What can we do to get through the next few years financially?

[Marigo]

DD 3y and 13mo twins.

Combined income of £70,000. We take home £4200 a month between us. Mortgage is £1400 a month. DD has funded nursery hours now which will bring nursery down to £2100 a month. But still that’s £700 a month for insurance, phones, food, nappies, petrol, car running costs. I just don’t know what we can do. We can’t do it. I don’t know what we’re going to do.

Take a break from making pension payments. Remortgage.

700 should do it? Be tight, but won't be long until oldest starts school?

Any chance either or both of you can condense full time hours into 4 days? You could save 20/40% of childcare if you each have a day at home.

Do a line by line budget because 700 quid a month could cover everything if your petrol costs aren't huge, and you can save money by changing utilities and mobile phone contracts and shopping frugally/batch cooking. Go onto Reddit and look for r/ukpersonalfinance and ask the same question. They are full of excellent ideas. I have twins too and pre funded childcare hours its ridiculously expensive (had to do all of the above...).

Ah just saw you shop in aldi, so ignore that part!

Washable nappies probably £200 cost for the twins and then you're done. But 2nd hand nappies and new wraps IME.

Your DH needs to get a grip and adjust the mortgage repayments it will only be for 3 years at most?

3 DC in largest bedroom and rent out smallest room? May help DH consider changing the mortgage payments.,

Your husband's obsession with being mortgage free by 55 is the problem here... Right now extending the term and reducing your monthly cost on that would free up alot of extra cash which you need right now! Once all kids are in full time school and you can both work full-time without the extreme childcare costs you're currently having to find, then is the time to put some money aside to chip away at the mortgage and make a dent in the term. No family taking home 70k should be struggling to afford to live comfortably, just because of some obsession with being mortgage free within a certain timeframe for goodness sake. So what if you extend it another 5-10 years? Chances are you can bring that back down again when you're in a better position to overpay. Not right now with 3 under 3s. Your husband needs a reality check

Had a similar situation. You have to cut down on absolutely everything for a while. In reality you have £900 a month with the tax free childcare, plus about £180 ish in family benefit (if neither of you earns more than £50k). Thats do-able if you really tighten your belts for a while.

We went into our overdraft, eventually took out a loan to tide us over which we paid quickly when all were in school.

You would only need to remortgage to cover you for the next 2 years. So for example if you currently have 17 years left on your mortgage. Whack it out to 22/23 for 2 years to bring the payments down. And then bring it back in to 15 years once the two smaller ones are in nursery.

I understand DH being obsessed with mortgage. Mine is a bit too but we know if his employment changes significantly that we’d need to do the same.

💐 it’s bloody hard x

How much will childcare be costing us when we’re looking at 1 in school? Or 3 in school? We really need the 8-6 all year round care that we get from nursery.

I will keep working on DH wrt mortgage term.

Who on earth would want to rent a room in a house with 3 small children?

It is doable.
If you haven't already write a list of everything you have going out and how much etc.
With your phone contracts can you change the tariff fo a cheaper one? I recently done this and save £15 a month. Doesn't sound a lot but it isn't when you're on SMP.

I would definitely be looking to extend mtg term. Have you also factored in Council Tax and utilities?

We're in the NW. Its been a while since we used it but breakfast club was about £12 per child and after school was about £18 per child, with a bit of discount for a third child. Holiday club about £35 a day. We got around this by one of us having a slighter later start / later finish so we didnt have to pay for breakfast club. We only had 1 weeks' leave together then each of us would take the rest of our leave to cover as much of the school holidays as we could.

We’re about to be in exactly the same boat. Have an almost 3 year old and twins due imminently. Have the fear big time as to how we’ll cope. Sorry no advice but sending hugs and solidarity x

It looks like your nursery fees are the issue. Have you considered a child minder? Where I am (outskirts of London), nursery costs 70-100 a day while child minder costs 40-60 and you also get a discount for siblings. I would investigate that option.
If you find a good one they will also be able to do drop off and pick ups (mine works from 7am to 6pm) - she charges £10 for each or £15 for both. She also works during most of the school holidays so I use her a lot during that period as well.
I have never used an au pair but I believe it would be cheaper as well with 3.
Your mortgage looks standard and it would help to reduce payments for a couple of years until your eldest starts school.
Good luck.

@SherbetSaucer do fuck off. Assume you have just the one child/no children then

People keep telling us to get an au pair. Where will we put one pray tell? Under the stairs?!

School wrap round care in the south for me is £4 for breakfast club and £9 for after school club until 6pm.
So £13 day per child.
School holiday club is approx £25 per child a day.

I stand to be corrected but dont think au pairs are allowed to do that kind of childcare.

That nursery fee seems extortionate! Whereabouts are you? I’m in East London and we pay £55 a day. If your older one is three are you getting your free hours etc? My priority would be moving her to a more reasonably priced nursery!

Sorry, summer holiday club is £25 a day. Not linked to school.

@megletthesecond So £13 day per child thats unbelievably low. Not sure thats the norm.

Nursery £56 per day first child, 10% discount 2nd child, 15% 3rd child. Quite average for here.

Childminder stresses me because of being subject to her hols and illnesses. I like the reliability of nursery. I’m not sure au pair can have sole charge of under 2s? And where would they live?

Instead of sending kids to nursery every day consider a child minder or if you have a spare room an au pair. I am assuming you have no family or friends who would do some childcare for you for free.