Buying your first home is a life goal for many hard-working savers - but getting that all-important deposit together is often no easy feat.
One couple has explained how they managed to put away over £20,000 in four years to get on the property ladder - by living on a houseboat.
Shannon Reilly, 37, and Thom Whitworth, 42, bought and renovated a 60ft narrowboat for £38,000 called 'Magpie'.
Living on the water allowed the hairdresser, and her partner, a music teacher, to save a deposit for a three-bed home in Lincoln.
The couple are planning on selling Magpie come the summer to get an even bigger deposit together for a three-bed home.
Shannon said: "Over the past four years we have saved thousands when compared to the average cost of rent, mortgages and bills.
"Our main costs have come to about £400 a month, including our Canal and River Trust licence and mooring fees, which is less than you'd be spending on a mortgage.
"Our gas usage is very little as the space warms up so quickly, so over the past four years, we've only had to pay £420 on gas refills altogether."
The couple have spent the past four years renovating their narrowboat to create a cosy home on the water, whilst on a tight budget that led them to carry out the work themselves.
Shannon said: "When we first got together five years ago, we were both living in spare bedrooms with relatives, so it was always a dream for us to get our own place.
"A narrowboat was the last place we thought we'd be, but it's definitely been an experience after renovating and living in one for the last four years.
"We tried to keep renovations as low cost as possible, as we both borrowed money and took out loans to buy the boat outright.
"We actually did the renovations by ourselves, Thom did most of the manual labour side whilst I added homely bits here and there.
"We were constantly on the lookout for bargains, we managed to get solid wood flooring for half the boat, and paint for the interior and exterior for 70 percent off, roughly £500 altogether.
"A second-hand kitchen that we saw on Facebook Marketplace was £250 and we added a rustic looking worktop of a £25 slab of 98-year-old maple sycamore tree."
Thom, a dad of two, added: "I think the best bargain was finding all of the vinyl flooring I used in the middle of the road one day.
"It had clearly fallen out of an overloaded lorry, but I basically got £400 worth of really nice vinyl flooring for free, that managed to floor the half of the boat with, creating a really nice mismatch theme.
"The most expensive part was the bathroom installation, as I had to install a new shower, a fan assisted compost toilet, sink taps and tiles.
"It was a pretty fiddly installation and cost around £1200."
From living in houses to moving to a 60ft narrowboat, the couple have had to make a range of compromises over the past four years.
Shannon said: "It's definitely not for everybody. You go from living in such a large space, to what I see as permanently glamping.
"The hardest part about it, is downsizing your life, getting rid of all of your nick naks and various bits and pieces that you may have held on to since childhood.
"I'm sad that I had to give up the garden for my dogs, but they get several walks along the canal each day now instead."
Thom said: "It takes some getting used too, as a narrowboat is never completely still so your home is constantly moving slightly.
"It feels as though you're living in something similar to a train carriage, one long tube rather than different rooms."
Shannon added: "After doing all the work ourselves on the boat, we've definitely made it a profitable venture.
"Even though we've enjoyed living on a narrowboat, we hope that it will make a nice nest egg for a house deposit, but we'd be open to buying a narrowboat again someday as a holiday home."
