Everyone has advice on how to get on the property ladder, from Tik Tok influencers ditching their morning Greggs to save for a house deposit to Kirstie Allsopp doing her best Kim Kardashian break the internet impression with her comments on young home savers. We spoke to Nude, the saving app that is helping young people get on the property ladder – who shared their advice on saving without having to miss out on a sausage roll or enter Squid Game – to start building funds.

A spokesman said: “Saving for a house is difficult, there’s no denying that, but there’s lots of things people can do without reverting to cutting back on little life delights like Greggs or Netflix. Sweeping comments like Kirstie Allsopp’s fail to take individual circumstances into consideration. Yes, cutting back can help some people, but not all young people. That’s why Nude only shows ideas that could help someone buy a home at least 1 month sooner.”

1. Look at where your money is going. Break down your spending into categories and see which areas you could potentially spend less in. Excel spreadsheets are your friend – you can export your statements from most online banking apps and then sort them into categories manually.
2. Review your direct debits & bills. For things like phone contracts, insurance and broadband, you could be saving money if you switch to a cheaper supplier – often, your current supplier will give you a price reduction or price-match if you can show them that you’ve found a better deal elsewhere.
3. Decide how much you can put aside each month. Every little really does help, and if you’re in a position to make a monthly Direct Debit commitment into your first home fund, it’ll get you closer and closer to your goal, without having to think about it. It’s a great habit to get into and you’ll soon see the impact of your savings building up. If you save just £100 a month, you’d have £1,200 after a year.
4. Pay yourself first. When that pay-cheque lands at the end of the month, put into savings first, and spend the rest. If you do it the other way around, you’ll be more tempted to keep spending and risk getting further and further away from your goal. Use tip 1 and 2 to decide how much to put in – keep it realistic and you can always change it later on. And talking of pay-cheques. Pay rise conversations in the workplace aren’t the easiest, but have a clear understanding of when annual pay reviews take place and don’t be afraid to build our case for an increase.
5. Get a Lifetime ISA. The government will give you 25% on whatever you save in your Lifetime ISA up to its limit of £4,000 every tax year – that’s up to £1,000 from the government towards your first home! If you’re saving with someone else to buy a home together, you could both be paying into separate LISAs and getting £1,000 each – that’s £2,000 a year of free money which will help you both to get much closer to your goal. The max house price for using your Lifetime ISA is £450k and there is a penalty for withdrawing for other reasons which could mean you get back less than what you put in, so be sure to look into it and decide if it’s right for you. https://www.getnude.com/lisa
6. Try these money saving apps. Olio is an amazing app for getting free food from peers and hospitality businesses that would otherwise go to waste, and Freecycle is an amazing neighbourhood community of people giving away stuff for free – from bikes and books to tents and furniture.
7. Know where to find the best discounts. The Chrome app ‘Honey’ searches for discount codes and automatically applies them for you at the checkout when you’re online shopping. Facebook’s Ad Library shows you all of the ads that a brand is running on Facebook and Instagram. Just search ‘Facebook Ads Library’ and type in the name of the brand you want to shop from.
8. Make money from a side project. Whether it’s renting clothes on an app like ByRotation, selling your old stuff on Depop/eBay/Vinted, upcycling furniture or freelancing, with a few hours a week, you can take on a side project that boosts your income (and your savings goals). Just remember, if you make more than £1,000 from your side project, you have to tell HMRC and pay tax on it.
9. Claim tax relief for working from home. Use the government’s scheme to check if you are eligible and claim back up to £6 a week for the entire year for working from home. That’s £125 per year in your pocket. Hurry, this may not continue into the next tax year but you can still claim for the 2021-22 tax year.

Behind the scenes, the boffins at Nude use spend analysis to highlight areas that could be used to save money, and suggest saving ideas to help them cut their time to buy. Read about more money saving tips here.