There is no getting around the fact that buying a house and saving the money you need for a deposit is hard work. It can take a long time and requires a lot of discipline. So here are my tips to help keep you motivated during the long hard slog of money saving.

1. Make yourself a progress chart. You know like the ones people make when they’re raising money for charity. Each month when you get paid and you’ve transferred money to your savings, colour in another square. It can really help to actually watch yourself get closer and closer to your target. Make it pretty, make it colourful and it keep it somewhere obvious so that you can use it to motivate yourself. I’m an extremely visual person and I needed constant reminding that my hard work was paying off. When it’s just numbers in a savings account it can hard to realise that you’re steadily making any progress at all when actually each month you chip away at your total a bit more.

2. Reward yourself every time you hit a milestone. Reached 20% of your target? Go to the cinema! Reached 25%? Time for a nice dinner to celebrate! Being strict with yourself when you’re saving is really hard and requires a lot of self control. It’s far easier to stop yourself splurging if you reward your hard work with a treat. In the mean time you can plan and look forward to your next treat ready for when you hit your next goal. The one thing I found really hard to cut back on was going out for dinner so by using this to reward myself it meant I always had something fun coming up.

3. It always helps to keep the end goal in mind. Fancy a cheeky ASOS order? Work out how much it will set you back in your savings goal and then decide if it’s worth it. By actually doing the maths and factoring in how your impulse splurges will affect your overall goal it becomes easier to remind yourself it's just a top that you don't really need. Keep in mind that fashion comes and goes but you will be glad everyday when you come home to your house that you put in the hard work instead of buying an outfit you wore three times.

4. When we were in the last final struggle of buying our house my Nan went and bought us lots of little useful things ready for when we got the keys. I remember holding the rolling pin she bought me and having a really strong image of myself stood at the kitchen counter, in a house that was now mine, rolling out pastry. There was a huge amount of pride and contentment wrapped up in the little flash of the future I had dreamt up. It represented us triumphing and finally getting what we had worked so hard for and a glimpse of what it would be like to be living our own grown up life together. The emotion that it conjured up was so strong I felt like crying every time I thought about it for weeks after. I know it sounds silly but I focused on that strength of feeling when it seemed like it would all fall through and I just wanted to give up. Psychologists call this visualisation and it can really help with working towards your goals. Picture yourself being handed the keys to your own house that you bought with your own hard work.

5. It can always help if you can talk to other people going through the same thing. It can be harder to stay disciplined when you’re watching all of your friends blow their money on exciting nights out and holidays and you’re sat at home being boring. Not only can you feel cut off and isolated but you’re friends will probably find it hard to understand why it’s so important to you to save for your deposit. Reach out to other people going through the same thing (either in real life or online) so that you can chat to people who are struggling with the same things you are. When I was saving to buy a house a lot of my friends were either still in education, unemployed or were of the opinion that it was impossible for anyone our age to buy their own house. I desperately wanted to find my own tribe of people who wanted to try and do it by themselves and sadly I couldn't find any so I just got through it on my own. Since buying our house I have discovered lots of other people online who are also buying their own house who I wish I had found months ago, so reach out!

6. Spend more time with close friends and family who can offer support and help to boost your morale. There will be times when you are feeling low about saving so much money and it can feel like an impossible task. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and can lift your spirits.

7. Try to build in regular fun things on the cheap and plan your budget accordingly. It’s important to strike the balance between planning ahead for the future while also living for the here and now. Fun things don’t always have to mean expensive and saving for a deposit does not mean you have to live in purgatory. In fact dreaming up ways of enjoying yourself on a budget can be a fun task in itself and by being more creative it can help you discover new and exciting things.

8. It can take a long time to save for a deposit and I felt impossibly restless during the time. I was aware of months passing me by and I felt no closer to achieving my dream (despite inching a little closer each month but it’s hard to have that level of perspective when you’re living through it). In order to try and use the time productively I researched every aspect of buying a house I could think of. I learnt a huge amount about the legal processes because I decided knowledge was power.  I wanted to know and understand what the professionals were telling me rather than just blindly trusting their opinion because not everyone is great at their job! It also felt like something useful to do in the meantime while we were saving and it certainly came in useful when we actually came to buy our house. The fact I was prepared to call people out when they were wrong was one of the reasons that we ultimately ended up successfully buying our house. Turned out to have been time well spent in the end.So if you're feeling like you're not getting anywhere use the time to become an expert in house buying, it will definitely be time well spent. 

First time buyer blog post series

1. We bought our first house
2. Our house buying story
3. The guide to saving for a house deposit

The guide to saving for a house deposit

Housing is currently the hot topic on everyone lips. The Autumn Budget 2017 was pretty focused on it and you only have to step onto twitter to see young people talk about it quite a lot.

Mostly they’re tweeting sarcastic remarks about how they can’t afford a house because apparently they spend too much on avocado on toast, rather than because house prices are out of proportion with wages.

The problems facing our housing market our numerous and complex and this post isn’t really the place to get into it. But I do think there is more to the avocado on toast argument than many young people may think.

Sadly it isn’t as simple as just give up avocado on toast for the rest of your life and you’ll magically have enough money for a house (perhaps you don't even like avocado). To take that from the article is a gross oversimplification.

It’s more about giving up the avocado on toast lifestyle.

Plenty of people will now immediately close my blog and shake their head about ‘baby boomers who don’t understand anything’. Except I’m no boomer, I’m a fellow millennial. But crucially I’m a home owning millennial without the bank of Mum and Dad.  

There is no magical secret to how I managed it. The harsh truth is that if you want to save enough money for a house in this current day and age you have to give up the ‘have it all lifestyle’. 

You know the one I mean. 

The brunch at a fancy café on a Sunday, cocktails on a Thursday night, jetting off on holiday to exotic places, drinking Starbucks on the regular and the constant ‘treat yo’self’ mentality.

We just love to make other people think we spend all of our days casually brunching with friends, buying designer items and always going off on our newest long haul adventure. 

In reality most of us are working the day job and living this life in our spare time and by the time pay day rolls round we’ve convinced ourselves that we deserve a treat just for getting through the week.

If we’re honest a lot of the time, we live this life to look cool for the ‘gram and the rest of the time I think we do it because we think that’s what we *should* be spending our money on.

I recently saw a tweet where someone was saying how happy they were to have reached their saving goal to buy a MacBook Air in three months. I couldn’t believe how many replies the tweet had. Barely a single tweet was congratulating them on their achievement, but instead demanding to know just how did they do it?

If we take it right back to basics there are pretty much four ways to get more money:

• Steal it
• Earn it
• Invest it
• Get given it

Stealing it is hardly an option, if you were able to ask someone to give it to you then you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog post, you probably aren't working with a timescale long enough to think about investing it and like most young people you’re probably struggling to earn more money than you already get.

So if the above is true then we all know the answer is simple really. 

In order to save more money you have to spend less than you earn.

This was exactly the answer the person gave to everyone demanding to know where she magically got the money for a new MacBook Air from. It didn’t just appear in her bank account, she spent less than she earned and saved the rest.

But we don’t like to hear that you have to spend less than you earn. 

Why? Because it’s hard. 

Instead, we like to convince ourselves that there is some magical formula or skill that you have to have in order to save money and for a lot of people it seems to become their excuse as to why they don’t save any money. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the issues surrounding stagnant wages and the increasing cost of living. It definitely effects me too. For a lot of us most of our salary just goes on keeping a roof over our head and the bills paid. But I don't think that means you should give up if you really want to own your own home because it can be done if you make it your single minded goal.

In many ways, saving money is rather like losing weight. In order to shed some pounds you have to burn off more calories than you eat. There is no magical diet or exercise regime that can work around this irrefutable fact of physics. 

But that doesn’t stop a multi billion pound industry trying to convince you otherwise. Or thousands of people with endless excuses about their metabolism or being built that way. Aside from rare cases of actual medical conditions, for the vast majority of people, if you eat less food than you burn in a day, over time you will lose weight. 

But just like saving money, people want a cheat method to get to the end goal. Sadly one doesn’t yet exist for either example.

This might not be the truth you want to hear but if you really want to own your own house, you have to close your ears to all the noise. 

You have to stop listening to people who complain to you about how easy it was for your Grandparents to buy a house and how things aren’t fair because none of that will help you.

The world doesn’t function on fair, and if you wait for it to be fair you could be waiting forever until you own your own home. Whether we like it or not buying a house is harder than it used to be so you have to learn to save as effectively as you can in the meantime. 

That means making sacrifices. Depending on how you like to spend your money those sacrifices may have to include avocado on toast. 

1. Know how much you need to borrow

This might sound counter productive, but in order to know how much you need to save for a deposit you first need to know how much money you can borrow for a mortgage. A good place to start is by using an online mortgage calculator which will calculate how much you can borrow. 

Or you can call a mortgage broker and ask them to talk you through what you can afford. 

I used London & Country and found them to be exceptionally helpful. The best part is they don’t charge a fee.

By knowing how much you can borrow you can get a better idea of what your overall house buying budget is. It’s no good thinking you can buy a £400,000 house when the most a mortgage lender will let you borrow is £200,000.

     2. Work out how much you need for a deposit

Now you know how much you can borrow, you can work out what you’ll need for a deposit. So for example, if you know you can borrow £180,000 and you want to buy a £200,000 house you’ll need to save the remainder of £20,000.

This is enough for a 10% deposit. The larger the deposit in relation to the amount you want to borrow (called the Loan to Value Ratio or LVR) the better the mortgage deal you can get. So it pays to save as big a deposit as you can.

There are mortgages available for those with a 5% deposit but these will charge more interest than those available for a 10% deposit. 

3. Add in the extras to get to your overall savings goal

When saving to buy a house, it isn’t just about the deposit. There are other additional costs to think about such as solicitors fees, mortgage fees, surveys, removal costs, stamp duty etc.

Thanks to recent changes in stamp duty you probably won't have to pay this now, but it’s worth checking if you need to budget for it, particularly if you live somewhere pricey like London. There are lots of good online calculators.

Do your research on other home moving costs, but to give you a rough idea we paid £1,300 in solicitors fees, £550 for a HomeBuyers report and £350 in mortgage fees.

Add this amount to your deposit money and that should give you your total savings goal.

     4. Work out what you’re prepared to sacrifice

This is where we come back to avocado on toast. What are you prepared to give up in order to save for a house? As we've already established that money needs to come from somewhere. 

You probably wouldn't be reading this if you had lots of disposable income so some aspects of your lifestyle will need to be reduced.

The easy ones are things like the gym membership you never use but what about the things you rightly reckon that you deserve because you work hard?

Can you give up holidays? Nights out? Quit smoking? Takeaways? Eating out? Shopping?

Do you want your own house more than you want the extras in life? Only you know the answer to that. But if you’re serious about buying your first house in the not too distant future then virtually all unnecessary spending has to stop or it will take you a VERY long time to save up.

If we’re being honest we know we waste chunks of our money on the little things. Magazines, picking up a chocolate bar when we pay for our fuel, buying sandwiches because we’re too lazy to make them.

This article has got lots of excellent advice about the small things we pretty much throw money away on and how giving it up can actually help you buy a house. 

Those little things like buying sandwiches at work can work out at thousands of pounds a year, so you may be able to claw back a fair chunk of money without too much sacrifice in some areas.

     5. Cut your living costs if you possibly can

Everyone’s situation is different so it’s almost impossible to write something that will cover everyone. But for most people their living costs take up a large proportion of their income so any saving you can make here means more money to stash away.

The most painless way to do this is to make sure you’re paying as little as possible for all utilities.

But if you can make savings on keeping a roof over your head you’re likely to make more of a difference. Ideas to consider are:

-Moving in with friends or family who are kind enough to let you pay a reduced rate.

-Sharing a flat or house if you currently live alone.

-Depending on your circumstances taking in a lodger.

-Moving in with your partner.

-Relocating to a cheaper area.

I moved back in with my parents and while I still paid them rent, it gave me the extra cash to save each month.

Obviously not everyone has these options open to them but it is worth taking a think about how you could cut back on what is probably your biggest monthly expenditure. 

     6. Look for extra ways to boost your income

The small extras you can make on the side can really add up over time.

Could you work an extra job in your spare time or do some overtime? Perhaps do some odd jobs for friends and family for a little bit of extra cash? Using cashback sites can also help to boost your income.

Selling some of your old stuff on eBay, Facebook, Gumtree or a good old fashioned car boot sale is worth trying too.

None of these are likely to make you rich. But they might give you enough for a few nice things to help keep you going while you save. 

7. Make your savings plan and stick to it

Once you have trimmed all the unnecessary spending and cut as many costs as you can you will be able to work out how much you can afford to save per month.

Whatever that figure is, you must start to see that savings goal as being non negotiable. You wouldn't accidentally spend your rent money on non essentials and your savings need to become just another outgoing in your mind.

Set up a standing order to transfer the money as soon as you get paid. This is absolutely essential. It's no use trying to be good all month and then saving whatever is left. You will just spend it (trust me, I've tried, it doesn't work).

It is also a good idea to transfer the money to an account that you can't see every time you do your regular banking. Obviously the money needs to be accessible but having it out of sight, out of mind can really help the urge to spend it all on a two week trip to Barbados. 

You can use an online calculator to help you work out how much you either how long it will take you to save the required amount or how much you need to save per month to hit a certain target date.

Use this info to make yourself a progress chart like the ones people use for raising money for charity and tick it off each month when you add more money to your savings. Doing this might sound silly, but it can really help with motivation. When you feel low, take a look at how far you've come.   

      8. The importance of staying disciplined

I recently saw another person tweeting about buying the new Naked Heat palette on the sly, because if their mum found out they would lecture them about how they’re supposed to be saving for a deposit. This person was claiming that one make up palette isn’t going to make any different to the thousands of pounds they need to buy a house.

They’re correct in some ways. £38 probably won’t make much difference providing this splurge is a one off. But if you justify this kind of purchase with this excuse a lot then you will have lots of clothes and make up, but no house to put it in.

It took Jared and I a year to save for our deposit. During that time I bought one new dress (yes that’s right, just ONE) and no new make up. We didn’t go on trips, we didn’t go out, we didn’t go on dates, we didn’t go to the cinema. We stopped all of it and only did them on very special occasions in order to keep us motivated. 

I'm not saying this to make you feel bad for treating yourself, just to remind you that you can do without things and that you always have to ask yourself, do I want this more than I want a house?

If you can afford a treat without compromising your savings plan then by all means go ahead. But ask yourself, if you can regularly afford to treat yourself to expensive things then would that money be better used if it was helping you reach your goal quicker?

Bear in mind that £100 of treating yourself a month adds up to £1,200 a year. Although not a life changing amount of money it would probably make a reasonable difference to your house deposit. 

The more disciplined you are in the short term, the quicker you will reach your goal. 

9. Staying motivated

This may sound like I'm contradicting myself from my previous point but it is important to build in rewards to keep yourself motivated. 

Otherwise it just becomes an endless monotony of working and saving.

I found the best way to do this was to plan fun things for when you reach certain saving targets. This way you encourage yourself to keep going and you look forward to hitting your next goal.

It can also help to set yourself a dedicated part of your budget for 'fun spending' even if the amount is small. We all enjoy the little things and denying yourself everything makes life no fun at all. 

Chances are you will be saving for some time so try to keep a good balance is important. 

There is a world of difference between frittering your money away on consuming things you don't really need (while complaining that you don't have enough to buy a house) and deciding how much is reasonable to spend on fun things without compromising your savings plan. 

10. Get as much help as you can

While it might seem small there is help out there for first time buyers. It won't give you enough to have a deposit overnight but you should take ALL the help you can get. 

There are two main ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) for first time buyers. 

The first is the Help to Buy ISA and the second is the newer Lifetime ISA. 

The government will give you extra money on top of your savings (up to £1,000 a year for the Lifetime ISA at the time of writing) so it is well worth doing.

This is particularly true if you are saving as part of a couple as ISAs are individual products (the clue is in the name) so you can both have one if you are both first time buyers. This means a potential £2,000 a year between you from the government is available. 

There are pros and cons to each different ISA and you should look into which one is right for you. This guide might help you. 

In conclusion, it is 100% possible to buy a house as a young person in the UK in 2018. More and more of my friends are managing this feat (without help from family) so it can be done. It takes time and effort to save but it is worth it in the end when you get the keys to your first house. 

First Time Buyer blog post series

1.  We bought our first house
2. Our house buying story

Spend vs Save: Tata Harper or Burt's Bees Cleansing Oil

How you choose to spend your money is such a personal thing, some people love their designer clothes, others like to spend their money on exotic travel.

For me I have always liked spending my money on my make up and skin care. Fashions change but well looked after skin never goes out of style. 

I like my skincare expensive and high end but like most of us this isn't something I can afford all the time. Instead I compromise and mix in lower end products with my more expensive ones.

Whilst I 100% agree with Caroline Hirons that there is no such thing as a dupe in skincare (you often get what you pay for in terms of research and ingredients) that doesn't mean that there aren't great products to be found at the more affordable level. This is more true of some brands than others.

When we started saving to buy our house I had to cut all unnecessary spending and that my meant I couldn't afford to replace some of my high end favourites when they ran out.

I started trying more affordable alternatives and have found some excellent products that I had never tried before, including this wonderful Burt's Bees oil.

Starting off with the more expensive of the two though:

Tata Harpers Nourishing Oil Cleanser - £68.00

There's no getting away from the fact the price tag for this is eye watering. So much so I'm not sure I will ever be able to replace it when it runs out.

This cleansing oil though is beautiful and it smells divine and I like to imagine I am at an expensive spa. I feel so calm and relaxed when I use this (which admittedly is sparingly because it's so expensive). It leaves skin incredibly soft and clean.

I use this morning or evening but I have to admit I have only ever used this as a second cleanse. 

While I am sure this would effortlessly remove make up I do not want to waste it on that and prefer to use other (cheaper) products for that task. 

It is very gentle and I imagine it would work well for almost everyone. 

I save this oil for when I need a mood lift or my skin is in need of rescuing and luckily a little goes a long way!

Burt's Bees Facial Cleansing Oil - £16.99

The Burt's Bees cleaning oil is significantly more affordable than the Tata Harper version and as a result I use it far more often.

I have used this product to remove make up and it takes even waterproof eye make up off effortlessly. It's also wonderful in the morning or as a second cleanse.

Like the Tata Harper oil this leaves skin soft and is incredibly gentle. Because its an oil you do not get the uncomfortable 'tight' feeling that other cleansers can cause.  

You only need two to three pumps of this to remove a whole face of make up so it lasts a long time.

Despite it's cheaper price tag this still smells and feels lovely (although not quite as lovely as the Tata Harper one). 

The Burt's Bees oil is definitely more of the workhorse in my collection and I have recommended it to several people.

Although it isn't exactly cheap at £17 it is frequently on offer and is far easier to get hold of than the Tata Harper oil.

Overall verdict?

Although I adore the Tata Harper oil I'm not sure that it's cost can be justified when the Burt's Bees version performs as well and costs a fraction of the price. 

If you have the budget then definitely treat yourself to the Tata Harper oil as it is wonderful but for the rest of us the Burt's Bees one does the same job and is much kinder to your wallet. 

Have you ever tried either of these? Or do you have an even cheaper alternative than the Burt's Bees version? Let me know in the comments!

2018 Goals

As I mentioned in my previous post, 2017 has been an amazing year and I've achieved so much more than I thought I could when I made my 2017 goals.

I didn't manage all of them, but some of them I smashed out of the park so that makes up for it ;)

Money Goals

1. Replenish our savings

As I'm sure you can imagine buying our house has taken its toll on our savings so this year I want to try and help them recover a bit so we have a more adequate rainy day fund. 

2. Repay Kiera

My sister very kindly lent me some money to buy my new carriage when I had none. I have paid her back more than half now but this year I want the debt to be finally wiped out. 

3. Save enough for some sort of mini break

We might manage this or we might not as we have other priorities for our money but it would be good if we could manage a weekend away somewhere this year. 

Travel

4. Visit Rome

This was actually one of my 2016 goals and this year we are definitely making it happen because it's all already booked! 

Jared and I are going to Rome in late April for our five year anniversary. 

I've always wanted to go back and explore more and I'm really excited about it. Jared's Mum very kindly bought me a guide book for Christmas so looking forward to putting that to good use.

5.  Visit more local attractions on our doorstep

We made a good start on this in 2017 but there are lots more places to see in the immediate area that we live in. I want to make an effort to visit these before we head further afield. 

Development

6. Pass my first financial exam

This is a big one for me this year as I am back to studying. I am officially a student again and have a NUS card to prove it. 

I am sitting my first CII qualification and have started studying for the first module. I am aiming to pass this as soon as possible so hopefully I can get back to studying in the New Year.

Blogging

7. Sort out my domain name

I have actually owned the domain name for this blog for years but because I'm not very good with computers I haven't managed to successfully set it up.

This year I want to get this sorted as I think it will make my blog a little nicer, plus I am currently paying for something I'm not using which is daft.

8. Create some categories

I want to change the layout of my blog a little and make it easier to navigate. As I'm not the most tech savvy person in the world I'm not sure if I'll be able to manage this but I want to give it a go!

Home and Lifestyle

9. Spruce up the outside of the house

Now that we have redecorated the inside of our house, I want to give a bit of attention to the exterior. 

Our windows and fascias need repainting and I'd like to improve the garden a bit.

I've thought of a few small and easily achievable ideas that I'd like to try, more on that at a later date!

10. Grow more stuff

I've always loved growing things and I spend many happy hours in the garden with my mum and grandmothers as a child. 

As I've got older I always try and grow something at home, but I'm always a bit half hearted with it. 

Now that Jared and I have our own house I want to try and grow a few new things I haven't tried before. Thanks to Cider With Rosie for sharing her veg growing excitement and inspiring me to continue with my old lady hobbies ;)

Top 3 Budget Face Masks

Can you even call yourself a blogger if you don't love a good face mask? Life is all about enjoying the little things and there are few things more relaxing than a mini weekend pamper at home on a Saturday morning. 

Saving to buy a house has meant that I've been really watching my money for the last 18 months or so, which has meant I can't really afford to indulge my love of high end skin care. 

Luckily these three are actually my favourite face masks that I reach for over all of my others and they're all very affordable too!

1. Quick Fix Facials Purifying Charcoal Mask - £5.29

This is described as being for congested and lifeless skin and I think that is a very fair description. It is definitely the one I reach for when my skin is playing up as it does exactly what it says. This is a charcoal mask so comes out a very dark colour so I find it is best to remove it with a dark flannel or it can make your white ones look a little grey. It also has a pleasant tingling sensation when its on so you can actually feel it doing something. I can sometimes find charcoal masks to be too drying but this one leaves my skin feeling soft, without that uncomfortable tight feeling. 

This range is super affordable too and there is a mask for every skin concern. However, if you have combination skin like myself and sometimes have a break out you should definitely try this one!

2. Good Things Manuka Honey Radiance Mask - £5.99

I bought this after seeing Jasmine Talks Beauty rave about it in a post and I am so glad I did. This is a super soft clay mask with ingredients that include honey (obviously), beeswax and various fruit extracts such as papaya. The result is skin that looks brand new after use. This is actually my favourite mask out of the three and although I haven't had it as long I've used quite a bit of it! It really does improve the radiance of your skin which can be something I struggle with. This product smells like honey as well which is another part of it that I love.

I now really want to try other things from this range so if you have any recommendations, let me know!

3. L'Oreal Pure Clay Glow Mask - £7.99

Everyone and their dog has been raving about these masks and I picked this one up in Tesco when they were on offer.This one is slightly different to the other masks in that it contains a physical exfoliant so it is a mask that is combined with a scrub.

The red algae and three clays it contains are meant to help with brightening and they definitely do. I apply this in a thin layer and leave it to sit for 5 minutes before massaging it into the skin to make use of the scrub action and then rinsing away. For the price, this product certainly feels and smells like a far more expensive product. It has a gentle, almost spa like scent to it which I really like. The packaging is fantastic, with a solid glass pot that means you can get every last bit of the product out. It also looks great on my bathroom shelf! The quality of the product itself is lovely and it has a really smooth, creamy texture. 

I think I'll be looking to try more from this range!

The best part is all of these masks are under £10 so they are an affordable way to treat yourself! Do you have any bargain skin care favourites? Let me know in the comments as I'm always looking for good quality skincare that won't break the bank!