House or Baby, we can't do both!

goldengirl28

have a baby...........buy a house later

hubby and i had a surprise 7 years ago, we were in debt up to our eye balls and spent the full 9mths wowrrying about how we would manage with childcare costs etc. especially while i was on maternity leave.

we cut right back on everything, bought stuff of ebay for baby and my maternity wear, we have no parents or siblings that could helpout, so our biggest expense every mth was childcare.

7 years on we have no debt at all (debt free 2 year) and are able to move to a much bigger/nicer in the right school catchment area. (than we could have done to start with)

oh and to boot......................we have the best son in the world

poppy_f1

99% of the stuff needed for a baby you can get 2nd hand, the main things that should be bought brand new imo is a mattress and bottles if your not breast feeding

have the baby then buy

goldengirl28

poppy_f1 wrote: »

99% of the stuff needed for a baby you can get 2nd hand, the main things that should be bought brand new imo is a mattress and bottles if your not breast feeding

have the baby then buy

and car seats

poppysarah

ingy2010 wrote: »

We have no family nearby, we're on our own. It breaks our hearts. My husband is depressed. He wants a child and so do I.

You rent now so move nearer your family. Move jobs too.

Have a baby. But if he's depressed is it just the baby idea and stress of making such a crazy decision (House or baby? Insane. There's never a right time to have a baby - but there's an emotional need not being met that needs addressing.)

Go and make yourselves happy.


Will your family give you the support you expect though? I know someone who whinges cos she finds it hard to go out three times a week now she's got a kid. (Socially not work)

jay7_2

Have a baby.

We were in a similar position 4 years ago. Today, we have two lovely children and are in the process of buying a house. Even if we couldn't buy now we'd never regret the decision of having children. They're the best things that have happened to us!

[Deleted User]

As others have said, the reports that u need enormous amounts of money to keep a child/baby fed, clothed equipped are rubbish. I have a 14 year old and found him very difficult to keep clothed.., my three year old is far far better provided for thanks to ebay (things on there are often very high quality) and its cost me a 1/4 of what my older son cost! I found a very high quality car seat that would have cost £200 new for £50 on there and its been superb, for example. Freecycle is another good idea.

Even when they're teens I make savings. My older son is a bit autistic so as one of his obsessions is game consoles.., life isn't worth living when they break (as they seem to fairly regularly due to poor manufacturing quality on behalf of Microsoft). Major headache replacing it cause of expense so I bought an arcade console for half the price (added his old hard drive from the broken elite system so it was same as elite in the end), had it chipped and download the games (puts me on iffy ground morally but I do what I have to - u get sick of paying £40 a game that gets scratched after two weeks).

I have an electricity monitor, so managed to cut my utilities by half with simple none invasive savings (after a very large utility bill that caused major problems).

Its perfectly possibly to have a very reasonable life with children without paying out the earth. As others have suggested, u can move too.., I live in the West Midlands after living in London for many years.., quality of life is far better (people actually say hello to each other here rather than jump because they think u'r gonna mug them, I quickly made very good friends here after never making any in London where I lived) and its far better for a 'family' life (less busy roads, less traffic jams.., more facilities).

You can manage on very little money and actually find life is far far better. And of course property is far cheaper.., altho wages can be less too of course.

Eric1

ingy2010 wrote: »

Hi,
We looked into child care and the creche would cost £650 pcm minimum.

I find creches ridiculously overpriced, just like houses
Find a good childminder working at her home. Buy stuff on ebay and charity shops.
You'll be fine.

seraphina

No way would I put a house over having a family. Simple as, you'll make do.

nomnomnom

sp1987 wrote: »

Have a baby. Having a home is the priority, not owning it.

My thoughts exactly. I can understand why you want to own a home but it's not going to make any difference to a child. They aren't going to suffer because you rent.

silverlight_2

I vote.....................baby.:T
You can buy a house anytime. Is it much cheaper to rent?
I'm buying a house at the mo and it's only going to cost £200 a month more in mortgage payments then my rent. Tho I do have to cover any nasty repairs, no phoning the landlord and leaving him to deal with it any more!