Affording kids?

Squirreler

Hi, I'm newly registered but lurk occassionally.

We're thinking of having kids in the next year or so but I can't work out how we could afford it. I wouldn't be able to do my job with a baby so we'd have to live off my husband's salary. I've worked out that we need to cut back £1000 a month from our current state, although I could sell my car and would save a lot on servicing costs (£800 a year) and insurance and petrol which would help a lot. And obviously we couldn't go out any more which would help a bit.
Just wondering what other people do? I don't know if we can do it! :eek:

milliebear00001

Have you taken everything into account - child benefit, tax credits, child tax credits etc? Will you get maternity pay? A lot depends on what your OH earns and what your outgoings are.

RoxieW

Best thing is to do a SOA (incomings and outgoings) with your situation as a one salary family. Go on entitledto.com to work out tax credits/child benefit etc. If you can cover the basics eg mortgage, bills etc then the rest you can generally live within your means. Although it is far harder to go backwards ie gone from having to not having, then how we did it which was had never had so didnt miss! Perhaps you could do another job part time? Where there's a will, there's a way

Krystaltips

And remember... If everyone waiting until they could afford children then there wouldn't be so many new babies born every year!

Fidget

Thanks Krystaltips. We've been waiting for a few years now to have a second child (for me) first (for him) as it worries me that we only have a 2 bedroom house. We've decided though that if we wait "til we can afford it" we will never be in that position. We don't claim benefits nor would we afterwards but we will find a way I hope.

bluestaff

Krystaltips wrote: »

And remember... If everyone waiting until they could afford children then there wouldn't be so many new babies born every year![/q


great minds think alike

doelani

Krystaltips wrote: »

And remember... If everyone waiting until they could afford children then there wouldn't be so many new babies born every year!

Could not have said it better lol

pollyanna24

All you can do is sit yourselves down and look at your finances. Before I got pregnant, I already knew exactly what was going in and coming out each month. I then worked from that spreadsheet to see what it would be like when the baby came, what we could cut out etc.

I still haven't quite worked out what our groceries will be as I don't have much clue as to how much formula and nappies cost, but I will soon learn as I am due in 2 weeks!

It is true that you will never be able to have children if you wait till you can afford them. We just took the plunge, tried and two months later I was pregnant. Now there is all this fear of credit crunch etc, but all we could do was make sure we were in the best position we could possibly be.

I looked up what benefits we were entitled to (don't say you won't take them, why shouldn't you) and I wil be getting about £600 a month (£450ish maternity, £80 child benefit, £60ish child tax credits) which is a bit of a drop from the £1950 my job brought in!! I earn more than bf which doesn't help, but with a bit of budgeting and a bit of saving, we are doing it.

I'm going back to work after my maternity is up and bf will stay at home and look after bubba and maybe get a part time job. You just have to do what suits you.

I've cut everything unessential out of our budget, like my £40 highlights and bf's £40 gym membership, cut down our sky package, got rid of the lottery budget, now I have no travel, bf bought a motorbike to save on vehicle costs etc.

milliebear00001

Breastfeed and use reusable nappies - it'll save you a fortune!;)

lil_lady_2

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Breastfeed and use reusable nappies - it'll save you a fortune!;)

lol just about to say that

£800 a year to service ouch thats alot .

ceridwen

Krystaltips wrote: »

And remember... If everyone waiting until they could afford children then there wouldn't be so many new babies born every year!

Puzzled now ....errr...why would that be perceived as a problem? Oh well...if one can help keep Alzheimers at bay by using ones brain for solving puzzles - I think this evening's brainstorming session trying to understand why people think less "new babies born every year" would be a problem should help keep Alzheimers at bay for at least another 10 years - LOL!

Sorta thought it would be a blessing myself - 60 million (official total - God alone know real total) population in this country. Optimum population of this country = 30 million.