Saving is never an easy thing to do and saving for a deposit on a home is twice as hard. However, with the right strategy in place, your savings can grow and grow, cutting the waiting time to your own home in half. 

Double your deposit in half the time

In recent years house prices have skyrocketed, making the size of the deposit required for most home buyers substantially larger and just that much harder to get together. As a result homebuyers need to be shrewder when it comes to their saving and banking habits.

There are two ways to save your deposit faster: Save more or spend less. It’s that simple. Here are some ideas to get you started on the path of home ownership.

Work out your budget
The hardest thing about saving is doing it systematically. You don’t mind putting your spare change in a jar each week but it’s very hard to motivate yourself to save for a deposit because it usually means giving up things that you like. The key here is to budget sensibly by putting together a realistic savings plan that doesn’t compromise your family’s lifestyle too much.

This step shouldn’t take too long – a couple of hours at most. Work out your monthly income and expenses. Estimate your regular expenses such as transport, groceries, lunches, childcare and so forth. Don’t forget any debts, which you may be carrying including credit cards, car loan or anything else that you have to make a repayment on.

The hardest part is identifying and cutting out unnecessary expenses. Work out what luxuries you enjoy that you can reasonably afford to give up. You don’t realise how much money you waste on consumer goods that do not really add value to your lifestyle. Think about things such as newspapers, coffee, lunches, snacks and a million other things that you waste your money on. Add it up and you’ll be shocked.

You don’t want to give up everything but even cutting back on say a newspaper (read it on the net), bringing lunch from home three times a week, avoiding the chocolate bar and reducing your alcohol intake by one drink a night means you will save about $2700 a year. Cut out the coffee break and a packet of cigarettes a day there’s another $3500 a year just there. Not bad for just a few slight changes in your spending habits. And you’ll be healthier too.

Manage your debts
There is no doubting the convenience of credit cards when you are running a little short. They’re handy to use and accepted almost everywhere. While it’s surprising just how easy it is to get one, it’s not so surprising to understand that there are a lot of people out there that cannot manage and reasonably afford to use a credit card.

But do you really need one? If so, how many are you using? And what about personal loans, car loans and interest free purchases? Face it, without credit you wouldn’t own half the stuff you do but on the plus side, think about how much bigger your deposit would be if you hadn’t spent all that money on consumer goods.

Remember, you can’t save effectively if you are paying off debts. So cut down on those credit cards, consolidate your debts and do everything you can to become debt free.