How many hours would you drop in this financial situation?

[May487]

DH’s wage covers all our essential outgoings (in this I count our house, utility bills, food shop, insurance, car etc). This is it though, not anything left over after that to save, nothing disposable and nothing for emergencies.

I am full time (37hrs) on 30k possibly rising to 33k within the next year. I am pregnant and will be going on maternity leave in autumn. We have lots of time to save and think with my decent enhanced maternity pay we should be fine throughout this time.

Childcare costs round here are crippling and I don’t see the logic in paying for full time care nor do I think it ideal for a very young child to be in nursery for 5 long days.

DH can work weekends so can possibly take a fixed day off in the week. We do have family nearby who would willingly have DC for a few mornings or afternoons a week.

I enjoy working and like my job but also want to be realistic about how hard full time work is with a baby.

My wage (usually about 2k after deductions) is all of our disposable income and money to save at the moment. We have a two bedroom house now so could theoretically stay here forever. But, we will likely be looking to move to a bigger house in the next few years and can see this costing a few hundred pounds extra a month. I know babies (and children) are very expensive, probably more so than I can fathom right now. I also see it important that I continue to contribute to my pension and better my longer term earning prospects.

If you were in our situation, how many hours would you work? I can’t tell what will feel comfortable and it’s not exactly something you can trial and error!

Of course, I can decide nearer the time but I’d just like an idea 🥰 many thanks.

Bump :)

By the time you go back to work next autumn, you'll get 30 hours of funded childcare so I would work 4 days. 3 days in childcare and you and dh doing one day each.

How much would childcare be per day and how much savings do you have currently?

I find 3 days a good balance. 4 days and work practically expects full time output from you, less than 3 days and you're discounted for progression etc.

If the family help is genuinely reliable and you both enjoy your jobs then I’d check the numbers on:
• DH taking his work down a day a week,
• You taking your work down a day a week and
• Using nursery & family for the remaining days (You’ll have funded hours by then.)

I think you have to see the childcare costs as an investment, even if it means you work for little for a couple of years, keeping your career going will be invaluable in the future.

The number of hours I'd cut would depend on how possible it will be to get the next job whilst working PT.

I'd go back full time and see how I got on.
You'll have one day your dh can look after the little one, and potentially another day when other family want to (or save them for emergencies ?).

You have to think of the 3 years or so you are paying childcare before they start school as a very small 'blip' in the 50 years of your working life. I know your pension seems a long way off, but it matters.
Think about all you've put in to 'get where you are now' and think about how much you will lose by stepping away from work now for a few years. Look at the whole picture - yes, your family will be spending £1K (?) a month of the family's income on childcare for a short time, but your knowledge and skill and network and experience in your career are still current and that is a huge investment in the next few decades of work.

Oh, and you could use a childminder if you aren't keen on the idea of Nurseries for a baby / toddler.

I never went less than 3 days per week at 30 hours (working 8:00-18:00).

That means 4 days with your child every week . Plus you will have annual leave should there be times when you want to go away etc .
If you DH can reduce to 4 compressed days (so no loss to earnings ).

This would mean your DC would only need to be in the free / funded childcare for 2 days which you can cut further by using family . So one day pw with each set of grandparents ? Could potentially mean no need for childcare at all .

Op , rest assured you will be in a much better position than most of us have been up to now . I was paying 2.6k for childcare alone Until the funded hours kicked in . I am still paying a fair bit now .

Forgot to say , it also depends on how senior you are as to how part time you can go realistically go .

If you have line management responsibilities, demanding stakeholders or hold a decision maker position in a large organisation I have found that 3 days is the bare minimum they tend to accept and even then they will probably push for you to pick the 4th day up as WFH . It is not impossible though.

I went back full time but used accrued annual leave to take every Friday off for 3 months. It worked well, my work didn't suffer and so I dropped to 4 days permanently.
My youngest is 11 and I've changed roles and worked less days but am back at 30 hours/4 days but mostly work from home and do work a 5th day if needed or do my hours over 5 days depending on needs of the job and meetings etc. I love 30 hours. I have Mondays off and so get bank holidays added to my annual leave. I can swap my day off to a Friday sometimes and have a long weekend. I can accrue flex time and have time off in lieu and it really works well for allowing me to manage the kids. Obviously the flexibility is organisation-dependent but 4 days just works so well, I don't think I'll ever go back to 5 permanently.

I'll preface this by saying babies and children fit in around your life so don't worry too much.

But...

I think you need to budget a it more carefully and work it out. Are you spending the £2000 each month on non-essentials? I'd expect to save a big chunk of that for a new home and DC.

Create a 5 year plan and on pay day save half your salary.

A lot of this also depends on what your DH earns, what you consider he covers as essentials and what you are paying. Always think the person paying the bills and mortgage has it easier as these are fixed and cannot vary wildly from month to month. Is his net 2000, 3000, 4000?

I mean things like who pays your mobile phone and car if you have one? Any gym or so on. Then the disposable income - who pays for gifts and holidays, Christmas haircuts clothes and in the future things for the kids.

I work four days -you won't notice a 5th drop as you pay less tax and NI (but it still feels like full time- probably as PP states they still expect full time output!!) but Gives me loads of time to plan my spending and do appointments and free up weekends. Keeps my pension up too.

With regards to moving house, you can progress up the property ladder in time, it can seems scary but others do it and so you can to.

A five year savings plan is where it is at!

If your baby will get funded childcare by the time you go back I would do 3 days (probably compressed hours so 4 days in 3). Currently I do full time (36.66 hours) over 4 days but when my baby gets 30 hours funded (next year), I think I will drop to 3 days (but 4 days of hours over 3).

If the funded hours come off then we will get them but know realistically they might not

I'm glad you are also considering the impact on your pension. Whilst you are on ML and if and when you go PT, the family pot should top up your pension, including employer contributions, to the value it would have been if you were not PT.

FWIW, I had one day off with DD in the nursery years. If you and DH do the same that's 3 days of nursery/family childcare you need.

I now work 32hr/wk so I can pick her up from school 2 days a week (DH does one day/after-school club for 2 days).

I would get DH to try and get one fixed day off a week, and drop to 4 days.
Use the grandparents for when baby isn't well enough for nursery - or to collect early one day week, rather than a fixed day.
Nursery 3 days. Much less than this, and it's harder to get them to settle.

I'd also work out where your 2k of income goes - or is a chunk of that long term savings?

I would start 3 days - DH covering 1 day and family or nursery the other 2. I know people say they need more than 1 day in nursery but my daughter only went 1 day a week from 9 months up until 2y 4m and was fine (we added on a few mornings in playgroup when she turned 2 more for the social aspect than childcare).
It was easier to add hours in work then take them away in my experience - so if you wanted to go 4 days eventually you would have that option.