Maybe you’re self-employed.

Maybe you get tips from working in a restaurant.

Maybe you just got an eye-watering vet bill at the same time you have to pay £2,000 for your best mate’s stag-do in Vegas (ouch).

Not every month looks the same when it comes to money.

So, how do you keep making consistent progress towards buying your first home when your income and expenses are anything but consistent? Here are some tips...

Calculate your baseline costs.

Before you put money aside for your first home, you want to know your baseline costs. Stuff like:

  • Rent
  • Energy bills
  • Phone
  • Internet
  • Council tax

To calculate these baseline costs, look at your most recent bills (and don’t forget to set a budget for things like food and petrol).

Then it’s a case of:

This month’s income – baseline costs = your disposable income (aka: what you have left to put towards your first home and other things).

Save extra when you can

Those months when you’ve got more disposable income than normal? Put some aside for those lower-income months.

You’ll sleep easy knowing you can cover your baseline costs and still put money towards your first home.

Get to know your money.

Back when everything was paid for in cash, it was easy to keep track of your spending because there would literally be less and less money in your wallet. But with cards (and overdrafts), you can quickly lose sight of your ins and outs.

Thankfully, there are apps out there (like ours) that show you where your money’s going every month. And when you have a better understanding of your money, you can make better choices.

Set conditional budgets.

If your income and expenses are unpredictable, you might not be able to put the same amount towards your home every month, but that’s okay. Just set some rules and you’ll be able to keep making progress.

For example:

“If my disposable income is less than £300 that month, I’ll put £50 towards my first home”

“If my disposable income is between £1,000 - £1,500 that month, I’ll put £300 towards my first home”

Start small.

Prefer to put a set amount towards your home every month? No sweat.

You can always start with a smaller direct debit, then top it up when you’re ready. This way, you can still work towards your first home, even in those months when your disposable income is on the lower side.

Try to reduce your baseline costs.

A study by Ofgem showed that people in the UK who didn’t switch suppliers for 6 years+, overspent on gas and electricity by up to £1,500.

When you shop around for things like utilities, broadband and your phone, you could potentially reduce those monthly baseline costs and put the difference towards your first home instead.

Make the most of government schemes for first-time home buyers.

A Lifetime ISA is an account that gives you a 25% boost from the UK government. You can save or invest up to £4,000 each tax year and get up to £1,000 towards your first home every year too.

Even if you don’t hit that £4,000 mark, you get a 25% bonus on whatever you put in.

Want to know more?

​​👉  Read our mini-guide to Lifetime ISAs.

​​👉  Learn about opening a Nude Lifetime ISA.​​

👉  See more ways the UK government can help you buy your first home.

Budget for other first-home expenses.

It’s not just about your deposit. Remember to put money aside for solicitor’s fees, moving vans, arrangement fees, furniture and all the other upfront costs that come with your first place.

Use a money app that flexes around you.

On the road to achieving life’s big goals (like buying your first home) life still happens.

So, we’ve built an app that makes it easy for you to build your deposit your way.

Save or invest for your first home.

Those Lifetime ISAs we mentioned? You can open one with us.

Either save your deposit in a Nude Cash Lifetime ISA or invest it in a Nude Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA. The choice is yours.

We’re also on track to launch ISA and General Accounts in 2022.

Start from as little as £25 a month

Want to start small? With us, you can put as little as £25 into your Nude account every month.

Skip a month

For those months when you can’t put what you normally would towards your first home, we built ‘Skip a month’.

At the touch of a button, you can pause your direct debit and it’ll start up again in a month’s time to get you back on track.

Manage your monthly contributions

📅  Change the date of your direct debit.

💰 Change the bank account that sends money to your Nude Lifetime ISA.

🏠  Increase or reduce the amount you put towards your home every month.

It only takes 5 minutes to open your Nude account. Install the app to get started today.