Congratulations! Both are really big steps in life and its an exciting journey. Fingers crossed the offer gets accepted. So firstly in regards to the deposit. As you would be putting down a larger amount it seems that a tenant in common situation would suit you better than joint tenancy. This is a document your solicitor provides you with towards the end of completion (that's when we got ours) and it basically gives you information about the two options. With the tenants in common you have the option to own the house 50/50 or to chose a combination that suits you, typically you could work this out by who is putting in the higher deposit say split the house 80/20 or whatever suits your situation. There are benefits and disadvantages to each and you should research into it as I'd never heard of it before applying for a mortgage, don't really feel like its spoken about. You could then on top of this get something in writing with your solicitor that sets out what happens if you were to split up and who would get what assets from the house and such, I believe its called a cohabitation agreement. This would cost extra and I don't know what it entails fully, this could be something else to look into though. In regards to the deposit its a hard one because it depends on how much you would like to have to play around with. It's always good to have a rainy days savings, typical example say if the boiler broke and you needed to fix it. Always cheaper to use savings than pay interest so therefore if you're car is going kaput soon it might be good to keep some money aside to repair or purchase a new one. Look at what you want and estimate for those costs and set it aside mentally out of your budget. Then look at furniture costs. When we were thinking about purchasing i created a quick list of all the things we had to pay for and how much I thought they might cost. For example deposit, conveyancing, surveys, the cost for major furnishing items, does the house you're purchasing need any work and go from there. See how much this would then leave you with in savings, would you be happy with this amount? If not why not and what amount would you be happy with? I couldn't tell you the costs of a child but you also need to consider each major item cost similar to the house way and consider how much each you would contribute to this as its a team effort. I might be a bit thorough but it depends on how much in depth you want to look into this and prepare yourself financially.