Is anyone elses OH taking part of their paid maternity leave?

CH27

2522laura wrote: »

We share a car to wrok as we work round the corner from each other and he takes a packed lunch. We are hoping that he can cut down to a three day week and MIL and my Dad have both offered to help out while we are at work so we should have to pay out any nursery fees. I will also ask if I can work from home one day a week, there is nothing I can do in the office that I cant do from home so fingers crossed they will agree to it!

You will not be able to fully concentrate on work with a baby around IMO.
Babies want attention there & then and your boss wants your undivided attention.

2522laura

I know its not ideal but I really cant think of what else we can do. We are never going to be in a better position than we are now and although at 28 and 31 we not not that old, we didnt want to leave it too late, especially as we would like two children.

Life would be so much easier if we could just win the lottery lol!

onlyroz

If the additional paternity leave had been available a few years ago then we absolutely would have made use of it. This implicit assumption that dad is the major breadwinner makes me really mad.:mad::mad::mad:

MrsManda

It may be worth going through your budget again or posting it on the Debtfreewannabe board to see if you can get suggestions on decreasing your outgoings - for a household of 2 you seem to be spending quite a lot. I know our situations are likely to be different but my OH and I spend about half of what you do and it's not as if we particularly watch the pennies.

You mention utilities, have you also looked at reducing outgoings on mobile phones/internet/TV packages?
Could you reduce your mortgage payments by extending your mortgage by a couple of years?

If you spend a lot on food is it possible to change your diet to include more in season fruit/veg and batch cook? it's often much cheaper to buy large portions and freeze into family sized portions.
- Also doing this before the baby arrives hopefully will mean you can have healthy meals which just need defrosting and popping into the microwave rather than trying to cook properly at the same time as settling into a routine with baby.

You obviously want this baby and you'll find a way to work around your finances, people generally do

2522laura

I agree Roz, times have changed, though most of this is due to OH's ill health and him not having the confidence to try and find something else in case they see him as a burden. He didnt sit his GCSE's as this was around the time he started having his first operations, though if he were to stop work all together, further education is definately something he would like to look in to he is certainly intelligent enough, just needs to believe in himself.

Hello Mrs Manda, I recognise you from the 12 - 24 week thread :0)

We cant change the mortgage deal we have as we got a 5 year fix about a year and a half ago and would incur charges, but our mortgage isn't too bad, under £700. This is my budget:-

mortgage: 660
council tax: 135
water: 26
gas: 42
electricity: 28
house Ins.: 11
car ins. both: 60
Life & critical illness cover for me: 22
boiler cover including anual service: 15
bt phone and internet: 27
mobiles - both: 45
TV licence: 36 a quarter
Credit card: 50
Diesel: 205
Tesco: 300
Misc. 120
Total: 2066

onlyroz

What is misc and credit card? Is there a CC debt? And your car insurance seems pretty high as well.

tea_lover

Is the Tesco £300 for a Tesco credit card, or is that groceries? If it's groceries, that's a huge amount for 2 people!

lizzywig

When baby comes you should be entitled to tax credits, I'm on mat leave now and just waiting to get a letter telling us how much. I was told over the phone around £40 a month, so not much but not to be sneered at. Our income last yr was just under £40k and this year will be less, I'm not sure how it will work for you bring back just over £40k but they should take into consideration the fact that you will bring home less this year - whether you are working or your OH.

My big suggestion to you would be to bring down the cost of your food, £300 a month is nice but you don't need to spend that much, might seem an impossible task now but trust me you can live off less. Lots of 4 people family's manage on just £100 a month, you just have to be creative. Husband and I used to spend £240 a month on food and brought it down to £200, we plan to cut it even further but doing it slowly. The £200 also includes all toiletires, household items, nappies and occasional box of formula (as we do mix feed sometimes). Go over to the old style board and there are so many ideas on there. Batch cooking has changed my life!!

So £40 of tax credits, plus £100 saved on food would be £140 a month extra, could you find another £40 from somewhere? What if OH did leave his job and you were the sole earner, he could do Betterware etc or even get a part time evening job when you are at home, maybe just one shift a week at a local pub and that should cover you.

In terms of working from home with a baby, my friend does this one day a week but her son is almost 2 and she's only just started doing this. She finds it very hard and more often than not has to ask her MIL for help. It's your decision what you do obviously but just try to be realistic and not make things too hard for yourself. Do you know about Childcare vouchers? You basically sacrifice some of your salary and get vouchers in return and then some kind of funny tax thing is done so you earn the same but you're actually slightly better off.

Also looking at your outgoings I'm sure you can find a way to do it, trust me if we can do it you can do it. Congratulations on your baby, they're exausting but trust me, those early morning smiles make it all worth it.

2522laura

Misc is to allow for anything that might come up like car tax, mot, parts, anything that goes wrong at home, birthdays etc. Credit card is how much I pay a month off my credit card, the debt on it isn't huge at less than £2k and it is 0% till July 2013. Car insurance is monthly payments for both our cars, his is just over £33 and mine is around £26. The £300 tesco a month is for groceries, we take packed lunches for work so dont spend out any extra on food or drink while at work. That works out at around £66 a week on grocery shopping for me, OH and I have allowed for baby too with nappies etc. This is all worse case, the last thing I would want to do is under estimate and for us to end up in trouble, having a baby is going to be stressful enough without adding money worries in to it so its as realistic as possible rather than idealistic.

2522laura

lizzywig wrote: »

When baby comes you should be entitled to tax credits, I'm on mat leave now and just waiting to get a letter telling us how much. I was told over the phone around £40 a month, so not much but not to be sneered at. Our income last yr was just under £40k and this year will be less, I'm not sure how it will work for you bring back just over £40k but they should take into consideration the fact that you will bring home less this year - whether you are working or your OH.

Hi Lizzy, I did the thing on line to see what we would be entitled to both with me working and with us both working and it said we wouldnt get anything. I think the limit has changed from household income of £60k a year to £40k a year. Also, which tax year will they take in to consideration? Baby is due 25th April so would be in a new tax year so would they work it out on what we earnt in 2011? If so would definately be over £40k. So confusing!!

I do bulk buy packs of meat to freeze down as it works out a lot cheaper but also as OH is very restricted on what he can eat, most nights I do 2 seperate meals so I guess that might be why it works out more expensive? I dont buy particular brands of stuff, just which ever works out cheaper or is on offer. I have done my first shop for this month and it was £48, so I will draw out another £200 to last me the month and see how I get on. Maybe I am over estimating on it??