The 'cant afford a baby' generation?

TotallyBroke

barnaby-bear wrote: »

To buy somewhere two bed around here you need a 40-50k deposit and a joint salary of 80k+, the people in one bed flats are the ones who are working full time and have qualifications and skilled jobs..... lower down the ladder couples live in a room in shared houses....

But that is only in recent years due to people being greedy. I bet 10 years ago the same property would not have cost that much. I bet 5 years ago it wouldn't and I bet it is has dropped in value this year compared to last year.
Before people started borrowing exessively people were only expected to put down a 10% deposit and they were only lent 2x the higher wage and 1.5x the lower wage.
If you left university at 21 after higher education and got a job with a salary of £25,000 (which I hope would be a hell of a lot more after 5 years of extra education) you could be living at home with parents and saving 50k easily in 3 years. By year 4 you could've saved enough for a wedding and by year 5 (jointly with partner) you could both have enough saved to have children without any need to ever worry about the costs.

lynzpower

We would have to search bloody hard!

galvanizersbaby

lynzpower wrote: »

haha no! My fault again PA! Not PM lol, must be catching

:rotfl: Damn and there was me thinking I'd solved somebody elses money issues!

lostinrates

TotallyBroke wrote: »

When does a baby ever stop needing any parent full time? I'm 35 in a few weeks time and I still need my parents full time. Ok I have my own home and no longer live with my parents, they no longer provide my clothes or food or pay for my education. (Well they do provide me food on a Wednesday as that is the day we go to see them each week). But I still need them as parents to advise, share experiences and to give moral support.
I am working full time but once I drop my son off at 7am to go to work I do not switch off my mothering switch. It just goes on standby until I have left work then is powered back on.
I'm able to provide for his basic needs of food, warmth, clothes etc by working. I'm able to pay someone that is more qualified as a carer than i am to do the same while I'm working and I'm still able to provide the love and nuturing for him when we are together. I prioritize him before other things because I deem him as more important. If I found myself struggling again then the tv, internet, telephones etc would all go. I'd cut back considerably on my utility usage and also our means of transport. But I do not comprimise on quality time together.
What is the difference of returning back to work at 3, 6, 9 or even 12months? At some point if you have not been able to save to lose a full time wage to be a sahm or sahd then you will have to return to work.

I had hoped I had phrased my reply so as to make clear I was not trying to make a judgment on others as individuals just questioning whether our approach as a society in this respect is right. I apologise if it offended you -or anyone else, it was not my intention.

I am not going to draw a line where I think in my opinion...ineducated opinion, as I said earlier, I am 'childless'..children no longer need there parents...as you say, we always need or want our parents, and there are very many absolutely wonderful, unbeatable hardworking mothers and fathers where both ..or the sole parent...work.

lostinrates

TotallyBroke wrote: »

But that is only in recent years due to people being greedy. I bet 10 years ago the same property would not have cost that much. I bet 5 years ago it wouldn't and I bet it is has dropped in value this year compared to last year. .

But its tough if these last few greedy years have been those when your body was ripe for baby making!

barnaby-bear

TotallyBroke wrote: »

But that is only in recent years due to people being greedy. I bet 10 years ago the same property would not have cost that much. I bet 5 years ago it wouldn't and I bet it is has dropped in value this year compared to last year.
Before people started borrowing exessively people were only expected to put down a 10% deposit and they were only lent 2x the higher wage and 1.5x the lower wage.
If you left university at 21 after higher education and got a job with a salary of £25,000 (which I hope would be a hell of a lot more after 5 years of extra education) you could be living at home with parents and saving 50k easily in 3 years. By year 4 you could've saved enough for a wedding and by year 5 (jointly with partner) you could both have enough saved to have children without any need to ever worry about the costs.

Ahh I must tell everyone they are just neglecting to use their time machines and failed to ensure they have parents with the space to accommodate (presumably that rented 1-bed flat again) them - in an area with work. I think you forget student loans and universal degrees mean qualifications do not mean great paid jobs.... and 50k is a deposit on a one bed flat, mortgage would still have to be met.

galvanizersbaby

lynzpower wrote: »

Exactly!

2300 pcm at the mo turns into
325 for our bills and some fees for the tied accom. The rest is saved, food, the usual expenses.

So in order for us to move:
2300 -
1000 for the flat hopefully inc coucil tax
990 if we assume 45 quid per day childcare on a 22 day working month that someone else had already posted.
this would leave us a grand total of 310 for clothes, savings, food , OHs transport to get to work ( tube pass about 130 pcm- it would obviously be more if we moved further out) electric, gas, tv license, insurances, the odd gift, haircuts, prescriptions, OHs glasses, internet, phone line, and OHs mobile -(i could easiy get rid of mine already considering it).

If someone can tell me this is doable without claiming benefits, then we'll start trying tonight :A

Lynzpower - whereabouts in the country are you? London I assume?
Your joint wage seems low for the area your living in if it costs 1K pcm to rent a 1 bed flat
I would imagine it's OK now while your not paying a mortgage/much rent but in the future wouldn't you be better off changing jobs/ moving to a cheaper area.

I live on the South Coast (approx 1 hr and half commute from central London) and you would be looking at around 500 pcm rent for a one bed flat

shellnapier

i dont know..i am on the fence made me think!!!
i really want another baby just now, my litle girl is 2 and i went back to work in december, and i say we cant afford another baby at the momnet we live in a 2 bedroom council house, and dont have the room, adn cant afford a house as not enough saved for deposit. and we cant afford for to stop working again, my contract is up jly 2011, so hopfully after that well be better off... and i can have another, but tehna gian i dont see how peopoke who dont have 1 can say they cant afford cuz they dont know how expensive tehy are, and in theroy they only need to tak 9 months off work

TotallyBroke

This is quoted from a post you made earlier in the thread.

lynzpower wrote: »

We live in tied accomodation, which goes with my job. Children are not allowed to live in this tied accomodation, that really is that.
OH temps at 8.50 an hour, and I would not be able to continue working the job I do if I had a child. I work on average a 65 hour week for which no overtime or toil is paid for OT. I also work at home ( around 10 hours pw, again unpaid)

Why is your OH only temping for £8.50per hour? Why do they not get a full time job with a good salary each year?
Why do you choose to work way over the average working week for no extra money? Either have the hours contracted into your job for a better salary or ask them to pay you the overtime.
Do you have to have the tied accomodation if you lived offsite would your salary improve.
It is your's and your OH's choice to have these jobs/careers and work and live the way you do. If you want to make a change in your life by having children then you will have to change altogether with your circumstances.
I'm not expecting you to answer these I'm just showing that your choice at the moment to not have children is due to choices you made when you started working. Not because children are expensive things in life.

Gingernutmeg

barnaby-bear wrote: »

But the LL of the theoretical flat doesn't allow kids so you'd get notice served....

And the LL of this theoretical flat will only give you a six month tenancy anyway - so you've no security beyond that, you need to save to cover the (very likely) possibility of moving every six months (cost us 3k last time, and we did it twice last year, and chances are we'll be moving again this Sept as the LL is wanting to sell) and all of the fees and deposits that go with moving. We've moved five times in the last four years, none of these moves have happened by choice and there's NO WAY I'd put a child through that. Sure, we're trying to save for a house deposit but when you HAVE to move every few months, any savings you manage to accrue get wiped out by moving and what do you do when you're not eligible for council housing or a HA property? It's all very well to assume that people aren't having kids because they want a 'lifestyle', but that assumes you can afford to have a 'lifestyle' in the first place ...