How having a baby helped us save £20k deposit for £180k four-bed house

HAVING a newborn will send most household finances soaring but for Shona Hornby and her partner Nick Trutwein becoming parents actually kick started their saving for a house.

As soon as baby Heidi came along in 2012, the couple became "really boring" cutting back on going out and moved house for cheaper rent.

But it meant that in just over a year, the couple, who are both 32, managed to save £20,000 - enough for a house deposit and to cover moving costs.

Nearly five years on, the now family-of-four still live in their four-bed house in Kelbrook which they bought for £180,000.

But it wasn't easy giving up their much loved home in Skipton to live in a smaller village so they could cut rent costs by £155 a month, which went straight into savings.

Nick, who's an aerospace radiographer, also sold his car saving them another £100 a month to help them towards their goal of putting aside £600 to £700 a every month.

Being a 15 minute drive away from town to go shopping and without parking, the their new house was less than ideal for a new mum, but the parents knew it was only temporary, a stepping stone to getting on the property ladder.

We caught up with Shona, who works in the digital team at a bank, for this week's instalment of My First Home.

What's your place like?

We've got a middle terrace house in a cul-de-sac where there are three rows of five houses, and we're in the middle of one of those rows.

It was built in 2009 so it's fairly new but we're not the first ones to live in it.

It's got a downstairs toilet, an open kitchen and living room as well as a private garden.

There are three bedrooms, one has an en suite and the main bathroom is on the third floor.

Let's talk money. How much did you buy it for?

We bought our home in October 2014 so just over four years ago now for £180,000, with a 10 per cent deposit.

It's a leasehold property because it's on a private road, which costs us £120 a year - that goes towards cutting the grass and getting the pavements fixed.

Because we bought before the tax relief, we had to pay stamp duty which came to around £1,700 plus another £300 for legal fees.

We really did have to take into account the extra costs because we could have got a way bigger mortgage but we decided not to because we still wanted some cash to spend every month.

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That's when we really started saving - it would have been impossible for us to do it without paying cheaper rent.

It was hard moving away to somewhere a bit more out in the sticks but we had to do it if we ever wanted to stand a chance at becoming homeowners.

I struggled with where we were living to be honest.

It was on street parking which meant that I would always end up parking miles away from the house - less than ideal when you have a newborn.

The house was also a converted corner shop and people would park on the pavement right outside the door so that I couldn't get the buggy in.

It definitely was not my dream home, and I missed Skipton, but it was worth it now that we've got our own house.

I was also breastfeeding and Heidi was a challenging baby which didn't make me want to go out much.

We saved the same amount every month which was between £600 and £700 minimum, sometimes tucking away extra when we had it.

We sold one of our cars - a Vauxhall Corsa for £1,500 - which we put into savings but also we saved another £100 a month by not having to pay for running costs, like insurance and tax.

I also finished off paying finance payments on my ford fiesta which saved us another £150 a month.

It was a challenge but we knew it was temporary and we really wanted to get a mortgage.

Did having a baby change where you wanted to live?

Originally, we wanted to stay in Skipton where we could walk into town and there is a bit more going on but we were sort of forced out by the rent prices when we started saving.

To be honest, those years of renting taught us what we really prioritised.

We realised that a driveway was an absolute must - I was so fed up of people parking right outside my front door.

We had a yard which made us realise that we wanted a garden and we realised that we weren't bothered about living in Skipton so we picked somewhere that was about 15minutes drive away which mean our money could go further.

Having had a baby, schools were also really important too us.

I wasn't bothered about being close to a school with a great Ofsted rating because Heidi wasn't going to start school for another few years and anything could change during that time.

I wanted somewhere with choice and there are about six primary schools around here.

I would say we were looking for about three months. We set up a RightMove alert and we looked at six properties in total.

We weren't actually going to even bother viewing the house we bought in the end because we weren't that impressed with the listing but it turns out you should always bother looking!

What was it like finally getting the keys?

It was all so exciting when we finally completed - we wanted to sleep here on the first day but we couldn't because we didn't have any of our stuff here.

We gave a month's notice on the rent and got our deposit back which helped with some of the moving costs.

By the time we moved, Heidi was two years old and I'll be honest, I didn't do too much.

My dad and brother in law helped us out with the big pieces of furniture, which we already had from when we rented.

Did you have any problems?

There were a few issues actually which we didn't find out about until after we'd made an offer and it had been accepted.

Apparently there were problems with the drainage system in the close a few years ago but the builders had gone bust so the council had to pay to get it fixed.

That meant that each property owed the council £900 and we weren't prepared to take on the debt.

We couldn't technically buy it until it had been paid off and the previous owners were disputing the bill which held us up a bit.

In the end, they paid it because they just wanted to move.

What's next for the future?

I think we'll stay here for a while - we've just tied into another five-year fixed-rate mortgage deal.

We love the area and the house is beautiful but in the future, we would like some more downstairs space and a garage.

We're not actively looking but if something came up that fit the bill we wouldn't rule out moving either.

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