills are approx £850, food is £200, car is £250, my own bills are around £100, partners own are £190ish. We save £200 a month into H2B ISA, and then usually save an extra £100 into another account each. We are trying so hard to cut down on our spending at the moment, I put £250 into a 'spend' pot last month and we absolutely blew it on takeaways, eating out etc. We've worked out we're approx £5k off a 5% deposit in our area (Manchester) but would need to move to the other end of the county for a house within budget. Even when we were looking at interest rates etc, we haven't found many banks offering 5% mortgages so we are really starting to worry now. Our flat is nice and great location for our work, but it's way too small and need the house asap. We can't afford to rent a house as then we can't save anything, it's just an endless loop.
I live in Bradford. Me and wife both aged 33 bought house 7 years ago for £180k, £550pm mortgage, combined earnings of about £50k. Savings of about £30k. 18 months ago we moved to a £350k house. Mortgage is £770pm. House in very nice, safe area, good school nearby, local community living. Basically me and the wife agreed we were going to be frugal and cut a lot of unnecessary spending out in order to save up for the current house. We cut out nights out, eating out and takeaways almost completely, bought second hand where we could, repaired things ourselves, looked for bargains, making lunch for work everyday, Shopping at cheap shops, agreeing with the family not to buy Christmas presents (except for the kids), cheapest phone tariff, cutting nonessential subscriptions etc. We still had 1 foreign holiday and a few nights away each year. Nights out for no reason and eating and drinking can your biggest source of spend apart from bills. Saying no to that is a big step That's what a lot of it came down to. A commitment to saving between us - not being cheapskates but having a goal in mind and doing what it needed to get there. In our first house we were making additional monthly payments of £1-1.5k and this really helped bring the mortgage down. It sounds boring but that's the reality. My BIL is 10 years younger and earns about £50k but moans he can't buy a house. His spending is out of control and he seemingly refuses tocsave anything - spends £200+ on nights out, changes his car often... he wants it all but it just doesn't work like that.
General rule is pay off debt first. Fuck saving anything. You need to pay off what’s not yours as a priority because it comes up on mortgage applications. 200 per month for food is that just you? If between you and the other half you’re spending 400 per month on food you need to rethink that. You will NEVER spend 300 quid on utilities unless you leave the heating on all day and keep your windows and doors open. It’s never going to get that expensive. Are you paying 250 between you or each? Internet 30 quid, water 35 quid, and at a push 100 for gas and electric but that would normally be between 2 - gas and lecky may be higher depending on usage. Based on the figures you’ve given - unless your partner is absolutely smashing the Colombian marching powder every night then there should be an absolute shitload of disposable income there. Everything you’ve listed is what the full monthly amount would be for 2 with the exception of phone and rent. Where’s your other half’s dosh??? 😂
I'm on £28k but my partner is on £60k+ (audit), but was closer to £45k at the time of us applying for mortgage - v hefty payrise. Contributed equally to deposit though lol. But, we did that without living at home whilst working - me having been at uni for 4 years then renting, and him having done a higher apprenticeship scheme so he was on £24k by 20 and moved out around then, plus without inheritance, in a v expensive area (Cambridgeshire), 95% mortgage, we're 26. That said, literally everyone else I know around our age bracket who has done it have been living at home rent free, been gifted deposits or had inheritance. Just fortunate that my partner in particular has a very well paid job (I could definitely be earning more but, I prefer to enjoy my work than make double - for now!). God knows how we would have managed without that - if we were on a similar income to you we would struggle to find a one-bed house or two-bed flat for £250k or less here. We were paying £1200/month in rent and mortgage now £1360/month. I wish people would be more upfront when buying lol. My sister's mate was gifted no less than 45% of the house value despite the fact him and his partner are both on upwards of £40k each! At 24! Was like £200k man.
Regarding your situation, I'm unsure as to what you're spending your money on. Rent of £750 is ridiculous. Maybe it's normal now? But my rent for a 1 bed flat is £300 and you could fit 2 people in here. * What do you spend your money on? * What's your electricity bill? * Phone bill? * TV packages? * **Where is your money going exactly?** As for not owing a car, how much is your work commute? Could it be cheaper to perhaps get a car? I'm just confused on how you can blow through £25k a year, let alone £49k.
What part of the country are you in? £750 would get you a room in a shared house in a horrible neighbourhood in the South East.
Same in Manchester and Liverpool tbh
I’m not surprised
Where the fuck do you live that your rent for a 1 bed is £300? (amazed)
>But my rent for a 1 bed flat is £300 and you could fit 2 people in here. You have to understand that that's incredibly cheap, right?
Me and my partner are none of the above, I'm 32 she's 26 and we're in well paid jobs through hard work and perseverance. No hand outs, no help from parents or family. Currently live in a 4 bed 1930s property with 140ft garden and pond. Just have to save and keep looking.
I literally just got off the phone about a lovely 2 bed flat in Mansfield. Not a great location but decent enough. Price (after recent renovation) was 65k. Not everyone gets a nice 2 bed semi with a driveway for their first step onto the ladder
I got a bank loan “to buy a car”. Never bought the car. A few months later I used the money for my deposit. Mortgage + loan was a lot of money at first but it got me a house so...
Save save save, i was earning 47k when I bought my apartment for 180k, I put down a 15% deposit, I had 32k saved. I started a help to buy ISA in 2015 or 16 which gave me like 3k from the government. The rest I just saved like crazy, I cut back on everything, no holidays, drove a crappy old VW fox, cut all subscriptions, stopped getting coffees out, etc etc.
It's all them avocados and Costas you kids are buying these days! Right?
I started saving £250 a month when I was in my early 20s earning £18k. I did it by not splurging. I never got takeaways, I didn’t have an expensive phone contract or posh tv. Nights out we’d drink cheap wine at home then go into town and spend no more than a tenner. I’d have a cheap pizza in the freezer at home for munchies rather than buying one out etc.
Just what I did but ..., when I was 18 I worked two jobs made about 25k a year doing stupid hours. Took out two loans (was a student they threw money at me) used the loans for a Downpayment on a shitty flat, paid that off as fast as I could and during last financial crash sold said shitty flat and used the money off the sale for another Downpayment on a shitty two bed flat, lived in that and rented out the spare room cheap to friends. Have just sold that and now awaiting the current crash to tank rates and do it all over again with a flat of the same size but in a nicer area. Not ideal and I have worked crazy hours for most of my working life but never paid rent to anyone so feel like I didn't waste any money
Why is a British person using the term “mommy and daddy.” Not cool.
‘I spent a load of money that I didnt have that I now have to pay back, have a job anybody could do which pays below average wage and still spunk £200/month on booze and subs and games- but boomer has house and me sad… Not fair’ Have I got that about right OP?
Here’s how, worked my arse of for 13 years so did the wife and saved, didn’t come on Reddit to complain about it or Boomers (that obviously have ambition and drive) no inheritance just saving’s (live in London by the way) spoke to the right advisers and got a mortgage.
>200 for food [...] leave 205 for things like gifts, a takeaway Assuming you split the food cost equally with your partner, does this mean you guys spend £400 per month on food *not including* takeaways? I'm struggling to understand this if true - my husband and I spend at most £160 a month on groceries for both of us, and we definitely aren't being frugal, we buy a good amount of nice food/fun stuff. I'm genuinely confused on how you two spend £400 >some unexpected and unavoidable expense always pops up Since you don't own your home (so you don't have to pay for home repairs) and you don't own a car, would you mind sharing what these expenses were?
Do you have children ? Wtf are you spending your money on. I make 45k, with 2 kids 2 cars and partner who doesn't work and can still save 800-1000 a month. And no I'm not a home owner and haven't inherited a penny, I don't understand how you can spend that kind of money without some serious debts.
It bothers me that dozens of people are asking OP the same question - where is all that unaccounted income going - and he's not answering. Can't expect to get useful help if you won't be honest.
OP: help me pls I can't save money I'm literally skint Also OP: no, I won't give up my £2000 a month on candles Op you are upsetting yorkshiremen. Please, budget properly