Young Brisbane homeowner has only gone to a bar twice in her lifetime to save up house deposit
The 24-year-old Aussie has only been to a bar twice in her lifetime and works 53 hours a week to make her dream come true.
A 24-year-old homeowner has spent years making huge sacrifices, including avoiding expensive nights out, and has only been to a bar twice in her lifetime so that she could save up for a house.
Peta Fox got the keys to her home in Riverhills, southwest Brisbane, in May, with three bedrooms and a bathroom on the 800 square metre block.
The property was around the $600,000 mark and required her to pay a 25 per cent deposit of $150,000.
Ms Fox split the 20-year-loan with her boyfriend of five years, Michael Williams, also aged 24.
The journey hasn’t been an easy one.
“I probably went out (to a bar) twice since I turned 18,” Ms Fox told news.com.au.
“I don’t drink alcohol which is a huge cost saving (and) made it easier to say no.”
Her strict savings regime didn’t stop there.
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“We would go out for dinner for say birthdays,” she said.
“We don’t really have a date night or regular things.
“I would say five times a year I went out for dinner.
“The restaurants we pick have $20 meals, they’re no Michelin star restaurants,” she added with a laugh.
“You do cop a bit of flak for not wanting to go out all the time.”
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It was the same for holidays.
“We definitely didn’t do many holidays,” she said.
“Our most common holiday would be camping as it’s reasonably cost effective.”
Ms Fox met her boyfriend when they were both 19 at the Queensland University of Technology. She was studying interior design while Mr Williams was an industrial design student.
“Since we started dating, his habits changed a little bit, to reflect more what I was doing,” she said.
“He’ll have a couple of beers now and then, but isn’t a large drinker or a party-er.”
Ms Fox has been saving money since she was 14, with her first job at Kmart paying $9.45 an hour.
“By the time I was in uni I was like, ‘Alright, this (a house) is what I’m saving for’,” she said.
Out of the two of them, being a property owner was “more my dream”, according to Ms Fox.
“I was prepared to do it on my own,” she said. “Definitely I was driving the train.”
Out of the $150,000 deposit, she paid $130,000 herself, with Mr Williams paying the remaining $20,000.
It didn’t clean out her savings completely – she kept $10,000 as a “security buffer” for future expenses.
The couple plan to pay off the 20-year loan in half that time, giving them the freedom to rent it out or upsize to another property.
Ms Fox said she “always had one or two casual jobs on the go”.
During university, she worked in retail and as a basketball coach. In the holidays, her hours would go full-time.
Since graduating from university, she landed a full-time job in the interior design field.
Despite that, Ms Fox also works as a freelance interior designer on the weekends.
She estimates that some weeks she spends 15 hours a week on her second job, bringing her working week to a total of 53 hours.
It comes as new research has busted the myth that most homeowners use the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ to get their first property.
A survey by the Great Southern Bank found that just five per cent of recent homeowners relied on the Bank of Mum and Dad to get their foot on the property ladder.
The report identified many different types of savers including budgeters, savvy hackers and long-haulers, who followed strict budget plans, used the most of government help and built up a cache of savings over a long period of time, respectively.
The couple would be classified as hibernators.
“Only five per cent of homeowners, nine per cent of buyers (are) staying at home and not socialising in order to save for a deposit,” the report said in its description of a hibernator.
Ms Fox’s parents might not have let her use their savings but they helped in other ways.
“They were really financially savvy and they worked really hard,” she said.
“They ingrained (those habits) in us.”
Ms Fox managed to save such a huge amount of money by living at home as long as possible.
It was largely rent-free thanks to her parents, though she paid for all her other bills and her share of the groceries.
“They understood how hard it is to save up,” she added.
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