did you save up before having kids?

Lawbag_2

the old adage of

if you save to have kids you'll never have them is true.

While everyone keeps saying how expensive children are, what they dont point out is that you spend money on the children instead of spending them elsewhere. The trouble comes from having kids and still maintaining the same married couple lifestyle.

mrcow

redballoon wrote:

Hi, we are trying for a baby

Good luck

I found that becoming a parent turned me into a super budgeting maniac (then I found MSE!). I gave up my job to be a full time mum, something that I never thought I'd be able to afford. To be honest, we've never been so well off, as we're just more honest and sensible now with our finances (through necessity more than anything else).
Take care

jo_b_2

I don't think that it is ever realistic to 'save up' for kids. It's not as though they come with a fixed price tag!

The best option while you are trying and once you are pregnant is to try to keep a realistic budget. It might be worth trying to do something about your existing credit card debt whilst you have two incomes, such as moving it to a 0% card or a lower rate (assuming you haven't done this already.)

Just take a good look at your regular outgoings as well, whilst you are considering your finances. Are you with the most cost effective supplier for all your utilities, phone line, internet access etc? You can sometimes free up some extra income that way.

Once you are pregnant, make sure you shop around for all the major purchases. www.kiddicare.com offer an excellent range and have much lower prices for major brands than the traditional stores such as Mothercare.

I'm currently expecting my second baby and have started a Pregnancy Money-Saving Diary to chart my money-saving successes (hopefully!)

Good luck with the planned family. Try to get your finances sorted but don't let that spoil the enjoyment of bringing children into the world!

redballoon_2

thanks for all the replies, have worked out that now hubby is working again, we can throw 500 per month on the credit card bill clearing it in a year and still have 270 per month left over to save!!!

kar

You'd be much better off clearing you cc's and then saving afterwards. Saves on interest on the cc's.

Thriftylady

mrcow wrote:

Good luck

I found that becoming a parent turned me into a super budgeting maniac (then I found MSE!). I gave up my job to be a full time mum, something that I never thought I'd be able to afford. To be honest, we've never been so well off, as we're just more honest and sensible now with our finances (through necessity more than anything else).
Take care

I'm exactly the same. I'm expecting my first and was ill earlier in my pregnancy. It was whilst at home, bored, (and having had sleepless nights about how we were going to cope financially) that I found this site and I haven't looked back. In just a couple of months I have completely turned round my attitude to money and have also realised that whilst we're never going to be rich, we will manage. And we'll be able to give this baby everything it needs. And as we have zero intention of ever giving our child everything it wants, regardless of how wealthy we should find ourselves, we should get by just fine !

nadnad

me and OH want kids, but we keep on saying we'll wait until this happens or that happens or wait until we've paid that off, or wait until we get a bigger house etc. Well at the minute we're about to embark on building our dream house which should be ready next June and we've decided that we are going to start trying at Christmas time - cos then we'll be in our house before baby's born and also another reason is that I'll have been in my job 2 years and so get 16 weeks full pay rather than stat. pay, also next year there is supposed to be 9 months maternity leave coming in, so that all seems to work out well. I just hope we don't start thinking that we should really be in the house first and have it all furnished etc cos that'll be another 5 years!

Well that was a ramble but I think what I'm trying to say is there is never a perfect time, just maybe a good time, and at the end of the day we want a baby and I'm sure we'll cope whenver it decides to come along and so will you redballoon.

linlin_3

I must be the odd one out as we lived on one salary for a year to make sure we could afford a family (and to loose one income). During that year I took evening classes and got a reasonable qualification which helped me toward a self-employed career. The income from self-employment has always helped the family budget and I've been an "at home" mum.

Heth_2

Ideally I would like to be able to save up before we have children, although there are also other reasons (mainly me being in the middle of a phd) why having children now wouldn't be ideal either. We've just bought our first house, so would like to build up a decent pot of savings before we try to have kids. I'm sure we would manage though if I did become pregnant by accident.

*Louise*

You seem to be in a better situation financially than a lot of people are when they start having kids.....(think of all the families on benefits who are coping)

I found with my first, a lot of people wanted to buy things for the baby, so there wasn't all that much we had to get ourselves. But if I had waited until I saved up, I would have only had my first child last year, instead of my second...