Kids (Long)

red_devil

its natural to have worries and concerns its a big step having a child but I am sure you will be fine. Go for it.

neverdespairgirl

aileth wrote: »

Statutory maternity pay, would that be something claimed from the government I suppose instead of the employer? Neither of us earn 50k a year so we're fine.

Stat Mat Pay is what you get if employed, Maternity Allowance you get if self-employed and have paid your relevant NIs.

You can play around a bit with the figures - for example, stick in your household details into https://www.entitledto.co.uk as if you were not earning, and husband earning what he is now, and you have a baby born a month ago. That'll give you a rough idea of the position as it is at the moment.

Molly41

Dont leave it too late to have a baby as fertility reduces as you get older x

LannieDuck

We live in a two bed flat, and it's plenty big enough for my LO (20 months). You only really need a second bedroom when LO gets to about 6 months, and even then you don't have to move him/her out of your room if you don't want to. We don't have much of a garden, so your flat sounds better than ours!

Before we had LO, my OH was worried about whether he'd be a good dad.... and he's now a SAHD and loving it! I don't think you can really tell until you have a child how you'll cope. As a PP said, I'd be much more concerned if he was blase about it.

Children don't have to cost very much. Of course it's easy to get carried away and there are lots of things you can buy for them... but you don't have to. Your biggest consideration (as you've already identified) will be working out how to cope with childcare/nursery fees on your salary(ies). If you can do that, you'll be fine

Gillyx

If you wait until you can afford to have a child you'd never have one That being said, paying off the debt should be a priority. Make savings wherever you can. 7k isn't an unrealistic amount. Can you save any money on food shopping, go to Aldi or Lidl to save some, sell any old crap you have laying around the house? I've recently made £500 selling a lot of old rot, but it sold, it was tedious packaging it all up etc but I done it. Any penny you can save or make, put it towards the debt.

Also we lived in a 1 bed flat with no garden when we brought our LO home, we're now in a 2 bed flat with looking towards a house soon (we rent which I guess makes it easier to move) It is doable

aileth

Thank you so much all for the input. The house really is lovely and I know I'm being cuckoo. I've calculated that it should take 2 years to pay off the debt which I don't think is too bad, the toughest bit will be ignoring my hormones!!!

Edit: I did the entitled to thing, only £81 a week where I'm on £500-600 ATM.... That is really rough!

valk_scot

I think you're overthinking it a bit. It's good to be in a financially stable position if possible but the rest...well, you just don't know tbh. Babies have a way of shaking life up in the most unexpected ways, it's like taking a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, throwing it into the air, adding in another 200 pieces and then being told to make a new picture out of it all. It will work, but not necessarily in the way you predict or even want.

When we got married we were getting a bit long in the tooth but the jobs were stable and we had a really nice house with a garden for the baby plus the mortgage under control so we just decided to go for it as we thought it might take a year or two for me to get pregnant. One month later the stick turned blue, six months later we were in a completely different city because he'd been offered a plum job and I'd been made redundant. And we inherited two cats. We were in a totally unsuitable rented flat too, we only moved into our new house four weeks before the baby came and I was painting the kitchen the day I went into labour. Then I had a C-section and couldn't do anything in the house for three months, I was edging round the gaps in the floorboards with the baby clutched under one arm. It wasn't quite how I'd imagined it but it was all fine as it happened and life settled down. Then we decided to go for #2...:rotfl:

Guest101

You'll be entitled to hild benefit, and tax credits too i imagine.

But that's by the by. Kids are great / kids are a nightmare. That will be your two settings once you have kids, and it'll swing between the two from the first second until.......

It's not about affordability. You'll always have enough to get them food, drink, clothes and toys.

Take the plunge i say - im not a wait and se ekind of person tho!

kettlefish

MA (maternity allowance) should pay you 90% of your take home pay, or £132 per week, whichever is lower. This is provided that you have worked for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks preceding your due date. It is paid for 9 months (39 weeks.)

Most families earning salaries of £28K plus with one child will not be entitled to child tax credits, although you can claim a childcare element (not sure of the cut off for that, as I'm a SAHM)

You will however get child benefit of around £21 per week for the first child, £15 ish for each subsequent child (provided you don't have a higher rate tax payer in the household.)

Your house sounds lovely, and who knows what the schools will be like in 5 years' time? Personally I don't think there is any reason why, if you have "several hundred pounds" of disposable income each month, you couldn't pay the debts of in a year, and still have fun - meals out with vouchers, lazy lie ins, long rambles in the countryside, DVD marathons etc. Good luck

pigpen

If you want children in the next 5 years.. those horrid local children will be 5 years older and possibly moving on.. they won't be an influence on your children .. and if it takes those 5 years to have a child that means they won't be starting school for 9-10 years... a school can go from being amazing to super crap and back again in that time!!

Until a few years ago we had over 3 times the amount of debt you have and it is now sorted and dealt with.. focus on clearing that debt and I bet you could clear most of it in a year or two.. especially if you look at alternative activities to your expensive ones now.. free walks, cheaper homemade picnics etc.. there are so many beautiful places in this country you can share and it doesn't have to cost a lot.

Our first home was a 2 up 2 down thing with a small back yard and we managed happily with 2 children in there.. the third was rather cramped and we moved out 5 days before the 4th arrived!