How to afford a baby?!

euronorris

It's worth looking at the energy again. We looked at providers when we moved into our place back in Feb and the current provider was the cheapest, so we kept it. But having looked at it a couple of weeks ago, that is no longer the case. So, it has changed quite a bit in just 10 months.


Do you live in a particularly cold/freezing part of the UK? If temps are not expected to drop to freezing, there isn't much need to have the heating on low all day when you are not there. Having the timer to come on say, half hour, before you are due home would be more economical. Or is that your house, being the age it is, isn't very well insulated and takes a lot longer to warm up?

TBagpuss

Obvious places to consider cuts are in your mortgage overpay,ments and pension contributions - both good things to be doing, but you could reduce them. How big is the company you work for? Do you know when the staging date is for them, to start a workplace pension? If that is haopening soon then the employers contribution will slightly offset any reduction in contributions you make.

Child benefit will give you £88.80per month and you have not included your wife's maternity pay which will make a big difference to your figures.

You might be able to reduce your heating costs - wearing extra layers and turning the thermostat down a degree or two can make a big difference.

What work are you planning to do on the house? You have savings - it may make sense to use some of them for insulation / new boiler if those are things which need doing.

Also look at your mortgage - would it be worth making a capital overpayment to reduce the monthly costs? what is your interest rate compared to what you are earning on your savings? I would not suggest using all the savings for that purpose but it might make sense to either pay of a chunk, or to use the savings to fund the mortgage overpaym,ent each month (e.g. your mortgage payment from your monthly budget would go down to £500 with the other £100 coming from the savings)

enthusiasticsaver

I think you are actually in a very good financial position compared to many soon to be parents. You have no unsecured debt and you have savings and a low debt to equity mortgage. In your position I would calculate how much work you need to do to your house to make it liveable in for the next few years (bear in mind any energy efficiency in particular as babies need to be kept warm and you will be doing lots more washing than before). I think I would keep back some of your savings as an emergency fund and an amount for work on the house and pay a chunk off your mortgage from that £30k to get the payments down unless the interest rate is really low in which case stick the savings in a high interest current account to give you a little bit of interest until your OH goes back to work.

SG27

When I say the heating is on I mean it's on a thermostat and will kick in when it drops below 19c. We keep it fairly warm to keep any damp or condensation away.

SG27

Our mortgage is 2.99% with two more years of a fix left. The majority of our savings are in 3%+ current accounts, also I prefer having the money in the bank if we needed it. So I would want to make any large lump sum OPs at the moment.

The house is about as well insulated and efficient as a 300 year old cottage can get really. So not anything we can do in that respect.

Child benefit will come in very handy!

chelseablue

I'm finding the biggest cost when it comes to a baby is the childcare bill.


We pay £760 a month for 3 days a week.

TopQuark

I'm 8 months pregnant and by far the biggest expense for us looks like being childcare. It is 2,200 GBP per month (we're in Switzerland)... I am still struggling to come to terms with forking out this every month! Hoping to breastfeed exclusively for the first few months, so that should save on formula. Having to reign in my husband though as he is a gadget-addict and keeps finding totally unnecessary products to buy (electric snot sucker, anyone?!!)

SG27

chelseablue wrote: »

I'm finding the biggest cost when it comes to a baby is the childcare bill.


We pay £760 a month for 3 days a week.

That's slightly more than. My wife would earn for 3 days! Basically we need parents for childcare!

SG27

TopQuark wrote: »

I'm 8 months pregnant and by far the biggest expense for us looks like being childcare. It is 2,200 GBP per month (we're in Switzerland)... I am still struggling to come to terms with forking out this every month! Hoping to breastfeed exclusively for the first few months, so that should save on formula. Having to reign in my husband though as he is a gadget-addict and keeps finding totally unnecessary products to buy (electric snot sucker, anyone?!!)

Wow you must have a very well paid job to make that worthwhile!

euronorris

SG27 wrote: »

That's slightly more than. My wife would earn for 3 days! Basically we need parents for childcare!

The cost of childcare varies depending on location, whether it's a nursery or a childminder etc. So it's worth looking at the various different options.