Returning to work after maternity leave

Yorkshirechick

Hi All,

Not strictly a DFW post, more of an 'I don't want to get into debt' post.

I'm due to go back to work in October, and after I'd worked out our money it looked like the best thing to do would be for me to go back to work for 30hrs and work these hours over 3 days. That way my little boy would only have to be in childcare for 3 days, but I'd still be getting a reasonable wage.
Now my boss has said I can't do 30hrs, and can either work a 3, 4 or 5 day week. 5 days works out to 42hrs, so 4 days would be 33.6hrs and 3 days would be 25.2hrs.
If I post my SOA on here, would you be able to have a look and see if you think working 3 days would leave us with a reasonable amount to live on??

Income
OH wage £1560 (although soon to get an increase - not sure how much)
My wage £1264 (based on 33.6hrs) or £948 based on 25.2hrs)
Child Benefit £72.40
Tax Credit £58.72 (presume this would go up slightly when my wage drops)
TOTAL INCOME - £2955.12 (me doing 4 days) or £2639.12 (me doing 3 days)

Outgoings
Mortgage £1180
Council Tax £107
Phone Bill £13.61 just for rental - occasionally a few calls
Life Insurance £37.46 - seems to be cheapest we can get for 185k of cover
Car Insurance £80 - we paid this in full last year, so are saving to pay in full again next year
Mobiles & Broadband £45
Gas/Elec £77.50 - this is a lot I think, but heats 4 bed detatched. Also I've been on maternity leave all winter, so will hopefully go down now
£24.36 Pet Ins - for 2 cats and a dog
£21.58 Home and Contents Ins
£10 Child trust fund
£25 Water
£11.61 TV License
£400 Fuel and Groceries (roughly 50/50 split)
TOTAL OUTGOINGS £2033.12

Also need to take into account childcare which will be either £325 a month for 3 days, or £435 for 4 days

This leaves us with either £487 a month (based on me doing 4 days) or £281 a month. Obviously out of this we'll have to pay for clothes, haircuts, presents, stuff for the baby, and anything else we may need - including replacing things if they suddenly break.

Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions on if they think we could manage me working a 3 day week? Also, any ideas on how we could reduce our outgoings/maximise incomings? Or just any comments in general?

Thanks for reading, and sorry it's so long.

YC x

LilacPixie

well from what i can tell doing 4 days a week would increase your childcare by £110 a month but increase your wages by over £300.

I think £281 is a reasonable surplus amount for a family of 3 but doing 4 days would probably be better especially if you plan on adding to your family in the near future as you would be able to save more and have a nice little cushion for unexpected car breakdowns etc.

painted_lady

Go to www.entitledto.com (or co.uk, the site is easy to find), fill in the form as if you were already back at work and paying childcare. I have recently gone back after 12 months maternity leave, I dont earn a bad wage and was surprised to find they covered most of my childcare cost and my usual tax credit didnt go down.

evab_2

Don't forget to find out if you can get childcare vouchers as well, it's saved me a huge amount this year.

Yorkshirechick

painted_lady wrote: »

Go to www.entitledto.com (or co.uk, the site is easy to find), fill in the form as if you were already back at work and paying childcare. I have recently gone back after 12 months maternity leave, I dont earn a bad wage and was surprised to find they covered most of my childcare cost and my usual tax credit didnt go down.

I've just checked on here and we'll get £13 a week, so not enough to even pay 1 day a week at the childminder