Saving a house deposit has a reputation for demanding total sacrifice, cancel every subscription, skip every coffee, cut everything that isn’t strictly necessary. For a lot of younger Australians trying to get into the property market, that advice feels less like a plan and more like a countdown to burnout.
Here’s a more honest starting point: you don’t need to give up everything you enjoy to save a deposit. You need a plan that’s realistic enough to actually stick to, and that usually means keeping at least one small everyday luxury that genuinely matters to you, while being deliberate about the rest.
Make room for a budget you can maintain
A budget that leaves no room for things you enjoy can be difficult to maintain. This is a widely recognised pattern in general household budgeting guidance, not a claim specific to any lender or product.
The more durable approach is to separate spending into what you’d genuinely miss and what you wouldn’t. That’s a personal judgement call, not a formula, and it looks different for everyone. ASIC’s Moneysmart guidance on how to do a budget covers listing your expenses, reviewing your spending and adjusting a budget to fit your own circumstances, which is a useful starting framework for this exercise.
Keaton’s example: streaming services
For Keaton, that one luxury is his streaming services. It’s a modest, recurring cost, but it’s something he actually uses and enjoys regularly, so it stays in the budget while other, less-valued spending gets trimmed instead. The point isn’t that streaming is a smart financial decision in isolation, it’s that keeping a small expense you genuinely value can make the rest of a savings plan easier to sustain.
This isn’t a recommendation to keep or cut any particular expense. It’s an invitation to ask the same question Keaton asked himself: which small, everyday cost would you protect, and which ones are you comfortable letting go of on the way to a deposit?
Making the exercise useful for your own budget
A simple way to approach this is to list your regular discretionary spending subscriptions, takeaway, hobbies, memberships and be honest about which ones you’d miss if they disappeared tomorrow. The ones you wouldn’t miss are usually the easiest places to redirect money toward savings. The ones you would miss are worth keeping, in moderation, if it means the overall plan is one you can actually maintain.
There’s no single right answer here, and this isn’t a claim that any particular spending pattern will get you into the property market faster. It’s simply a starting point for thinking about your own savings habits in a way that’s sustainable rather than punishing.
Watch the Instagram video:
See Other Blogs: Why Saving a Deposit Feels Impossible And What Can Genuinely Help
TL;DR
- Saving a house deposit doesn’t have to mean cutting every discretionary expense; keeping one valued luxury can support a sustainable savings habit.
- Keaton uses streaming subscriptions as an example of a small everyday luxury worth keeping while trimming less valued spending elsewhere.
- Identifying which expenses genuinely add value to your life makes a savings plan easier to stick to than an all-or-nothing budget.
- There’s no universal ‘right’ luxury to keep; the useful exercise is deciding what you’d protect and what you’re happy to cut.
- A budget that reflects your actual priorities is more sustainable than one copied from someone else’s spending rules.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. An all-or-nothing budget is often harder to sustain than one that keeps a small valued expense while trimming lower-priority spending elsewhere. What matters most is a plan you can realistically maintain.
List your regular discretionary spending and be honest about which items you’d genuinely miss. Expenses you wouldn’t miss are usually easier to redirect toward savings; ones you would miss may be worth keeping in moderation.
It’s used here as an example of a small everyday luxury, not a financial recommendation. The broader point is that a sustainable savings plan often keeps room for something you value rather than removing everything at once.
A mortgage broker or financial adviser can help you build a savings approach that reflects your income, expenses and goals rather than a generic budgeting rule.
Important Information
General information only; this is not personal advice. Speak to a qualified mortgage broker or financial adviser about your individual circumstances before acting on anything in this article.
