Did or does anybody else feel like this?
FWIW we have done a lot of research and feel ready for lots of other reasons; but due to the cost of living crisis I am feeling a bit wobbly about whether our incomes can support a child and a pregnancy, even! All the gadgets and prenatal classes and maternity clothes, prams, cots, car seats etc must add up.
I earn 30k ish and have a decent maternity package, which is 10 weeks at 90%, 20 weeks at half pay + SMP, and then a further 9 weeks at SMP. DH earns similar but is a shift worker.
That works out at about 7 months of getting close to my normal pay (200-300 hundred pounds a month less). Obviously the SMP months would be tight but hopefully we’d have savings to cover it. Then I can tag annual leave on the end and hopefully have about 9, maybe 10 months off in total.
We’ve had a couple of offers of family help for childcare so I am not too worried about that. We will probably need one or two days a week but we know a childminder who we will use and feel happy with the prices. There’s also the possibility of more funded hours for all ages from the time we would need it, 2025.
I think I am worried we won’t be able to afford a decent standard of life once having a child- the everyday things like trips out, swimming lessons for DC, other activities and then even having any spare cash for the odd meal out.
I must be massively overthinking as I know lots of people who manage to do all these things, in better and worse circumstances than ours!
I don’t know if my way of thinking is normal or if I just need to be more one step at a time with it.