I bought my first home over a year ago with my long-term partner, aged 23, and it is true what they say about it being one of the most stressful things you will do in your life.
Not only was it the largest amount of money I had ever spent thus far, chasing solicitors, buying furniture and sorting the menial things like making sure you have Wi-Fi while also working full-time became a daunting task.
After moving in, there was a sense of elation and a feeling of, ‘We’ve done it!’ But you soon come to realise your home is like a money pit and the sizeable deposit you put down was just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s what I have learnt in the past year since moving in to our home.
An emergency fund is key
Do not underestimate the importance of having an emergency fund.
As a money journalist, I have heard this regularly but I now understand why having a financial buffer is so important.
Since moving in, multiple unexpected costs have cropped up including a leaky gutter, a loose roof tile and my washing machine packing it in. Like everything these days, getting these things fixed was not cheap.
Having an emergency fund I could dip into prevented me having to pay for these replacements and repairs with my monthly pay cheque – which would have undoubtedly put me under some financial pressure.
So, when you are saving for your first home, make sure you are also saving into an emergency fund – as a rule of thumb, whatever the amount I was putting towards a house deposit, I matched that contribution for my buffer.
By the time I came to buy my home I was putting in £500 a month.
Not everything has to be sorted at once
Another thing I quickly learned once becoming a homeowner is you want everything to be “perfect” from day one.
Whether that be a perfectly decorated interior, new blinds or a fully landscaped garden – the list becomes endless and the cost mounts.
I got caught up in the idea that I needed to have everything exactly how I wanted it within the first three months of living there but having that mentality can quickly bankrupt you.
I instead started with the small stuff and allowed myself to address one thing each month. This included putting some new shelves up or painting the hallway – things I could afford to do in the short term without devastating my savings.
The bigger things take time. My partner and I wanted our garden redone and last year got some quotes, but it was going to cost us thousands of pounds.
Our finances had already taken a big hit from buying the house in the first place so we waited an entire year before we went ahead with the garden project and I am glad that we did.
Those 12 months gave us time to save some extra money so that when we inevitably dipped into our savings, we had already created a buffer to replenish our emergency funds.
Multiple quotes are important
If you do decide to take on big projects in your property that require professional work, always get multiple quotes.
It is a good way to gauge whether what you are being charged is the average market price or whether someone is seriously overshooting it. Don’t be afraid to ask for a breakdown of the cost – it is your hard-earned cash and you want to ensure it is being put to good use.
Having a shopping list will help you save
When it comes to the practical day-to-day spending, one thing I have learned is if you want to stick to budget you need to write a shopping list and to do your food shop in-store.
I have gone into the supermarket on occasion without a list and it becomes all too easy to overspend.
Similarly, shopping online almost feels like a novelty and adding things to your basket with a few simple clicks means your shopping basket could end up being nearly double your budget.
We stick to a budget of between £50 to £60 a week and we do that by strictly sticking to the list. We map out all our meals for the week and the ingredients we will need, and we don’t stray from it.
Spend on things that make your life easier
Although you may want to save as much money as you possibly can, do not scrimp on things that will make your life easier.
I wish when we moved we had hired professional movers – at the time I thought I was saving myself a few hundred pounds but in hindsight if I had movers helping me that day it would have stopped me from having about five breakdowns and also made the process quicker.
There are somethings you just can’t put a price on, like your mental wellbeing and happiness, so if you can afford it and it will make your life easier, do it!
What I could have done differently
One thing I could have done differently was paid to have a survey done on the house before buying it.
An expert inspection of a property’s condition, a survey identifies problems to prospective homeowners and can cost around £500 or even more.
Instead of doing this, my partner’s dad brought over professionals who worked in the trades to inspect the house – they looked at all the electrics, plumbing and general structure of the house and found no major issues. There were small things we were able to rectify ourselves once we moved in.
Although no big issues have arisen from not having a survey done there is a constant worry in the back of my mind that a problem could crop up with the house that could have been caught in the survey had we done one.
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