It's all fun and games when you're buying china cups and saucers for your future house and picking out the perfect coloured Smeg fridge. But all that's no good if you haven't actually got the two pennies to rub together for a house deposit. As many people my age, I'm currently on the long journey to try and scrap together £30k to buy my own house. But with houses prices constantly on the up, I really haven't got too long. So I've got a few tricks and tips to help make the process a little easier.
Start a money diary
It can be so easy to spend money and before you know, it's the end of the month and you only have £2.31 left in your bank account and nothing to show for. Keep track of everything you spend from that random splurge in Topshop to the cheeky three bottles of diet coke. This will help you re-evaulate your spending habits and work out how much you can comfortably save a month and still have a semi-decent social life.
Set up a direct debit for the day you get paid
If you're anything like me, you live like a King the first week of your pay-packet and then have to survive like a pauper for the remaining three weeks. I set a direct debit to come out of my bank account the day I get paid for my savings account. This way I hardly know it's gone missing as it's like it was never really there.
Get a credit check
Before you get accepted for the elusive mortgage you have to undergo a credit check. You can find out more here. This will help give your credit history a score rating and will help you know exactly what you need to change or carry on doing. Once this is completed, house buying starts to get a lot more serious. Make sure you keep paying off those monthly credit card bills and make late payments a thing of the past. No point saving all that money if the bank is going to reject you anyway. Get your affairs in order!
Learn to make sacrifices
In an ideal world I'd have numerous Mulberry handbags, monthly trips to the Caribbean, a North London townhouse and a wardrobe full of Christian Louboutin shoes. But alas on my wages, it ain't ever going to happen. So you need to decide what you want the most and what you can still afford to do despite putting away a huge chunk of your money. For me it's travel - you can tell by my Pinterest board! I'm not really prepared to compromise on that aspect. So I've cut back on the amount of new clothes I buy so I can put more money towards seeing the world. That way the house deposit fund doesn't have to suffer.
Do you have any words of wisdom to offer?
