Family of 3- How much to live on?

lilian1977

clearingout wrote: »

For baby, seriously get into the habit of buying their clothes during sales - there really is no need whatsoever to ever pay full price for anything for small people other than for shoes (and not even then if you can time it right!). Buy ahead the whole time - you know baby will need a winter coat this time next year , so get one in January at half price and stash it in a cupboard! You get the idea! Baby will never know (let alone care) that it's 'last season'!

babies don't need much - a few toys (not hundreds!), a bouncy chair, baby gros and a mummy and daddy to love them (or in the case of my third one, just a mummy!). It's only when they get to school that they become aware of what others have and therefore what they don't have....before that, you're 100% perfect in their eyes and can do no wrong so enjoy it!

I have to keep reminding myself of this - I've been buying up cheap gifts from the Grabbit board to put away for birthday and Christmas presents for the next few years, I keep thinking "Hmm, but what if they have this by then?" forgetting that baby will not be buying itself anything!

ironman1

I have just been reading up on the Health and Pregnancy grant and can't believe my gf will be a week out from receiving the £190! Would have been good to go towards costs aswell

kindofagilr

ironman1 wrote: »

Only a few months until our first baby comes on the scene. We are both excited and can't wait but I can't help but worry a bit how we will cope money wise...

We are both 24 and live in a Shared Ownership two bed flat in London. So we have to pay mortgage, rent and Service Charge. All in these three bills come to around £900 alone.

We are coping ok at the moment and since moving in two years ago still manage to overpay our mortgage each month and go on the odd holiday and out with friends. Neither of us mind staying in and know next year we won't have much spare cash to go out much.

I think my gf will get around £500pm for the first few months and then it gradually goes down. She will probably be out of work for quite a while as child care costs are obviously high.

My work as a builder is hit and miss at the moment and my take home pay has averaged about 1300pm the last year (self employed).

We are good with bills and know exactly how much food shopping will come to and we only spend about £120 a month on that. The only bill we can cut down on is Sky which is obviously a luxury although I'd like to keep it if possible.

We've signed up to all baby clubs and things like clothes and cots etc we are ok for (don't you just love family!).

Anyone on here in the same boat who can give us some advice and reassure me in any way?

Really looking forward to being a Dad and we are both glad we are going to be parents, just after some advice!

Thanks

Congrats on baby

One tip that I got was to save my Tax Credits (only get the bog standard £20ish a week) and Child Benefit (which is £20ish) then when my wages were reduced (I got full pay for 26 weeks, then SMP of £120ish for 13 weeks) I would have a little pot to cover the loss of wages

kindofagilr

Look out for the asda baby events, they have good deals on nappies and wipes

And buy cheap clothes, but dont buy too many before baby born I was lucky and got given loads of clothes, but then when E was born he was 10 pound 11 and was too big for a lot of the clothes we had been given, Asda do packs of 7 vests for £7 which I think is great, and my mam just bought E a load of clothes from primark, tshirts £1.20, jogging bottoms £2 etc, and ebay is a good place, you can get a lot of bundles from there for not much money

JoJoB

At a quick glance it looks like you haven't included council tax and tv licence in your expenses. Do you have contents/life insurance etc?

One thing to consider re tax credits - after the baby is born you will apply for child tax credit. The calculations will be done on your household income of the previous year. Your baby will be born after April, is that right?

So as soon as you get the tax credits statement back telling you what you will get, ring them back and register a change of circumstances for what your girlfriend will be earning April 2011-12.

Your partner's maternity pay for next tax year is disregarded - so tho she will have £500 pm coming in it will not be taken into account in calculating your tax credits. Only her earnings from actual work will be used in the calculation - which may be nothing if she decideds not to return after maternity leave is up.

This should mean you get a higher rate of tax credits - which may make you eligible for other things too, tho I am a bit out of the loop now as to what other help is available. Is the surestart maternity grant still there or has that been scrapped? If it is still available then if you were on the higher rate of tax credits you would automatically become elibible for that - but like i say that might be one thing that has disappeared since the women and children haters came into power!

lizbob

ironman1 wrote: »

She will be about 23/24wks by then! Great..

same as me, sucks doesn't it!

ironman1

Wow all this about tax credits and grants seems complicated, thanks for the advice.

We were paying our TV Licence up front so that needs to be added to outgoings. The Council Tax is monthly but that was in my original post about our outgoings.

One bit of good news is that after seeing the Midwife my partner was told her original birth date was 18th April so that will go on the form she has to fill out on 5th Jan. Will that mean we get the £190 grant now? According to the M/W it does...

Thanks again

poppyscorner

Also agree with buying things in advance with both of my boys I had a stock pile of toiletries, nappies, wipes and milk it was invaluable tbh

It was a huge strain taken off the finances to have it all there ready and they were all bought on some kind of offer which freed up the child benefit to pay for either baby equipment that we needed or to go into the bills pot.

Be careful not to get sucked in by the must haves that the stores suggest you buy babies actually need very little - a way of being trasported and a place to sleep are the only must haves out there

Is there still such a thing as a sure start maternity grant ? does anyone know and will the OP be entitled to claim it ? I got this with DS2 and it was a huge help

good luck with the baby OP

ironman1

It seems terrible talking about money and costs when we are so excited about our first baby, but thats the realism these days eh... Especially where my earnings have dropped and we have quite a bit 'outgoings' statement every month.

We have a crib and quite a few bits of clothes. Are we better to wait to get most things in a sale at Christmas or now?

Indie_Kid

The sure start grant still exists. in April, you can only get it if this is your first child. So, if you or your partner have a child from a previous relationship, you can't get it.