To ask how part time you’d go if…

I probably would be careful if I had my time again. Part time really impacts the pension and while it seems a long way off I'd make sure I got the balance right. I'm no longer with my ex and I realise those part time years impacted my future. I should have considered it more carefully.

I did 3 for many years for a similar wage and it worked very well (freelance now in the same job so kind of full time now but flexible). For me 2 was too few and 4 too many 3 fitted in very well.

don’t work a Monday I did both Tuesday-Thurs and Weds-Fri and both have advantages and disadvantages

My DH pays all the bills and our joint expenses, our mortgage is paid off now and he pays for our holidays, our expensive hobbies, our cars and our joint socialising. He also pays the uni expenses for our children and for their cars.

I didn't work until all the children were at school and since then I've worked 20 hours a week term time only. I earn £2000 a month which goes towards my pension, savings, clothes, gifts, coffee & lunches with friends, cosmetics, gym membership, weight loss jabs and any other extras I need.

I was coming on to say the same!

I think it depends on your job/ career, to quite a big extent.

In many jobs, 4 days is a bad idea, as they don't replace you on that 5th day, and you end up trying to get 5 days work done every week for 4 days pay.
Going down to 3 days means it is more likely they will find someone for the other two days, or at least it makes it easier for you to draw up the boundaries.
2 days can be nice, but in many jobs it can be difficult to get your work done - remember generic e-mails every employer gets / Team meetings / training courses / PDRs / e-learning / etc etc take the same number of hours whether you are FT or PT. When you take all that stuff out of your 2 days, if starts really reducing the time to do your actual job.

In terms of money, that is so individual to each couple. What some people consider a luxury or a treat, others expect to have as 'usual'. Look at some of the 'how much do you spend on your weekly shop?' threads (or, quite frankly even the 'how much pocket money do you give your dc?' or 'How much does your student need for spending every week?' threads) to see the vast differences, and that some people can't understand how you spend £200 in a supermarket, whilst others can't see how you can do it for less.

The issue is pension - what are you doing about that?

Following. We’re in the same situation which is lovely. I currently work 3 days and bring in £1300

but I’d prefer to work 4 days and have less work stress and possibly lower pay! I think! But I love saving a nice chunk every month as we’ve never been able to save before.

(Aside from the fact that the job market is absolutely pants at the moment and part time jobs are rare!)

@Beansandneedles I ended up doing full time work on 3 days pay. It was awful. I'm self employed now.
If I had that time again I'd do FT compressed into 4

Agree with this. At one point I was 3 days doing tues/wed/thurs and missing money was a bad decision.

I do 2 days but teacher so easy to jobshare. About 1200 a month which goes on my own expenses like phone, meals out etc and some in the general household pot.

We don't go on big expensive holidays and we mainly buy second hand stuff and I hardly spend anything on clothes or makeup!

For me it's worth it for work life balance and time with DC. We are super lucky as had family help with childcare and now have free hours. I'd still work even if most of it went on childcare though.

I would go up to 3 days but no more! 4 is basically full time.

I'd do 4 days per week. In my personal experience 3 days was too much of a drop career wise. It was really just keeping my job open.

If the job type suits it then compress 5 days into 4. Or 3.5 into 3. As PP say, 4 days gets treated as full time, so you either need to be only working on three days, or paid for five over four days.

Would second this.

Realised I told you all my life story without actually answering the OP's question. Doh! This is basically the answer though...

Having done 4days a week, I found the expectation was basically the same as a full time role. My employer was getting the same amount for 20% less money. Personally, if I were to reduce I’d go to 3 days.

Keen to keep my foot in the door career wise 4 days with Wednesday off. It's tempting to choose Monday because of the bank holiday situation but don't do it if you want to progress, Monday is a key day of the week. Wednesday can be easily missed and caught up on.

My DH could manage find financially without me. My working days have fluctuated a lot in the last 6 years, mainly due to wanting to work/having opportunities come up than any necessity. My salary pays for the childcare (which wouldn't be needed if I wasn't working) and a bit of fun spends/savings.

After DC1 was born I went back 4 days a week and we concentrated on overpaying the mortgage and increasing our savings with the income I had left over after paying childcare. After DC2 was born I went back 3 days, mainly to keep a foot in the door/I liked it. My salary didn't cover both their childcare so working was actually an expense for us. Which is a bit mad. When DS started school I changed jobs, dropping to 2 days, which suited me well at the time. Work have since offered me an additional day doing something which would enhance my CV nicely so have said yes to that and am back up to 3 days. DC2 starts school next year at which point I think something 4 days would be good, or perhaps 3 days spread out over 4 so I do school hours.

It depends what lifestyle you want and how much you want to save. I’m in a similar position in that my DHs salary covers all essential outgoings (just). I chose to work 4 days a week and I bring home £3200 a month. This means we have enough money for family experiences like holidays and days out, can easily afford Christmas and birthdays including birthday parties and can save both for us and for our DC which I see as essential savings. We could manage on less but I didn’t want to compromise too much on lifestyle and I still get one day a week at home in the week.

I do 4 short days. This adds £1100 to the household budget and we save most of it.

We live in the NW, so three days used to be enough. At one point I did 12 hour shifts, so 36 hours a week in three days. Now I'm nearly 60 and with GC, I wish at times I didn't work as much as I did. Time does go quickly and you don't get it back. You can hammer your hours later, just overpay your pension.

Are your funds and savings all pooled together OP? 3-4 days sounds ideal, unless you don't share your finances and then I'd probably stay full time for security.