I took on a second job to borrow £26k extra to help buy £255k first home
MENTAL health nurse Dami Roachford got a second job and cut her spending on takeaways and going out in half to help buy her £255,000 first home.
Dami, 26, also cut down on holidays to save as much money as she could while saving for her £29,000 deposit.
She took on extra shifts as a mental health nurse at a separate agency, working gruelling six day weeks in order to be able to take out a bigger mortgage to get the house she wanted.
It pushed her earnings up to £50,000 a year, allowing her to buy a three-bed terrace house in Essex with a mortgage of £226,000.
Lenders typically give mortgages of up to four and half times your salary - but some offer up to six times.
Without the extra income she wouldn't have been able borrow as much from the bank - and she would've missed out on her dream property.
Like many first-time buyers, Dami lived with her parents in Southwark, London to help save up for her deposit - but she still paid rent.
She paid a reduced rate of £500 a month and this did helped her boost her savings.
Her parents also gave her £2,000, which helped her reach her savings goal earlier.
Dami finished renovating her home in December last year - we sat down for a chat and snooped around her home for The Sun’s My First Home series.
If you have a vision or a goal of what your first home will be, it really helps to keep motivated.
It will make whatever sacrifices you have to make a lot easier.
Here's how one savvy saver got £4,000 in FREE cash when he bought his £420,000 first home.
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