Me and wife rented when we first got together, moved back with her parents when we wanted to save for our wedding, saved just shy of £10k in a year. Knowing what we could save we bought our first floor, 1 bed flat for £88,000 with 5% gifted deposit, so basically we only had to find £4,400 deposit not £8,800 on a 90% mortgage.
The place we bought was old, outdated and in need of some work, I ripped out and fitted a new kitchen and bathroom myself (I had a friend help with plumbing) but the rest I did myself, even though I've never done anything like that myself before. Sold the flat a year later for £100,600 with £80k owed on the mortgage, so instantly had £20,600 equity..
In June we bought a brand new 2bed maisonette for £140k, 20% deposit needed for mortgage, so £28k. I used my equity to form 15% and the developers gave us 5% to help us out. They also threw in all white goods, carpets, and £1,800 towards legal fees and stamp duty (because we weren't first time buyers, the stamp duty moved from £250k to £125k).
Our mortgage on the old place was £479/month, the new place is £678 for another 6 months and then it goes down to £484 so only £5 more than our old place! 
the biggest piece of advice, that you've already been given is make sure you can afford it! When we bought both my wife and me were in full time employment, my wife has since been made redundant, thankfully my wages still pay the mortgage, all the bills, food and running expenses of 2 cars, with a little left over from a second income (10hr/week 2nd job).
I'm only 24, and on my second owned property, it is easy enough to do if you seek the right advise in terms of mortgage etc, speak to more than one advisor (make sure they are independant and not tied to a specific lender etc, an independant can search the whole market and are not bound to specific banks/lenders). Also get a second opinion and DON'T say what the first guy advised, to keep the advice totally independant, some may be privvy to deals others are not (cashback offers, gifted deposits etc are the things to look out for!)
If you need any advice, I've gone through the mortgage process twice in 12 months so it's pretty fresh in my mind still, I'd be happy to try my best to help.
Very sound advice, try multiple mortgage advisors, I went through 3 till I was happy
