KMNs diary - curbing spending and maximising saving with a new baby

Bluegreen143

Just been reading your diary. So sorry you’re having issues on returning to work after may leave - so many people do sadly. 

Would you consider taking your DS out of childcare and becoming a SAHM? If you can live off one income and would have no childcare costs it may mean you can go ahead and have the next child fairly quickly. Then go back into work when your child(ren) qualifies for free childcare hours.

Just a suggestion but I was miserable on returning to work after my eldest so I took 3.5 years off, had my second in that time, money was tight but no commuting or childcare costs and I saved money cooking from scratch etc. We did cheap stuff for fun like parks and the library and swimming. I returned to work on a higher level of pay when my kids were 2 and 5 (I wanted to stay off longer but got a surprise job offer from my old boss) and worked part time. I do like the extra money now (I now earn as much as DH so have more than double our income from our SAHM days) but I still miss being a SAHM tbh! 

Meant to say though, we had completely joint finances and I would recommend this if you are not working. I didn’t need to ask my DH for money despite not working for this reason.

kiss_me_now9

@Bluegreen143 Thanks for popping in. It's something we've talked about but agreed that for a few reasons, it wouldn't work for us. 

Firstly, I am fiercely independent both in my finances and in my personality. My husband is a worrier and also values his financial independence. We're a team in many things and have a joint savings account but not much more. He carries most of the bills and I cover the day to day household things like food shopping. He worries a huge amount about our finances and was quite upset when we got our first nursery bill through even though we can afford it (sticker shock I think!). Secondly, I have a Masters degree and whilst at the moment there is a huge deficit of professionals in my field, it's not easy to get back into if you leave for a significant period of time and there's a Government push to train people which concerns me that it may be difficult to find a job in 4 - 5 years time. Thirdly, our little one absolutely loves nursery and if I'm honest probably finds being at home with me quite dull. He's quite the social butterfly and apart from a day when he was feeling under the weather has really taken to nursery to the point where most of the time when we collect him he wants to stay. Finally, nursery spaces in our area are like gold dust - there's some here that have 2.5 year long waiting lists for their baby rooms - so if we took him out, it'd be near impossible to get him back in. 

One thing we've spoken about is seeing how things go over the next 3 - 6 months in this 'new' role, and if I really hate it thinking about whether we bring baby 2 forward a little (bit tricky as we've just booked to see our favourite band in May next year) and then I'll take a few years off after that if I still really can't stand it. 

kiss_me_now9

So I had a major panic this morning when I worked out how I'd get to work without parking at the hospital site (as I hadn't received my parking permit yet). All the roads around the hospital are permit only and when I looked at the park and ride timetables I would have to get the 7:15 bus in (which is a 30 minute drive from my house so leaving at about 6:35 to make sure I'm there, parked and registered in time) and the 16:30 bus out (again, 30 minutes drive from my house, and a 20 minute bus ride, so I wouldn't be leaving the park and ride until just before 5pm, not getting home until half 5 at the earliest which gave me a total journey time in rush hour traffic of nearly 2 hours from leaving my ward to getting home, and being out the house for pretty much 11 hours. Cue a meltdown. 

However, I emailed a lovely lady in the parking office and explained that I would need to be home by 5pm to pick my LO up, and she has sorted out and sent me the permit which I can pick up on my first day back. A huge stress off my mind - I can now park on site, £2 a day, in a secure area and not risk a ticket or vandalism to my car whilst I'm at work. I will need to leave at about 7:15 to get there and get a space, but my LO goes to nursery at half 7 so I'll at least see him before I go. I will now be able to pick him up when I get back too, and if anything happens during the day I can go and get him much easier (though my OH will be primary contact as there's no phone signal in the hospital). 

Not very MSE today as I decided that the mornings events required coffee and cake. I didn't spend anything in Tesco though, and have pulled out a sauce out of the freezer to use with dinner rather than buying a jar. 

beanielou

No phone signal in the hospital! That won’t be helpful for the patients. 

beanielou

Glad that you have the permit sorted out though. 

kiss_me_now9

beanielou said:

No phone signal in the hospital! That won’t be helpful for the patients. 

Tell me about it! Even less helpful for us staff who now have to receive a text message to enter our email inboxes. Great forward planning there 

beanielou

kiss_me_now9 said:

beanielou said:

No phone signal in the hospital! That won’t be helpful for the patients. 

Tell me about it! Even less helpful for us staff who now have to receive a text message to enter our email inboxes. Great forward planning there 

You could not make it up! 

kiss_me_now9

Honestly, that is the the summation of the NHS at the moment @beanielou!

beanielou

kiss_me_now9 said:

Honestly, that is the the summation of the NHS at the moment @beanielou!

Sadly from the tales I am hearing it seems to be. I am glad that I am the age I am now. I have cerebral palsy & they were excellent when I was much younger. Now I can’t even get physio as apparently it does not help me to mobilise. 

I pay every week for private physio to help me to mobilise!! 

kiss_me_now9

beanielou said:

kiss_me_now9 said:

Honestly, that is the the summation of the NHS at the moment @beanielou!

Sadly from the tales I am hearing it seems to be. I am glad that I am the age I am now. I have cerebral palsy & they were excellent when I was much younger. Now I can’t even get physio as apparently it does not help me to mobilise. 

I pay every week for private physio to help me to mobilise!! 

That is really sad to hear - physio can do wonders for so many things. There is so much wrong at the moment with how the NHS is run and what the priorities of the top brass is. It's very frustrating from all sides as we know as professionals how good we could be!