DH won’t pay into children’s savings accounts

Your husband doesn't have to agree with you.
However, I would suggest that he puts something away in savings every month, or extra onto the mortgage - not necessarily for the kids.

It was not cool of you to speak about him putting money into the accounts opened by your parents.
That did embarrass him.

My children will be getting a house deposit when they need one. But i won’t be saving into a children’s account for that. I will be overpaying or my mortgage/ paying into my own investments. I’ll remortgage the house/ paying out of my funds when the time comes. I won’t ever use a children’s account unless I’m in the position that I exceed the isa allowance in a year (which is highly unlikely!)

Orrrrrr, he could have triple the cash and be in control of where it gets spent 🤷‍♀️

when money goes into a child’s account, it belongs to them and can spend where they like. Some of my friends parents have seen savings frittered away on nothing the moment they turned 18.

I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s necessary to have children’s savings accounts and on £47 a year it’s not where I’d be putting my money.

For example paying extra on your mortgage or saving for a house deposit if you aren’t owners.

I think you need a few this as your joint money, so the money that you are paying into their account is from both of you much like I’m sure that the money he pays for the mortgage is for the house that both of you own? And for the bills that you both owe? I think you need to re-frame this in your own mind so that it doesn’t irritate you so much. If it’s such a problem, perhaps pay a little more out of your own bank account if you can afford to do that?

Seems a bit weird to me that you're so fixated on what he is or is not putting into the kids' savings accounts, and minimising everything else he pays for.

If he put £20 a month into their savings accounts, that's £20 less that would be spent on the family every month. You've said he doesn't save, so unless he's pissing it away on gambling or something - he's spending it on family life.

Maybe he understands the finances better than you and knows that there just isn't really free money to put into those savings accounts.

Seems you both should have a proper conversation about it, not this weird passive aggressive dance of you constantly saying he should, and him coming up with half-arsed excuses for not having done when it seems he has no intention of doing so (and seemingly for valid reasons)

Could you not drop DC off with a trusted childminder to take them to school? I did that for years including with 2 DS's with ADHD and worked full time. Childminder also collected them from school and either I or DH collected DC from childminders. Summer holidays we went on a family holiday for 2 weeks then DC went to holiday clubs for other weeks and a week with grandparents.

He probably only agreed to do it to stop you nagging him about it. He doesn't earn much and he's having to support a wife who can only work part time and DC. If he paid into their savings accounts it might mean your DC had less treats now in their everyday lives.

The problem with having too much money in the child’s name means you have no control over it when they turn 18. You may intend for it to be for uni/car/house/travel or whatever but there is nothing to stop the young person blowing the lot at the Trafford Center or whatever.

Is there any chance your DH has savings earmarked for the children but in his own savings account? This is what we do for our DD.

You don't know when your kids are 2, or 7, or 14 what they will be like at 18.
Save in their name, they get the money at 18 regardless.
Save in your name you can choose to give them the money at 18, or hold it back.

Mine will have money to fall back on… in my name though, not theirs! I have very sensible children who, at the moment, I absolutely couldn’t envisage blowing money. Things can change though.

Just because some kids blow the money doesn't mean they all do.

It makes life much easier for kids if they have some savings to fall back on.

OK so he does not have £2k spare each month from his salary.

He has £2k savings that happen to be in his current account. He spends his entire salary each month but fortunately doesn't need to dip into his emergency fund.

If I were him, I'd move that emergency fund into a S&S ISA and let it compound for as long as possible. However, if he has credit cards or an overdraft, I'd use that £2k to clear those ASAP as the interest is hellishly expensive, especially on overdrafts. If this wipes out his Emergency fund, so be it.

There is absolutely no point in any savings account (children's or otherwise) if you have debts where the interest rate is higher than the interest rate you can achieve on your savings. At that point, you're just robbing Peter to pay Paul and losing out.

Then, prioritise the emergency fund. Received wisdom is to build up a buffer of around 3-6 months of your income.

Then, I would start putting cash into a S&S ISA in yours or your partner's name. Not the children's. As others have said upthread, they'll spunk it on skateboards and jellybeans or whatever the cool kids these days are doing when they're 18. You might even consider this as saving for a deposit on a house if you're so inclined. The point is, you'll have the flexibility to use it however you need to.

I'm still at the first stage of this plan, I'm not perfect! But with enough time and consistency, I'll get there.

Once they're 18, you'll have absolutely no say over what they spend it on.

If it’s in their bank accounts, in their names, legally they will have free access to it.

Whose accounts do the child benefit and DLA get paid into?
In our house they are paid into my account, and from there I transfer the child benefit into their bank accounts, in my mind this is their money. They will not have free access to these though, it is to create a lump sum for uni fees/house deposit, not to be spend on clothes and going out, they can get a part time job for that. The DLA goes into a seperate account to be used for things specifically relating to disability, so it doesn't just end up on our household bills

What do you envisage the account being for/ do you have a target amount?

He doesn't have any spare money to put away though

So what would you like him to spend less on in order to save? Why do you get to choose his priorities, when he doesn't get to choose yours? You don't sound like much of a team.

No, the OP is clueless. She thinks that the same 2k in her DH's account at the end of each months is 2k a month surplus, when it is just 2k. DH appears to be spending to the limite on what is not a great income, whilst OP thinks 47k a year is millionaire fair. What I said, clueless. Also putting money into accounts for children ties the money up as untouchable and they can waste it at 18 unless tied up to prevent that. If saving, better put it in an ISA.

Hi OP, you don't even have to walk to the bank. These days you can just open the app on your phone and set up a standing order in just a few minutes.

In all honesty, I understand where you are coming from, your DH doesn't want to put money into their account. Maybe he thinks if you two separate, you will use their money?

This. I remember a while back having a service user whose daughter got £5k when she turned 18. Mum had set up account “for Uni” but the DD had a wrong ‘un boyfriend at the time and the money basically financed his racer-boy car and he then dumped her! Much better to have family savings you have some control over IMHO.

Children's savings accounts are never a good idea. Giving an 18 or a 21 year old a sum of money is an idiotic idea. (Speaking from experience as the 18 year old who blew it all in Topshop and on nights out!)

Once your children are 18, they can access that money and spend it on anything they want. How sensible were you at spending/saving money when you were 18?

I agree with others who have said that any spare money needs to be saved into an account that can be used for any kind of family emergency. If there is money left over when your children are 18, there is nothing stopping you from giving them some then.

But they have a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food on the table.

OP admits he has nothing to save once all the bills etc. are covered, though. The 2k she refers to is a payout he received that just sits there untouched.

If he was to save for the kids, he'd either need to dip into their own savings or cut back elsewhere.