MF before I'm 30

egoode

Hi YoungBaker, just finished reading your thread. Congratulations on the baby. I've got no kids so can't help with plans on that but from my friends they always comment on how quickly they grow so I think any clothes you can get second hand from friends and family is probably a good idea to grab as you don't want to keep buying new clothes every month as they keep growing out of them!

I've started using YNAB and must admit it took me awhile to get my head around how the system work but I find it great. However I attend a few of the free classes they have and it was only after I did those classes that I really started to understand how best to use the software for my situation. The thing I love most about it is having the app on my phone so I can add spends on the go and not have to do it later in a spreadsheet.

welshlady33

Lovely update - congratulations to you both!

EchoDelta

Congratulations!

Definitely second the advice above about second hand baby things. And don't believe the lists of "essentials" in baby magazines etc. And I wouldn't bother stocking up on too much stuff either because you might not want it anyway and if you do in the age of the Internet and the 24 hour supermarket you can just get it if and when you do want it.

YoungBaker

Thanks all - we are very happy

Wife started the first day of her new job today which was exciting, but her being sick before she left wasn't great and she had been dreading telling them thats shes pregnant! (Shes a teacher and we found out over the hols before signing new contract)...

Thanks for the tips on baby finances... We are lucky in that our family have offered to buy us some of our main things, so thinkthe big purchases should be covered for us and we aren't going to buy any clothes other than the bare essentials to begin with.

Having a bit of a panicky mode at the moment thinking how we will survive when on maternity leave... :eek: I guess we dont have much other choice!! :rotfl:

edinburgher

Having a bit of a panicky mode at the moment thinking how we will survive when on maternity leave...

Save hard now! I've experience of planning for maternity leave, which didn't come to pass, but hopefully the pointers are useful.

My approach was to work out:

• Current take home salary
• Mat leave take home salary (include child benefit etc.)
• The difference
• A now budget (i.e. detailed monthly budget with two wages)
• A then budget (i.e. a maternity leave budget. Things like entertainment, work expenses for one, discretionary items were pared right back)

From that point, we knew how much we were going to lose (something like £10k over the year) and worked towards bridging the gap. We saved all we could, and it was comforting to see the gulf being spanned. I.e. one month we'd think 'great, we can cover our minimum budget now' and the next month it was 'hooray, we might be able to buy the odd takeout now!'

I think we managed to get to just over 50% of the difference with a few months to go, I wasn't worried about finances by the time we stopped.

Other than this advice? Try to see if you can go cold turkey and live on one salary - it's a real eye opener.

Final thought - you will be responsible for another person - remember to increase your emergency fund by 50%+ when you are able to do so :beer: