Affording a baby?

[KaptenKrusty]

In the middle of buying a house - the mortgage repayments are going to be fairly high (£1300 a month) - this is for a 2 bed house!

Currently we live in a 1 bed rental that is 1450£ a month - so the mortgage will be lower than what we are currently paying! We can afford this at the moment - we have even managed to rent this apartment and save for our deposit at the same time over the last 3 years!

Hope to ttc once we are moved into the new house - I've been doing the sums for how we will manage with me being off work (I only get statutory mat pay) - Husbands salary will be able to pay the mortgage and bills - but there will be very little left to live on after that!

Obviously I plan to save up as much in advance of baby being here to get us through the mat leave - but I feel like even when I go back to work we will still be struggling to get by - my salary will cover childcare and I will have about £200 left over!

So this will likely be a 5 year period that we will be broke for (until the child starts school I guess)! I'm starting get anxiety over it!!

Husband is much more upbeat and relaxed about it - he's doing well at work, he's confident he will be getting a pay rise again soon, gets a decent bonus yearly etc! He just keeps saying it will be fine, we will work it out, we got this, stop worrying so much!!

How do others make it work? do you just get by, make it work somehow? I had always wanted 2 kids - but am thinking now 1 will be hard enough to afford - 2 would push us over the edge!!

I'm desperate to have a baby asap but the stress & uncertainty over money is ruining my excitement!

Anyone any tips / advice to make this work!

Well, if you saved 1k a month while paying rent, then you shouldn’t struggle with childcare. You might also look at childminders - often cheaper than nurseries. But yes, many parents find that the first few years are leaner due to childcare costs.

Babies themselves can be very cheap. Lots of secondhand clothes and equipment are available, less so for older children.

Childcare is expensive and it goes on into the school years as you will need to pay for holiday childcare too. If anything, I've found that pre-school age childcare is the most straightforward. I'm now working a term-time only job to reduce the school holiday club stress but have taken a salary/prospects hit for now.

Most people just make it work by reducing spending in other areas.

You will be fine - and please please please dont waste your last child free years worrying and sat in the house saving. Go out and have fun and enjoy being with your husband. The thing I miss most is just us being able to go to the pub or out for a meal in a quiet relaxing restaurant!

@redviola we have a fun year planned - I will not be sitting around the house just saving - got Glastonbury tickets for the summer & we are off to South America for 5 weeks over Xmas before we finally settle down a bit 😂😂

You asked what others do. My friend does back shift stacking shelves for a large store 6pm til 2am and gets the same as she did doing days in an office. No drama. No stress. Doesn’t need a gym membership to keep fit! Meanwhile her husband is at home in the evenings with the young uns. So no need for childcare, and he gets them up and breakfasted and hands over to her once she’s out of bed and he’s leaving for work and she does the day care. I think the grandparents step up and come down if handover is delayed or needs to be early.
Dont know how good my friend and her husbands relationship is right enough!

Save as much as you can for as long as you can before baby arrives .

@elieza yikes 😳 that’s sounds like my worst nightmare!

I have friends who do similar - he works nights in a bar and she has an office job so they pretty much swap “shifts” at home & barely see each other :(

While it saves heaps on childcare - I don’t think that would be for me - id actually rather have less money and actually get to see my husband everyday!! Life is too short!