u/Uneekorn13

So I (29f) currently work in West London, and I live in East. My commute door to door is 1hr 20 if I take the central line, and if I choose to drive instead, it ends up taking me 2hrs+ on the way home thanks to the traffic. Plus it costs a fortune in parking fees. My job is practical so I need to go in 5 days a week, and the commute is really starting to take it's toll on me. I'm constantly tired from having to wake up so early and never getting enough sleep, and feel like I barely have any energy to have a life outside of working.

I live with my parents atm, but have been wanting to move out forever. The thing that's been holding me back is of course money. Since starting this job my salary has nearly doubled what I was making previously, which was basically minimum wage. I was pretty excited thinking I'll finally be able to move out, but imagine my dismay when I looked up flats that are commutable to where I work and saw that rent costs start at £1300 for a tiny studio flat 🙃🙃

While I can just about afford this now (if i so happen to find a flat at this minimum price), I can't help thinking about how I won't be able to save any money if I'm renting. I've spent the last year or so saving aggressively to start building a deposit for buying my own home one day. But if im forking out all that money for rent and living expenses every month I'm not going to have anything left over to keep adding to it.

My friend was telling me that you can buy a property with a deposit as low as 1-5%, and that I should maybe look into doing that instead. I can have a 10k deposit ready within a few more months and maybe qualify for a mortgage but realistically my budget would probably have to be less that 200k. (I know very little about this finance stuff so sorry if I'm completely off with the numbers 😅). Again this doesn't sound like a very good idea because I would likely be limited to shared ownership which I really don't want to do, and places that will be hard to sell on in the future and probably have high maintenance costs.

I know the smartest thing is to stay home and keep saving. But as a 29 year old who's family situation isn't great, and with the commute taking such a toll on me, this is getting pretty bad for my mental health. I know house shares are an option but I'm still traumatised from sharing kitchens/bathrooms back in my university days 😅 I really value my own personal space and it's part of the reason I want to move out so badly.

I'm sure alot of you are much wiser than me so I'd love to hear your thoughts/advice on what you would do in my shoes. Thanks!