A young couple purchased a three-bedroom house at just 19 years old - saving £20,000 in 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 save for a property while still living at home with their respective parents, taking advantage of having minimal outgoing expenses.

The pair contributed just £100 and £170 to their parents for rent and drastically cut back on dining out, nights out drinking and clothing purchases in order to maximise their monthly savings. Paulina, who works as cabin crew, and Stanley, an aircraft engineer, were both earning £1,800 a month and managed to set aside between £1,000 and £1,500 each per month towards their deposit.

In just seven months, the Derby-based couple had accumulated £20,000 and placed a £169,000 offer on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom property. Mother-of-two Paulina revealed that nobody believed them initially, with many assuming the funds must have come from their parents.

The couple stated they were both enormously proud of what they had accomplished and encouraged young people to save as much as possible while living at home.

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 embarked on their house-saving journey in January 2024, after Paulina's parents decided to sell their home and return to their native Poland, leaving her needing to find alternative accommodation.

"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.

Beyond the rent paid to their respective parents, their sole outgoings were monthly phone contracts, with neither owning a vehicle. Despite their young age, the couple chose to forgo nights out entirely, redirecting the £200 a month they would typically have spent towards their property deposit.

The pair also reined in spending on restaurants, took packed lunches to work and reduced their reliance 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."

Trimming expenditure on those four key areas - nights out, preparing packed lunches, ditching ready meals and refraining from buying new clothes - enabled the pair to set aside between £1,000 and £1,500 each into their savings every month.

Prior to saving for a property, Paulina and Stanley each had a few thousand pounds tucked away in their savings accounts from their monthly wages, and over the course of seven months managed to accumulate £20,000 between them. This covered their £16,900 deposit, along with solicitor fees and a mortgage adviser.

In June 2024, both aged just 19, they placed an offer on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house, before moving in during September 2024, by which point Paulina was three months pregnant with their first child. They currently pay £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 keep on top of their monthly repayments.