Twenty-nine-year-old Adam and 27-year-old Laura, who lived with their parents until recently, saved on a number of little things to buy their own $538,000 newly built house last June.
Adam is a top headhunter while Laura works for the human resource department of a company.
They’ve proved that you don’t have to bring drastic changes to your life to be able to buy a nice house – it is the small things that matter.
Just by starting to cook their own food at home rather than dining out, they were able to save $100 a week, and they wisely put that money into savings.
To avoid overspending, the couple set up $3,250 direct debits on their account so that the money went straight to savings on the payday.
Moreover, they started staying at their friends’ instead of nights out to help cut lodging costs down.
Adam and Laura have been dating for the last six years but had not yet moved in. They lived 20 miles apart. Adam lived with his mother in Basingstoke and Laura lived with her parents in Wokingham.
“We would have struggled to save so much had we been renting somewhere,” Adam told The Sun. “For us, it was the little things that we changed that ended up adding up.”
By doing all that, Adam and Laura successfully saved a sum of $91,000 to pay the 15 per cent down payment, taxes, and fees for their new home in late 2018.
Speaking of the terms of the mortgage, Adam said: “We’ve got a two-year fixed-rate deal with Nationwide for 1.74 per cent, which is quite low.
“It was a nice surprise because we’d been prepared to be told we had to pay a higher rate because I’m a subcontractor on a day rate.
“We also thought that this might have an effect on how much we could borrow.
“I had to provide several months worth of wage slips and a letter of employment but in the end we were actually offered more than we needed to borrow.
“It meant that we didn’t need as big as a deposit but we decided to take out the smaller mortgage so our monthly repayments were less and our lifestyles didn’t have to change much.
He added: “Laura has always been a saver – she’s has been saving since her first job at age 17 when she did a business administration apprenticeship.
“It is something which her family instilled in her. If you want things you need to save for them. It encouraged me to save too.
“We’ve been together for five years and spent two years saving to go traveling.
“When we got back, we decided to save for a house. Laura had some savings left over and we are fortunate to earn good money so we didn’t have to change our lifestyle too much.”
Describing their new house, Adam said: “It is a three bedroom semi-detached new build house in a Redrow development.
“The layout works well for entertaining. There is a living room at the front and at the back a kitchen-diner with patio doors into the garden, which is turfed. There’s also a shed.
“We had a joint party to celebrate moving in and Laura’s birthday with about 30 people.
“The space worked really well as we can shut off the rest of the house and have a party at the back in the kitchen and garden.
“We got a great upgrade through negotiations with Redrow, which included a fridge freezer, dishwasher, oven and hob and upgraded cupboards and worktops. We only had to buy a washing machine.
“Upstairs we have two double bedrooms and a single. This means we can have a guest room and Laura also has her own dressing room.”
Replaced!