Saving for a Bigger Home
21st January 2021
Alternative living options – Saving for a home
For many of us it can be a struggle to save for a home, never mind a bigger one! With what seems like ever-increasing house prices - and costs of living - buying a large property seems to be a luxury reserved for those with lots of disposable income.
This isn't to say that purchasing bigger and better homes is out of the question though, as with the right financial planning and support, gathering money for a deposit can be achieved. A big part of this though would involve having to cut down on some of the luxuries we all enjoy, like going out and having lots of holidays.
This got the team here at Finio Loans wondering just how much we would actually be prepared to give up, so we did a survey involving members of the Great British public to find out - it quickly became apparent that some of us would also be prepared to go to more extreme lengths than others…
Our Savings Survey
Within our survey we posed our respondents with the following questions:
- Which luxuries would people be prepared to give up, to help save for a larger property?
- Would you be open to using an alternative housing option to help you save?
- What alternative housing would you choose to live in, to help save up for a larger property?
- How much money do you put into your savings each month?
As alluded to above, we certainly got a range of interesting and intriguing responses, take a look below to find out more.
The Top Findings from Our Survey
With our first question, the luxury that we'd miss the least in our quest for more cash would be the humble takeaway, with 64% of people prepared to do without that evening kebab, curry or pizza.
Other treats like going out to the pub, clubbing and buying the latest tech were also things that at least half of those surveyed would give up. Just under half of us wouldn't have a holiday, while only 18% would get rid of their cars.
With the question about choosing alternative housing, we saw that most respondents would happily consider this as a short-term means of saving for a bigger house.
Our next question dug a little deeper into this and we were surprised to learn that over half of those surveyed would be willing to live on a canal boat (51%). Spare rooms were another popular option, but 13% of people have admitted they would live in their car/van in order to save for a larger house.
If that wasn't weird enough, we even had as many as 6% of people say they'd live under some stairs, or even at work, or in a garden!
Finally, the amount of money our respondents had left over each month ranged from £50 to £500, but unfortunately there were a number of individuals who found themselves unable to save anything at all.
Extra Help
As our survey also shows, the amount of money we're saving each month can vary, but if some of the above methods are a little outlandish for you, there are also alternatives you can consider such as one of our loans. We offer £500 loans up to £5000 loans, perfect for covering moving costs or unexpected expenses.