Home owners / Saving for a house?

[Fruitbooter]

So what’s your story, are you currently saving like me or did you make the plunge into home ownership already?

I keep having bad thoughts about selling the S15 so I can have a nice wedge towards a deposit for a house, keep talking myself out of the idea though as I love my car too much. I want a nice house yes, but I want my S15 on the drive

Atm me and the gf are just starting to save about 600 a month between us towards a deposit, however I can see us not saving the full 600 some months! We will need about 15k probably more tbh as a nice 3 bed house round here with a decent sized front and back garden is anywhere from 120k up to 160k depending on location and other factors so we need to save the most we can. Just seems like it's going take forever and selling the S15 is a quick fix solution...currently we are renting but in a council place so the rent is actually pretty decent but I want a house with a nice drive and garden...

This is something that I would love -

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31332574.html?premiumA=true

I know you have to be patient and most people start off in a flat or something first and work their way up but patience has never been a strong point of mine..

How long did it take you guys to save? Or what are your plans atm? Any photos and details of your houses and how you managed to get it are welcome too :thumbs:

 

[DeanS15]

I got lucky really, I bought my first house when i was 18 for 59k (small, ex housing association 2 bed) with something like a 5k deposit - I saved that quite quickly though because my mum and dad cut me a break on the rent (none ) the Market was on it's way up. I sold it three years later and made a good wedge on it and used that to get into the house I have now. I wish it was as easy as that for people now, but the up side is that house prices have dropped a fair bit in the last five years... I'd say don't let a car stop you buying a house at the right time, once you're settled and if you can afford it then you can get another one mate

 

[Trial_S15]

I sold mine to get the deposit together on the house - in my innocence I thought I'd be without an s-body for a year or possibly two (MAX) but I sold it two years ago now and I'm still at least a year or two off being in a position to buy another one

I regret selling the S15 but I was lucky to sell it when I did because the values in Ireland have really plumetted since! Plus we've got a nice house with a detached garage so we're both happy and my other half still feels so bad that I had to sell it that every birthday & Christmas I get fantastic car related presents (rally, drifting & Ferrari experiences :thumbs

We were pretty similar to you and saved €1k between us a month and were lucky enough to only need an 8% deposit, but you also need to pay taxes and legal fees on top of that so we needed €26,000.00 cash in the bank before they would give us a formal offer But as Dean said house prices have really dropped over the last 5 years so now is a good time to buy; we bought a nice 5 bed bungalow in the country on a half acre for half what it was advertised at in 2006 when my gf's sister looked at it! Granted it's a lot bigger than we were looking for and it needed a bit of work (which my parents funded & I've nearly finished paying them back for) but we couldn't look elsewhere at the price we got it for...

I'm not telling you to go out and sell it, figure out how much you need and when you need it by and go from there...

 

[drifter]

I built my own, I'd never have got a decent place round my way. I've now got a 2 bed detached bungalow out of the town, with a decent lump of garden front and back for a total mortgage of £100k. The place is now worth £200k

In total it cost me £120k with £20k from my savings. That paid £80k for the land and £40k to build and fit out. That was building it myself though, only trade was a plasterer

 

[S15_SAM]

Well I lived at home til I was 25, paying £100quid rent a month and had my fun with all the "free" money I had every month! But I wish I had saved up and got a deposit together, I was stupid not too!
By the time I left home I'd saved £2.5k, which wasn't alot considering all the time and money I had!
I moved into rented with my GF paying £650 a month rent and then it became impossible to save!

We lived like this for 2 years, in that time I got a loan out for 7k to buy my S15! And then I got extremely lucky, when my dear Great Aunty Dot died, my family inherited her belongings and with that my mum gave me a my sister house deposits.

So now I've bought a 1950's 3 bed terraced place with my fiancé, for £150,000. Bear in mind solicitors fee's were £1200 and mortgagae fees were £350, plus budget another 1000 for **** when it goes wrong! Like my front door lock broke just before we were going away on hols so that cost £175 for a new lock etc!

 

[Mike]

Interesting thread love reading other peoples stories and choices.

I'm currently saving, exactly like Sam was saying I've enjoyed myself alot! I'm 25 now and have owned a ep3, evo8, dc5 and now the silvia since i was 21 aswell as a minimum of 2 snowboard holiday a year(up to 4 the other year!) and normally a summer holiday. Up untill a few months ago had just treated income as disposable with minimal rent to folks, car care and a phone bill being by only out goings.

As Fruit was saying I want my silvia on my drive/in garage and have been pricing up what I can afford/want. Which around here limits the market down alot. But I think i might be able to get a 2 bed semi-detached, flat drive and garage for what i can afford. For now it just a case of saving a deposit and we're lucky really as have loads of work and on shifts with a premium so have been saving 1200-1400 a month so far depending if anything pops up for sale that i really really have to own. Aiming to save 20-25k over next year and a half-2 years as will probably be buying on my own since gf has only just finished uni and in no position to help. I've never really been the sort of person to have a plan but the only one i have in stone is 3k of what im saving is going on a hot tub!!

I've had a few questions to ask myself recently as a lad at work 2 years younger than me put down a 40k deposit on a bungalow last week, kind of makes me think if i didnt have hobbies or enjoy myself look what i could have

 

[Fruitbooter]

I really wish I was in a position to save more, I don’t know how some of you save so much!

I’m only on an average wage (22k a year) don’t get me wrong its decent compared to some and gives me a comfortable life atm however my silvia takes most of this up...£300 finance, £108 insurance, £160 petrol then stuff on top like last month £140.00 on tyres! Then after normal stuff like rent, food shopping and other bills doesnt leave me with a whole lot im able to save atm, especially when im going to Le Mans in 2 weeks followed by Turkey a few days after that!

Come September though car will be paid off so I will be in a position to save a lot more...It does make you think though the sort of money / other things you could buy if you didn’t have such a money grabbing car.

I did think about buying a cheaper house first and hoping for house prices to go up again but I don’t think it will ever be like it was years ago, so I think I will just be patient and save up more towards a house I really want.

The main thing for me is being strict with myself and making sure I save, time goes quick and this time next year I don’t want to be saying to myself 'god I wish I'd saved more'

 

[S15_SAM]

I would suggest wacking 150quid into your savings via direct debit the day after pay day, and atleast it's not in your normal account and therefore won't be so tempted to use it!

Then at the end of the month, if you have any money left, wack the left overs in too! That way it will slowly build up! After a few months you will have adjusted your life style and will be alot easier!

And yeah I dunno how some people's manage to save so much, I.e. Mike with 1400 quid saved a month?!?!? That's well impressive mate! RAF seem to pay well though and it's a great career, I wish id joined too!

 

[Mike]

Ive always been lucky enough to be able to pay things like insurance, tax ect outright. Get them out the way which helps. Aswell as my cars apart from my old *cough* mg... were bought outright so haven't owed on any of them. I agree with Sam a direct debit takes away the temptation of spending your pay, though I do find with Internet banking I'm dipping into it occasionally.

Dont work for the raf, but do similar work! Our unions have been good to us over the years with our pay and shift premiums. I volunteered for night shift before and over Xmas for 3 months. Soul destroying shifts but a 50% plus up on basic isnt to shabby.

Still find it so hard not to get tempted with things I want over things I need. I say this because a front pipe rocked up at the door this morning. Damn it!

 

[LuPix_S15]

My wife and I bought a house 10 years ago when we got married. We were lucky to have saved up for a nice fat deposit as I lived at home for a few years and so did she. Even better was the fact I wasn't really into cars until just before we got the house

Although I've always gone out a lot I don't drink vast amounts and I don't smoke so if you think how much you can save just on these two things it's surprising!

I've always lived by the belief that you have to look at all the small things if you want to save money (realistically and for long term). Look at your monthly expenditure... cut £8 here, £10 here, £15 here and before you know it saving just £50 a month amounts to £600 for the year. Sounds like I'm teaching to suck eggs but people don't consider the sum of small savings equates to something substantial. Cut monthly waste and by end of year you'll reap the benefits.

 

[JaseYpk]

Some interesting stories here! its quite nice how S15OC isnt just a car forum. Its got useful stuff on it like this. I'm hopefully buying myself a house next year, and am therefore saving as much as i can this year every month. (which sometimes isnt much at all as i'm also paying off a credit card..)
But i've got a neat advantage next year in that i'l complete another tour of Afghanistan and come back with 6/7 months unspent wages, and my tour bonus. which will provide a nice wedge towards a house deposit. Just cant decide where to buy one now! I'll have to see what the market is like next year..

Sounds like I'm teaching to suck eggs

No it doesn't. No one sucks eggs. But if you were trying to teach us how to, you did a bad job of it