How mum of eight bought five-bedroom Auckland home
Ferocious savings effort earns family their dream
Tania Webb didn’t think she’d ever own her own home. Her parents rented, as did her partner’s parents. Home ownership wasn’t part of their world. But the mother-of-eight got there, and she wants to show others how.
Webb, 31, moved into her new, fivebedroom home in the South Auckland suburb of Weymouth last July.
She and her partner were able to buy the home, valued at $580,000 at the time, thanks to two things — the acceptance of their application for support from the New Zealand Housing Foundation, and their determined efforts to save $13,000 in five months.
The Housing Foundation is a notfor-profit charitable trust that helps low-income Kiwis buy homes under a shared-ownership model.
Webb was told she had been accepted in July 2015, but had only until December to raise a $10,000 deposit.
With $2000 in savings and an estimated ability to save $250 a week — half of what was needed — Webb realised changes were needed to make their dream come true, she said.
The single-income family were ruthless in saving — from nappies to food to fuel, they slashed costs.
Webb started by buying $40 worth of second-hand cloth nappies off Trade Me and switching from baby wipes to flannels.
At the time it was costing $50 a week to keep her two youngest children in budget nappies and wipes.
The savings — she washed nappies in cold water because she had been told modern nappies and washing machines, coupled with the natural disinfectant of line drying, kept it hygienic — had been a revelation.
“I’m quite disgusted with what I’ve thrown away over the years. If I’d used cloth nappies with all my other children I could’ve had my deposit 10 times over.”
Other savings came from shopping locally and seeking bargains, such as going to the butcher and using the weekend market in Manurewa. Bak- ing and bulk-buying children’s lunch snacks and then separating them into her small bags also cut the budget.
The family also learned to forage for fruit, at times asking neighbours if they were willing to share or barter the bounty on their fruit trees.
“It’s amazing how many people are willing to do that.”
The kids helped too. Gifted lemons were turned into lemonade, which was then sold at a stall, Webb said.
They began walking everywhere Watch the video at nzherald.co.nz they could. The family fuel bill fell from about $100 a week to $25.
The effect was huge. The family raised $13,000 — $3000 above their target over the five months. The savings also helped them manage their new life with a mortgage.
They also became more waste conscious. A drive to save money morphed into a greater appreciation of the environment — where the family once put out six rubbish bags a week, that had now dropped to one.
“It was like a chain reaction. The more that I was changing our lifestyle, it was saving money, the more that I tried to save, the more greenie we became,” said Webb.
She has since been hired as a “waste champion” by Te Awa Ora Trust and earns $100 each time she speaks to mothers’ groups about her switch to cloth nappies.
Sometimes she still had to pinch herself, but “I think everyone can do what we did, if they really want it.”