I’ve said it before, but we don’t rent out of choice and it’s just so frustrating when you can’t quite make the property ladder. If only they took 10 years of rental payments as supporting evidence we’d be flying. I could have paid off a mortgage by now! We haven’t missed a single payment when it comes to our rent over the last ten years and we’ve paid an extortionate amount if I think about. (Let me just try and erase that figure form my mind because wow!)

To be honest, I thought we were almost there, but then, Covid 19 appeared. I was put on furlough and it felt like everyone went into security mode. Even now I think everyone has had to rely on reserves to get them through the last few months. People have lost jobs, had pay cuts and the economy has gone into meltdown. So not only are we worse of financially, but the banks are stretched to the max with everything from boring to default payments. So, it’s hard to know where we even stand now when it comes to a mortgage.

I read a Guardian article that house prices have soared this week and that you now need an approximate deposit of £33k. Thirty-Three thousand pounds. Who is supposed to get that kind of deposit when you don’t have parents to dish out funds and you’re trying to keep your head above water in the private rental market? It feels almost impossible. BUT, we’re not giving up! After checking out a mortgage calculator, we have an idea of what we need to work on.

Pay Back Debt

We don’t have much debt but we know by paying this back as soon as possible will free up more disposable income making us seem a safer option for mortgage repayments. Hopefully anyway.

Save Save Save

We’re saving as much as we can, but I know we can tighten our belts and that’s what I’m going to do. Once we’ve hit some of that debt, we’re going to work on boosting our savings as much as possible.

Sell Sell Sell

I have a tonne of clothes in the garage that need a new home as well as lots of old kids toys. If I can get these sold on eBay etc then that can all go towards the mortgage goal. Every little help and even if I just make a few pounds, it will clear out space and get the credit card lowered. Win-win situation really!

So, fingers crossed, this time next year we’re in a position where we can get excepted for a mortgage. It’s a really frustrating time, but it’s just one of those things. We’ll work hard, as always and update in 12 month’s time. Fingers and toes crossed!