A young couple purchased a three-bedroom home at just 19 years old, setting aside £20,000 in a mere seven months without any help from the 'bank of mum and dad'. Paulina Gammon and her husband Stanley, both now 21, made the decision to put money away for a property while still living under their parents' roofs, taking advantage of minimal outgoing expenses.
They contributed just £100 and £170 respectively to their parents for board and drastically reduced spending on meals out, nights out, and new clothing to maximise their monthly savings. Paulina, who works as cabin crew, and Stanley, an aircraft engineer, were each bringing home £1,800 per month and managed to squirrel away between £1,000 and £1,500 apiece every month towards their deposit.
In just seven months, the Derby-based couple had amassed £20,000 and successfully made a £169,000 offer on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom property. Mother-of-two Paulina revealed that nobody initially believed them, with most assuming the funds must have come from their parents.
How They Saved
Paulina said: 'We only saved for seven months before we were able to put a deposit down. We were both living at home, I was only paying £100 in rent and Stanley was paying £170, so we were able to put most of what we earned into savings.' She added: 'We decided not to go on nights out, or do any of the usual teen stuff, because you can easily spend £100 or £200 on a night out. We saved £20,000 between us. Buying a house so young felt so surreal.'
Paulina and Stanley embarked on their house-saving journey in January 2024, after Paulina's parents decided to sell up and relocate to their native Poland, leaving her needing to find somewhere new to live. 'We didn't want to rent, because it costs nearly the same as a mortgage and we thought we'd rather pay our own mortgage than be paying someone else's off,' she said.
Apart from contributions to their parents for board, their sole outgoings were monthly mobile phone contracts, with neither of them running a car. Despite their young age, they chose to forgo nights out entirely, redirecting the £200 a month they would typically have spent towards their house deposit fund.
Cutting Back on Four Key Areas
They also reined in spending on restaurants, took packed lunches to work, and cut down on ready meals, saving an estimated £60 each per month. 'I didn't buy any clothes and we told ourselves we couldn't book a holiday until we'd paid for the deposit,' she said. 'Cutting back on stuff was hard, but it was for a good cause.'
Reducing spending on those four main areas - evenings out, bringing packed lunches, abandoning ready meals, and avoiding new clothing purchases - enabled the pair to set aside between £1,000 and £1,500 each into their savings every month.
Prior to beginning their house-saving journey, Paulina and Stanley each had a couple of thousand pounds tucked away in their savings accounts, accumulated from their monthly earnings. Across seven months, they managed to increase this to £20,000 collectively, covering their £16,900 deposit, alongside solicitor fees and a mortgage advisor.
The Purchase
In June 2024, when they were both just 19, they made an offer on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom property, before completing the move in September 2024, when Paulina was three months pregnant with their first child. They now contribute £1,100 per month towards their mortgage repayments.
'I didn't know I was pregnant when we put the offer in, so we accepted a higher mortgage repayment, for a shorter term, because we thought we could afford it,' Paulina explained. 'If I knew I was pregnant we would have accepted a longer term with less money, as I only got £700 a month on maternity leave.'
Paulina now generates income through her TikTok account @paulina.gammon, allowing the couple to maintain their repayments. The couple encourages young people to save as much as possible while living at home, as bills increase once you move out.
