How to Save for a House Deposit: Cuts That Help Your Loan

The fastest way to save for a house deposit is to cut a handful of regular costs, such as electricity, subscriptions, groceries, insurance and takeaway, and move the difference into a separate savings account automatically every payday. Done well, those same cuts do a second job. Lenders read your recent bank statements and weigh your living expenses when they work out what you can borrow, so a few months of lower, steadier spending can make your home loan application stronger as well as your balance bigger.

I’m David from Rebus Finance. Saving a deposit while paying rent and keeping up with the cost of living is hard, and none of this is about giving up every small pleasure. It’s about finding the costs that quietly cost the most, and knowing which changes a lender will notice, using the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie bills you’re likely paying.

Why Cost Cuts Count Twice When You’re Buying

When you’re planning to borrow, a lender looks at three things your everyday spending feeds into: your recent bank statements, your living expenses, and your savings history. Moneysmart notes that “regular saving shows you can budget and commit to repayments.” So every dollar moved from a bill into your deposit account helps twice: the balance grows, and your statements look more like someone ready for a mortgage.

What Lenders Look For in Your Bank Statements

Lenders usually ask for your last three to six months of transaction statements. An assessor isn’t judging your taste in streaming services; they’re checking that your declared expenses are realistic. The items that most often draw questions are:

• Buy now pay later instalments show up whether or not they’re on your credit report. Our guide to whether Afterpay affects your credit score explains what a lender can see.
• Gambling transactions. Many lenders ask about regular betting payments, and frequent activity can count against an application.
• Dishonours and overdrawn fees. These suggest the budget is tighter than declared.
• Subscriptions and memberships. Small individually, but a long list adds up.

None of these is an automatic “no”. What helps is a few months where spending is steady, savings go in regularly and nothing needs explaining.

Living Expenses and the HEM Benchmark

You’ll be asked to declare your monthly living expenses, and most lenders compare that figure with the Household Expenditure Measure, a benchmark developed by the Melbourne Institute that estimates modest spending for a household of your size, income and location. ASIC has described it as combining median spending on basic items with lower-end spending on discretionary basics (ASIC CP 309), so it’s deliberately conservative.

The lender generally uses whichever figure is higher, so:

• If your real spending is below the benchmark, cutting further mostly helps your deposit. The lender is already using the benchmark figure.
• If your real spending is above the benchmark, bringing it down can lift your borrowing power directly, because the lender is working from your actual numbers.

Every dollar of assessed expense is tested against a buffered interest rate: APRA expects banks to assess repayments at least 3 percentage points above the loan’s actual rate (APRA). Our guide to how much you can borrow in 2026 walks through the full calculation.

The Costs Worth Cutting First

Electricity: Compare Your Plan and Claim Your Rebates

Power is one of the few bills where switching can save money without changing how you live, and the plan you signed up to two years ago may no longer be competitive.

• Compare plans against your own usage. The government’s free comparison site, Energy Made Easy, lets you compare the electricity and gas plans available at your address. Enter your actual usage from a recent bill rather than an estimate: a plan that looks cheap on a headline rate can cost more for the way you use power.
• Check the NSW rebates. The NSW Family Energy Rebate is up to $180 a year for retail electricity customers who received Family Tax Benefit in the previous financial year, and the Low Income Household Rebate is up to $285 a year for eligible concession card holders. Service NSW’s Savings Finder checks which rebates and savings you qualify for in one place.
• Tackle hot water and heating. Shorter showers and running the washing machine on cold with full loads cut both your water and your energy use.

Water: Being Water Wise in the Hunter

Hunter Water’s usage charge is $3.72 per kilolitre (1,000 litres) on standard days, on top of fixed service charges (Hunter Water pricing). Hunter Water suggests aiming for a four-minute shower, fixing leaking taps and toilets, using the half flush and washing full loads only (Hunter Water saving tips).

If you rent, check whether you pay water usage at all. In NSW, a landlord can only pass on usage charges if the property is separately metered and meets water efficiency standards, such as shower heads and taps with a maximum flow of 9 litres a minute (NSW Government). Heating less water also trims your power or gas bill, which is where shorter showers really pay.

Subscriptions: Audit Them Once

Go through three months of statements and list every recurring charge: streaming, music, apps, gym, cloud storage, delivery memberships. Moneysmart suggests checking for subscriptions you no longer use. Cancel what you haven’t used in a month, and rotate the rest: keep one streaming service at a time rather than three. It’s the quickest cleanup there is.

Groceries and Takeaway

Food is usually a household’s biggest flexible cost. Moneysmart’s food and fuel tips include planning meals weekly, shopping from a list, checking the unit price (the price per 100g shown under the main price) and buying staples when they’re on special. Delivery apps deserve a separate look: fees and mark-ups add up, and frequent orders are easy for a lender to spot.

Insurance and Car Costs

Don’t auto-renew. According to Moneysmart, an ASIC review found 67 per cent of customers renewed with the same insurer, and many didn’t contact their insurer or compare quotes first. At each renewal, get two or three quotes, ask your insurer to match, and check whether you still need extras like hire car cover.

Buy Now Pay Later and Credit Cards

These don’t just cost money each month. They reduce how much you can borrow. Lenders assess a credit card on its limit, not its balance, commonly at around 3 per cent of the limit each month. A $10,000 limit you never use can be assessed as roughly $300 a month of commitments. Paying off and closing unused cards and BNPL accounts a few months before you apply is one of the most effective things you can do. Our article on what actually increases your borrowing power ranks these changes by impact.

What It Adds Up To: A Worked Example

The monthly figures below are examples to show the method, not averages. Swap in your own numbers.

On the borrowing side, if a lender is working from your declared expenses, every $200 a month less in assessed costs is worth about $23,800 of extra borrowing capacity. That assumes a 6.5 per cent rate assessed at 9.5 per cent with the 3-point buffer, over 30 years. On the same assumptions, closing that unused $10,000 card is worth about $35,700. Every lender’s calculator differs, so treat these as ballpark figures, and test your own numbers in our borrowing power calculator.

Where to Keep Your Deposit While It Grows

Keep your deposit in its own account with an automatic transfer the day after payday. Moneysmart notes that high-interest savings accounts often pay bonus interest if you deposit regularly and don’t withdraw, and the pattern builds the savings history lenders like to see.

Some lenders, especially for smaller-deposit loans, want part of the deposit, often 5 per cent of the price, built up as genuine savings over at least three months. Regular deposits from your pay usually count; a lump sum that arrived last week often doesn’t.

If you’re a first home buyer, the First Home Super Saver Scheme lets you save inside super with tax advantages. Moneysmart says you can withdraw up to $15,000 of voluntary contributions a year and up to $50,000 in total.

You May Need Less Than 20 Per Cent

Saving 20 per cent of a Newcastle or Lake Macquarie price takes most people years. There are shorter routes:

• The 5% Deposit Scheme lets eligible buyers purchase with a 5 per cent deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance, up to a price cap of $1.5 million in our area. See the $1.5 million cap for Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
• Single parents and legal guardians may be able to buy with a 2 per cent deposit. Our guide to single parent home loans explains how.
• A family guarantee can replace some or all of the deposit with equity in a parent’s home. Compare the options in deposit, guarantor or government scheme.

You’ll still need money for stamp duty (unless you’re exempt), legal fees and inspections. Our first home buyers page covers the grants and concessions.

A 90-Day Plan Before You Apply

1. Week 1: open a separate savings account and set an automatic transfer for the day after payday, even if it starts small.
2. Week 1: list every recurring charge from your last three months of statements and cancel what you don’t use.
3. Week 2: compare your electricity plan on Energy Made Easy using your real usage, and check Savings Finder for rebates.
4. Week 2: pay off and close unused credit cards and BNPL accounts, and keep the closure letters.
5. Weeks 3 to 4: re-quote insurance and phone plans as they come up for renewal.
6. Every week: plan meals and cap delivery orders. Move what you don’t spend into the deposit account.
7. Day 90: review three months of statements as a lender would, and talk to a broker about timing, schemes and which lender suits your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start Saving With a Plan

A deposit is built from small, repeated decisions, and the right ones strengthen your loan application at the same time. If you’d like to know how much you need, which scheme might shorten the wait and which of my 30+ lenders suits your situation, I’m happy to run the numbers with you, at no cost and no obligation.

Want to know how far away your deposit really is? Call David on 0417 676 191 or get in touch via our contact form.

This article is general information only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not a promise or indication that any application will be approved. Lender credit policies, rates and fees change regularly and are subject to each lender’s assessment. Please seek advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

Sources

• Moneysmart, Save for a house deposit, updated 6 August 2026.
• Moneysmart, Ways to save on food and fuel, accessed 27 October 2026.
• Moneysmart, Track your spending, accessed 27 October 2026.
• Moneysmart, How to save money on car insurance, updated 23 October 2026.
• ASIC, Consultation Paper 309: Update to RG 209, February 2019.
• APRA, APRA maintains current macroprudential policy settings, 28 May 2026.
• NSW Government, Family Energy Rebate and Low Income Household Rebate, accessed 27 October 2026.
• Service NSW, Savings Finder, accessed 27 October 2026.
• Energy Made Easy, Compare energy offers, accessed 27 October 2026.
• Hunter Water, Residential fees and charges and Water saving tips, accessed 27 October 2026.
• NSW Government, Connection and supply of water to rental properties, accessed 27 October 2026.