Hoping to be a SAHM

Yorkshirechick

Hi everyone,

I suppose I'm not an official DFW as I only have a teeny amount of debt. However I'm hoping to take a year off work when baby number 2 arrives at the end of October, and then hopefully not go back.
This seems to be the best place to put a diary of my spending and saving (if there is any), so here goes :beer:

I'm 27 and live with my hubby who is 29, and our little boy who is 18 months old. I'm also nearly 6 months pregnant with our second baby.
Hubby works full time, and I work 26hrs a week at the moment, with our little lad going to a childminder 3 and a half days week while I'm at work.
The plan is that we save as much as we can at the moment, so I can have a year off work on maternity with the littlies, and then if we can manage on my maternity pay, I will hopefully give up work altogether til they're both at school.

I suppose the best place to start is our SOA, so will sort that in a minute.

Also, we've just had to take £600 out of the baby/maternity savings, as we've just traded both our cars in for a bigger family car that is much cheaper to run, insure and tax.

Yorkshirechick

Ok our SOA

OH wage £1550 (£200 comes out before he gets paid before childcare)
My wage £1100 (143 comes out before I get paid for childcare)
Child benefit £80
Tax credits £39
Total incoming £2679

mortgage £692.90 this is interest only at the moment
council tax £115
gas/elec £115 They've just upped our DD to this, but am going to query it
life insurance £37 keep meaning to change this
pet insurance £25 for 2 cats and a dog
house insurance £25
child trust fund £10
credit card £50 owe £400
landline £15
mobile £10
broadband £5
tax/mot £25 put away monthly to cover, but isn't really enough
xmas £25 to spend on pressies at Xmas, and DS birthday in Jan
Hubby car ins £35
water £29
tv license £15
groceries £160 We usually overspend on this
fuel £120 Not entirely sure on this yet as have just got new car last week
Total Outgoings £1508

On paper it looks as though we should have loads to spare each month, but for some reason it doesn't work like that

Yorkshirechick

The bank situation at the moment is:

Current account -£491.79 This is because we've just paid £600 part-ex for our new car. Money is on it's way over from savings to cover this

Other current account -332.73 I really couldn't tell you why we're so overdrawn in this one We got married in December last year and have never really seemed to get back into the black...

Xmas fund £25 - had to spend the money on mending the old cars
Baby fund £1000 - we did have £1850, but £600 has gone on swapping the car, and I have £250 going over to clear the other overdraft so hopefully we can start from scratch.

Car ins fund £320 - hopefully we will be able to pay the car insurance off in full (or most of it) and then carry on saving again for next year

Tax and MOT £125 - car tax is due in October, so we should have enough to pay for a year. Although won't cover the MOT

House ins fund - £252 this is due to be renewed in September, so it should cover it.

Yorkshirechick

Also - if I do leave work, and we live on just Hubby's wage, we would have incomings of £1750 plus the CB which would be about £130 and tax credits which would be about £60.

So that would be incomings of £1940 and outgoings of £1500(ish)

KatieShopstoomuch

hiya! Well done on saving by swapping cars great idea! How exciting getting ready for a new arrival! At least you are getting very well organised, will be following your debtfree/savings journey

Yorkshirechick

Thanks :-)

The plan is to save as much as we can before I go off, and then be as tight as possible whilst I'm off - whilst still allowing me to have a life.

Hubby wants to buy a little bike/scooter to ride to work on so I can have the car while I'm at home. I've been keeping my eye on Ebay for one, but don't want to eat up the last of the baby savings...

KatieShopstoomuch

Well you have a few months to get the baby fund back up again! Have you tried gumtree? You may get a good deal on there. I love it send the man out on a bike and keep the car! LOL in what ways have you started being tight?? I need to start tightening my spending too i've only been doing it with food so far.... I'm amazed how many meals can be stretched out of one chicken!

Yorkshirechick

Allsorts of ways. For one I'm not splashing out on loads of maternity clothes, cos I've only got 3 and a half more months of wear. I've got a few nice bits, and then some stuff that's a bit more scruffy from last time. So I wear the older things in the house and keep the nice things for going out.
Also it's too easy for hubby and I to go out shopping on a Saturday and spend £100 on things we don't even really need! So we don't go shopping any more, simple as that. We just do jobs round the house, and take our little lad to the park.
Have you got a diary? I'll have to have a nosy :cool:

KatieShopstoomuch

Yeah just started one myself, infact it's my 2nd one my last one got abandoned while i ran off and spent more money whoops! I'm going to wise up now lol. Three and half months awww i'm so so so broody lol but it's never going to happen! Great idea i've been doing similar as i would do the same on a Saturday and just go and waste money so i'm trying to take my daughter out more and make up picnics so i don't spend money in cafes. Also taken on some OU courses to keep me busy during the summer and off clothing websites, keep up the good work!

Yorkshirechick

Well I almost had a NSD today, but had to buy some bread, and have had to send hubby out for nappies and teething gel for DS. He's just been awake and crying for about half an hour shoving his little fist in his mouth. Poor lad was really upset. A kid at his childminders has suspected swine flu, so I'm hoping that it's just teething, and he's not caught swine flu off him.
I'm also hoping hubby will bring me some chocolate home.

Fire_Fox

Of course you are a proper DFW: it would be a strange world if we positively discriminated on the size of one's debt!

I notice you seem to have quite a few different pots of money, and that you have overdraft but also savings. Would you consider switching banks? Alliance and Leicester have a current account which matches your overdraft limit at 0% for one year, and another current account at 6% interest. You can also get £55 for switching banks with a cashback site so if you both did it ....

I think the 'catch' is that you need to have been out of your overdraft at some point in recent times so might be worth temporarily paying off the overdraft with the savings, then taking the money right back out again. I don't work for A&L I just seem to be trying to convert everyone!