Affording to have a baby

sulphate

Thanks everyone for your insight!

We just bought the house this year so all our savings went on the deposit and fees etc and we're gradually building them up again now. After that we want to start overpaying the mortgage a little so it's more affordable in a few years. We are used to budgeting because we scrimped like mad to save for the deposit and now we have a mortgage we are scrimping to afford to save.

OH is still at uni (graduates next year) which is another reason why we're waiting although he earns an OK amount for a student and has loans etc our income probably won't dramatically increase for awhile after, as he wants to go self employed. I definitely want to get another promotion/job change before we have a baby anyway. But yes eventually we'll be earning more hopefully!

We're 26 and 28 so time is on our side, but I say the next 5 years as a ballpark figure. My parents were 42 and 53 when they had me and I don't want to wait that long for various reasons.

I don't want to give up work completely - although I know lots of women say that and then change their mind. Many women where I work have flexible working patterns so hopefully that wouldn't be an issue for me, but who knows what it'll be like in a few years. OH wants to be self employed so should be a non issue if he can work it.

We did also borrow within our means, the lender said we could borrow up to £170k i think which seemed massive given our circumstances so we only borrowed £107k in the end. I suppose that's something else, we only have a little 2 bed terrace and if OH is self employed and I'm only working PT it might be more difficult to upgrade to a bigger house… but i suppose kids don't need that much space for the first few years. We only want 2 and wouldn't mind if there was an age difference.

Oops long post again but thanks again everyone its given me a lot to think/feel better about!

imoneyop

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