“We bought our three-bedroom Derbyshire home aged 19 without bank of mum and dad - nobody could believe it"

A Derbyshire couple bought a three-bedroom house aged just 19 - saving £20,000 without the "bank of mum and dad".

Paulina Gammon, and her husband Stanley, both now 21, decided to save for a house whilst they were both still living at home with their parents, as they didn’t have many outgoing bills. They paid just £100 and £170 to their respective parents for rent, and cut down on eating out, going out drinking and buying clothes to save as much of their salaries as possible.

Paulina, who works as cabin crew, and Stanley, an aircraft engineer, were both earning £1,800 a month from their salaries, and were able to save between £1,000 and £1,500 each a month to go towards a deposit. After seven months, the couple, from Derby, had raised £20,000 and put a £169,000 offer on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home.

Mum-of-two Paulina said that nobody believed her and Stanley at first and assumed the money must have come from their parents. They are both immensely proud of their achievement and have urged young people to save as much as they can whilst living at their parents.

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. 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. Nobody believed us at the start and assumed our parents must have helped us. Even the estate agents and solicitors were in shock, it is a huge achievement.

“If you're still living at home, save as much money as you can, because once you move out, and the older you get, the more bills you have.”

Paulina and Stanley began saving for a house in January 2024, as Paulina’s parents were selling their house and moving back to their home country of Poland, meaning she would have to move out.

Paulina said: “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.”

As part of their saving to move out, Paulina and Stanley cut back on eating out, brought packed lunches into work, and cut down on ready meals, which they estimate saved them £60 each a month. Neither of them had a car either, so their only other bills were their monthly phone contracts.

Paulina said: “I didn’t buy any clothes, and we told ourselves we couldn’t book a holiday until we’d paid for the deposit. Cutting back on stuff was hard, but it was for a good cause."

Before they started saving for a house, Paulina and Stanley each had a couple of thousand pounds in their savings accounts, that they had put away from their monthly wages, and over the course of seven months, were able to boost this up to £20,000 between them, which paid for their £16,900 deposit, as well as solicitor fees, and a mortgage advisor.

In June 2024, when they were both just 19, they put an offer on a three bedroom, three-bathroom home, before moving in in September 2024, when Paulina was three months pregnant with their first child.

They now pay £1,100 per month towards their mortgage repayments.

Paulina said: “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. 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 makes money through her TikTok account @paulina.gammon so the couple have been able to keep up with their repayments. She is urging other young people to save as much money for a house as they can whilst still living at home, as your bills will be significantly less than after you’ve moved out.