1st Baby- totally confused

grumpyoldwoman41

Last time I checked this was supposed to be a help forum, with helpful advice - what I see in some threads though is a total joke.

OP asked a question, like anyone else on those Forums - if you have nothing constructive to say.. please move to some "Bitter and jelaous" forum...

Going to click the "report abuse" button a few times now...

moneypanicker

OMG!!!
Why are people so nasty. He was just asking for a bit of advice. There is nothing wrong with finding out whether you are intitled to anything. When you have a baby it is a big financial burden and any little bit to help is gratefully recieved.

47k is not a massive wage and after paying for everything will probably have a lot less disposable income than people who are completely reliant on benefits.

Please do not judge people if they have been paying taxes for years then why shouldn't they claim some back!

OP - you earn a similar wage to dh and myself. It is tough i have 3 children but we worked out whether we could afford them first. To keep childcare costs down i work a lot of evenings and weekends not fantastic for family life but it is only while the kids are little. At present we get childbenefit and some tax credits (due to income being lower last year as on mat leave) but from April i think we will just get childbenefit.

You will manage, some ideas!

• Do you have any family that could have the baby one day a week?
• Use childcare vouchers with work.
• Extend hours so work full time over 4 days. If you both did this you would only need childcare for 3 days.
• DW work part time? (we worked out that we were better off financially if i was part time due to reduction in childcare)
• Meal plan (can keep grocery costs down)
• Make own baby food

Hope this helps! Please ignore all the nasty comments!

Sixer

Robbie Macca - please don't let some of the abusive posts on this thread put you off posting here. This subsection of the forum exists purely to help people find out what they are entitled to under the current system and to help them get it. You're entitled to some CTC this year and so you should claim it asap.

Robbie_Macca

iamana1ias wrote: »

Gosh, aren't you a charmer?! :eek:

Why do you think £800 a month is a lot to pay for housing? Given you must be bringing home almost £3k a month between you it's not exactly excessive.

Shame all of your hard work/uni education hasn't taught you any social skills. And it's "should have" not "should of".

Sorry, but please can you explain where I have presented any unsociable skills in my above posts? All I have done is posted on an 'advice forum' asking for advice, and have got abuse from a few people! What a lovely bunch some of you are. I can only assume that you are perhaps jealous (can't understand why as i'm pretty sure we bring the average family income) or you are one of the baby boomers that have sucked the life out of the country's economy, and are enjoying a nice fat final salary pension (or are going to be imminently)...

If it helps to explain that 47k isn't a great deal of income when you have the outgoings that a typical young family would have.

47k = 2700 a month take home (minus student loans deductions and pensions)

2700 - 800 mortgage, -800 childcare costs, -130 council tax, - 400 utilities and insurances etc, -170 petrol

!= 400 left a month for food, clothes and one of purchases such as getting the car fixed, replacing the broken washing machine etc.

You can hardly accuse us of being flush....

P.S. You are correct, should of/ should have... Apologies for using regional dialect, please feel free to pick holes in spelling or grammar.

Robbie_Macca

Thanks to those that chose to post advice particularly moneypanicker.

We have considered several of your suggestions but unfortunately they aren't options for us.

Both have to work, Monday to Friday, 8-6. Both our mums have offered to help look after the little one but as they work irregular shifts it doesn't help as the nursery need set days for each term.

My wife actually runs a Childcare centre at our local university, bit unfortunately no discount for staff. Paying for the week is the same as 3 1/2 days anyways.

Like the idea of meal plans, that's something that I always feel bad about each week when we chuck onopened food in the bin as it's gone off. Bit better planning would help this!

Indie_Kid

Robbie_Macca wrote: »

47k = 2700 a month take home (minus student loans deductions and pensions)

2700 - 800 mortgage, -800 childcare costs, -130 council tax, - 400 utilities and insurances etc, -170 petrol

!= 400 left a month for food, clothes and one of purchases such as getting the car fixed, replacing the broken washing machine etc.

You can hardly accuse us of being flush....

Plus the £20.30 per week child benefit. My parents lived on half of that (with a mortgage) and managed. There is no reason why you need clothes, replacing the broken washing machine, car expenses, etc. every single month.

Martha1_2

Meal planning is definately a good idea, especially if you are both at work. We also really looked at our food budget when I went back to work as we were spending £100+ weekly and often throwing things out, so i'm much more careful now.
Check with your work about childcare vouchers as that will save you some money. I know entitlements to WTC and CTC are changing but you should put your application in now as you may well be entitled to a small amount for your child being under one.
It may be different as your wife works at the nursery but it is worth remembering that you normally have to pay the fees in advance, so save enough money to cover this when your wife starts back at work but before she gets her first pay.

HTH.

nannytone_2

i worked for as long as i was able. i havent worked for the past 5 years or so Not through choice, but through disability.
My kids both left school after A levels and worked. neither (fortunately) have ever had to claim benefits.
they are both married with children. both work as do their spouses, and they receive not tax credits at all.
they arent on fantastically high wages, but they manage to pay their way without additional help.
my son lives in london, in a tiny 2 bed flat, with a mortgage repayment of £800 a month plus service charge.
both could claim the tenner a week family element but choose noit to as the fuss involved in claiming isn't worth it.
i wish a few more people felt the same!

bubblybee

I just wanted to give some support to the OP. I am gobsmacked at all the unhelpful judgemental responses that have been posted. I am in almost exactly the same situation as the OP except for we haven't had the baby yet but are planning to over the next year. We are not extravagent with our spending and don't do a lot of leisure and lifestyle things that our friends and colleagues do.

Someone mentioned that mending broken washing machines and buying clothes doesn't come every month, my response - no but each month there is something!

OP- I can't give any words of advice that haven't been listed but I wanted to say to ignore the rude unhelpful comments on this thread.

MX5huggy

This thread has turned in to a Monty Python sketch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

both could claim the tenner a week family element but choose noit to as the fuss involved in claiming isn't worth it.

You realise this £10 per week would be worth over £12,000 in 18 years time if saved at 4%, more than 1 years uni fees (although they will be 30k per year by then).

The current system is we are taxed then have to claim it in back via credits, not claiming it back is stupid, you don't get any credit for not claiming.