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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP here. DH and I saved about $100K for a DP while we had DC1. Took us about 7 years (I think it could take you less depending on your HHI).

What you should do:

- [b]rent someplace MUCH cheaper. We lived in a 1BD garden-style walkup for 7 years because it was so cheap. Close to metro, but no amenities. About $1200/month when we moved out two years ago. In N Arlington, so a good neighborhood. You don't need a whole house.[/b]

- One car or no car if possible (we did no car until we had the baby, but we bought that car with cash).

- Drop cable COMPLETELY. You can watch stuff for free on Hulu. Get DVDs from the library. This is a SERIOUS waste of $1500 per year, OP!

- Cheaper cell phone plans.

- Cheaper groceries. Make lists, have a budget. I feed my family of 5 (three adults and 2 kids) on about $100/week. Buy less meat, don't buy premade or prepackaged.

- Try to find a less expensive childcare solution. We have an au pair and it's only about $1500/month (and both au pairs we've had were fabulous, PLUS you don't need to hire a babysitter because you can ask them to cover some evenings/weekends if it works with your schedule and their hours, so additional savings there).

- Pay off your CC and stop spending money you don't have :)

We only made $60K (combined) when we started saving up for DP, ended up with HHI of about $150K before we bought. Got a modest $550K home in N Arlington.

You have to make some big changes, but you can do it. You could save [b]$25K per year[/b] if you follow all the advice above. Not saying you have to follow all of it, but you could potentially have a huge DP in 4 years if you tighten your belts significantly now. That's what we did.[/quote]

We also saved money by living somewhere MUCH cheaper via living in Baltimore and commuting to DC by Marc train each month.  
We were able to save roughly $200K this way over 7 years whereas had we lived in DC we would have put this all into housing and the associated increased costs of living in DC. 
Then we put the $250K into a NW DC house.  Without our years of saving via commuting from afar we would have never been able to buy in upper NW.[/quote]

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