will i be able to afford to have kids?

smorri4

Hey

Been thinking recently how the hell i would afford childcare costs if i were to have kids. Both me and my partner work FT bring home £50k a year (37k) after tax. Been on entitled to, and we wouldn't get any benefit at all with us both working, and even then a measly amount if i were to reduce my hours or quit work (which i don't want to do). We have a mortgage bills (totals £1400 a month) - so what do you do? quit work and have like 10 kids or just not have them? HELP!

would be interesting to speak to other couples who have been in this situation and find out what you did to overcome it?

thanks

james_collins_2

Children are very expensive. Even nappies cost a fortune. If you really want to have kids tho, then money shouldn't ever stop you. There are people with far less money, but their kids bring them all the joy in the world.

Xaviera

Plenty of people have kids on a much, much lower salary than your single one, the truth is there's never a right time to have kids!

Maybe your husband can give up work?

Who do you think should pay for your childcare if not yourselves?

single_lonely

yes everyone can AFFORD to have kids, we all have to make sacrifices along the way though.

give up a car, downsize (or move upnorth)

remember most companies give maternity FULLY PAID upto 6months (correct if im wrong please).

plus, everyone with kids gets Child Benefits.


good luck

Pee

I think you may be entitled to some childcare vouchers, but effectively having children means reducing the money you have coming in. Are you intending to have the children and go straight back to work? How much time do you actually expect to have with your children?

smorri4

i appreciate that lots of people have kids and earn less but i seriously don't think we could afford it.
I earn 23000 a year
boyfriends earns 27000 a year

i would get 6 months full paid mat leave then half pay for 6 months and then nothing - ideally i would like to have two children close together so would effectively be off work for at least 3 years ( without pay ). after that i would be looking at going back to work and so then would incur childcare costs - i think local nursery for two kids is approx 190 a week.

that would mean an income of just 1600 a month (boyfriends income)

mortgage - 890
Council tax - 125
insurances - 70
bills water gas elec- 120
tv license - 12
sky/internet - 55
groceries - 200

plus my boyfriend would have to have car for work purposes - we live fairly rural so i woudl also need to keep a car - so again added expenses -

i just don't see how we would do it at all!

SuziQ

You may have to do what a lot of us have had to do-have our children but go back to work far more quickly than we would like. I would much prefer that to remaining childless. As for childcare-I always used wonderful childminders. My children were brought up in a loving home environment and became extremely fond of the childminder and her children. More continuity,plus when they started mother and toddler,playgroup then nursery and school she was abloe to take them to those for me as well.Childminders are often more flexible also and may be willing to look after a child through a minor illness which a nursery wouldn't. All that and they tend to be a lot cheaper than a nursery.

I would have loved to have been a stay at home mum with my kids but we couldn't afford it-and back then there was no such thing as child tax credit or help with childcare costs so you just had to make it work. As others have said,you have to make savings in other parts of your life-it is absolutely worth it.eg- I spend far less than you on groceries in a month for 4 people and 2 cats.

Rich44_2

You manage to feed 4 people and cats on less than £200 a month???

What do you live on porridge?

DreamerV

If you are thinking you could get by for those 3 years...but just not once you need to pay childcare...maybe you could put money aside from your tax credits and child benefit for those 3 years.

You get £20 ChBenefit for 1st child per week, plus minimum ctc at least, which would be £21 pw (maybe more by that time) - so £41pw for yr 1 = £2132

Year 2 - You'd get the £20 pw ChB still, plus £10.50 (lost baby element of tax credits as child over 1) so yr 2 = £1040

Year 3 - You'd have baby number 2 by now....and again a minimum of £21 of child tax credits, also £20pw ChB for child 1, and £13.20 for child 2 (based on current rates) so total of £54.20 pw for yr 3 = £2818.40

So you have a total of £5990.40 and you'll still get atleast the ChB £33.20 pw and CTC £10.50pw for at least the next year as tax credits is based on the lower of the current year or previous year's income. After that if your income is going over about £58000 then you probably won't be entitled (although the thresholds might increase by then). But if it's below that you'll still get your CTC £10.50 a week, oh and you'd still get ChB anyhow of £33.20.

So that £5990.40 saved by year 3 end.....and you'd get at least £2272.40 for year 4. And then at least £1726.40 every year thereafter till the children are older

If you get childcare vouchers from work, you'll get at least 20% tax relief, so if you pay £80 from work, you get £100 of childcare.

I reckon it's doable with the amount you'd have saved if it was extra and the combination of child care vouchers...and perhaps working part time so you could look after your kids some of the time, and put them in childcare at other times. Oh and I think once children are 3, there's a certain amount of hours already funded for in child care.

Becles

For a while I was a single parent with two children on a total household income of £12K a year. My mortgage is £400 a month.

I'm not saying it was easy, but we did manage to have a reasonable standard of living, and I was able to run a car. It just meant looking at spending and cutting out the luxuries, reducing the prices of the essentials, and debating if I really needed things before I bought them.

I still follow some of the principles I learned. We're a family of 5 now, and I bought a gammon joint reduced to £2.15 in the yellow sticker fridge in Tesco yesterday. We had it pot-roasted with veg today, and there's enough meat left over to shred into a pasta dish tomorrow.

dmg24

smorri4 wrote: »

that would mean an income of just 1600 a month (boyfriends income)

mortgage - 890
Council tax - 125
insurances - 70
bills water gas elec- 120
tv license - 12
sky/internet - 55
groceries - 200

It is pretty clear what your main outgoing is, therefore as others have suggested, it would be a good idea to downsize or move area.