decided to try for a baby. Budgeting help

haras_nosirrah

Thanks for the responses

We are very careful with money and this will continue. We have been overpaying the mortgage by £500 a month and I am now going to redirect this money into savings instead. Hopefully I will then have around 6k in savings before baby. I hope this will be enough.

My husband and I have decided he will be the main carer. I have a career I love which pays well and he has a job he hates (he tried to change jobs but owing to the recession he has decided to stay put as he has been there 10 years and has a certain amount of protection re redundancy) He is much more domesticated than me so is happy with the arrangments. We can't change our mortgage as we are tied in till 2014.

Is 6k going to be enough in our situation? I am a bit of a worrier and don't like not having money behind us. My company pay the bare minimum they can get away with (only base maternity on basic pay even though about half my salary comes from commission) so it will be a big shock. Maybe we should try and live on the baby budget now?

Gillyx

I think to try and live on the baby budget now would be a good idea, it would mean you could save more, while seeing what works for you. Work out how much money you would need to live on a budget per month, and multiply that by how many month maternity you'd like to take, obviously taking into account SMP. That's how much you'd need to save, I can't say if £6000 would be enough or not as I don't know the ins and outs of your bills.

Remember there is Ebay, Freecycle, Netmums etc for buying/getting things, not everything has to be bought brand new and also family members are very generous. Good Luck

sassyblue

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

We are very careful with money and this will continue. We have been overpaying the mortgage by £500 a month and I am now going to redirect this money into savings instead. Hopefully I will then have around 6k in savings before baby. I hope this will be enough.

Is 6k going to be enough in our situation? I am a bit of a worrier and don't like not having money behind us. My company pay the bare minimum they can get away with (only base maternity on basic pay even though about half my salary comes from commission) so it will be a big shock. Maybe we should try and live on the baby budget now?

6k is going to be fine IMO You bring home more than we do and we managed better on maternity pay after baby was born than before. Not going out so much and thinking twice before buying anything meant we were and are better off now than before baby! I have gone back to work though and our combined income is around the £2,200 you bring home.

Mind you, what with all his monetry presents and the bit we put by for our son he is richer than us. :rotfl:

You'll probably be kitted out with clothes presents for babys first 6 months and they really don't need as much as you think, babies are as cheap or expensive as you make them.

We get approx £120 a month in child benefit and tax credits l guess you'll be on the same going by your income. We get £42.10 in tax credits (included in the above figure) but that's because both of us work, if your hubby stays at home l believe you'll get £21.05.

HTH and good luck xx

Pee

I'm TTC, but without any success. If we were successful, I'd have carried on working with my boyfriend being at home with the child. (This is because he is a builder so previously earned good money but is now really struggling with work.)

We also wouldn't have much in the way of family support.

I read some posts on here where women found it very hard going back to work, leaving the baby with OH and were tending to describe OH as lazy.

I still take the view that it would work for us, and by that standard it means it should work for you, but you should be aware that it certainly doesn't work for everyone.

gratefulforhelp_2

Honestly, however fab the Daddy is, you may really really want longer at home than 20 weeks.

Plan for a contingency, so if you want longer, you can have it.

haras_nosirrah

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

I have a career I love which pays well and he has a job he hates (he tried to change jobs but owing to the recession he has decided to stay put as he has been there 10 years and has a certain amount of protection re redundancy)

why oh why oh why did I open my big mouth. Hubbies workplace is now on notice of potential redundancies as of today. He will find out in two weeks what is happening. A word starting with f and finishing with k springs to mind

jockosjungle

Definitely try to live off the budget now and put the rest into savings, that way it won't be much of a blow when the time comes and you'll have a little nest egg.

I would also say that if we all waited for the time that we could afford to have children then nobody would ever have any children. You just somehow manage to cope with the extra expense.

Make good use of these forums and other places, loads of good deals on nappies, etc. if you look around

R

gratefulforhelp_2

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

why oh why oh why did I open my big mouth. Hubbies workplace is now on notice of potential redundancies as of today. He will find out in two weeks what is happening. A word starting with f and finishing with k springs to mind

Hugs.

See it as giving you extra time to prepare? (And practise!!)