Low earners planning for a baby - the maths

pmlindyloo

RainbowLaura wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Ah yes, I was aware of the Child Benefit - that will be for days out

[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Comms, I would love to reduce outgoings if that would be possible, though we seem to be on the best deal for everything at the moment. Here's the breakdown:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Food & Fuel £319 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Water £30 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Life Insurance £29 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Gas & Electric £80 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Phone & superfast internet (2 mobiles and landline) £66 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Council tax £138 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Contact Lense schemes £18 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Mortgage £520 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Birthday & Christmas pot £50 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Annual Bills (broken down below) £150 [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Car insurance for both cars £500 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Breakdown cover for both cars £100 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Tax for both cars £170 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]MOT and service for both cars £400 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]TV licence £160 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Boiler service £70 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dentist checkup £50 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cat Vaccinations + Flea & Worm Prevention for year £180 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Home insurance £170 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Unless you mean too high in that it's too high for us to lose my income.

I will be taking maternity pay but am thinking about the period afterwards.[/FONT]

I don't know whether you have mixed up monthly/yearly payments for some of these but some of them seem very high. e.g car insurance, breakdown cover, dentist.

I suggest that you have a good read of everything on this site - use the band at the top of the site and go through all the different categories.

For instance my car breakdown cover is £40 ish a year, my home and contents cover about £300 ish a year.

There are savings to be made.

peachyprice

If some of your substantial nest egg can't be used to tide you over while you enjoy some time at home with your baby what on earth IS it for?

[Deleted User]

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I don't know whether you have mixed up monthly/yearly payments for some of these but some of them seem very high. e.g car insurance, breakdown cover, dentist.

I suggest that you have a good read of everything on this site - use the band at the top of the site and go through all the different categories.

For instance my car breakdown cover is £40 ish a year, my home and contents cover about £300 ish a year.

There are savings to be made.

I believe they are the annual bills listed in the section above, so all annual expenses but budgeted for by the £150 a month in the outgoings

onwards&upwards

Without wishing to be negative, I would leave a lot of the finer details until after you’re actually pregnant, it’s not always something that happens easily when you want it to.

You will be able to manage, so just start trying.

GreenQueen

First of all, well done for thinking it out in advance, that will definitely stand you in good stead.

One suggestion I've heard is to put aside the money you will lose if you stop working, and just live on the other income. That will give you an idea of how doable it is, before you actually lose your income. If you put it somewhere accessible (but not too accessible!), you can fall back on it if you've really gone too low on your budget.

RainbowLaura

Thank you for all the helpful responses - very much appreciated. I will look into vets4pets as well, I'm sure we do have one not too far away.

Peachyprice - some of the money will be used for dipping into before I get my weekend job, but we are keen to save as much as we can. If my husband lost his job, for example, we'd want to be secure until he found another one. We won't be saving anything at all once I leave work.

Onwards&upwards I totally agree, we don't want to take it for granted that we will be lucky enough to conceive easily. But before we do start trying, I just want to be absolutely sure we would be ok financially

99bottles

The average cost of a child is £10k a year.
Natwest have a good calculator for costs.
https://personal.nationwide.com/personal/savings/tools-for-savings/cost-of-raising-achildcalculator.html

My fiber internet+phone and 3 mobile devices is only £45 per month.

99bottles

Correct link
https://personal.natwest.com/personal/life-moments/having-a-baby.html

RainbowLaura

Thanks 99bottles, that looks really useful. My phone doesn't seem to like it for some reason (especially the calculator bit) so I'll look properly on the computer when I'm home. This is what confuses and worries me - how some people say that the only real financial impact is the loss of income (in which case we'd be ok) yet other sources give statistics like that (in which case we will just have to make do with the cats unless we BOTH find ourselves earning double what we do now!!)

PS That sounds like an amazing phone deal, maybe I should have a look... we are a bit limited by reception where we live though which rules out a few providers.

TBagpuss

I think it is sensibl for you to be thinking ahead. You've built up savings which (literally) buy you time to see how things go.

It's worth being aware that if you are out of the workplace for a long time it can be hard to return, so it may be worth aiming to return to work even if it is only on a peart time basis - one or two days a week might be worth doing once any child is a year or 18 months old, even if the child care costs are simialr to your earnings. You might be able to access some free child care which would help.

If/When you do get pregnant, make friends with other mums to bem you may find that this opens up options for sharing child care - I know a friend of mine 'shares' a nanny - her child is cared for by the nanny, who lives with friends of hers. It is much more flexible than a nursery and suiots everyone.

Yur husband could also look into whether there is any possibility of his making a flexible working request to try to have a more predictable shoft pattern. (or, since you are looking at fairly long-term planning, you could also discuss whether it would make sinse for him to consider applying for other jobs ith more regualr hours.