SAHM/P question? (personal)

[waitaminutenow]

Going off another thread and because I am extremely nosey...lol
My question is if you are a SAHM (or SAHP)...
How long have you been at home?
How many children do you have and what ages are they?
What does your OH do and what is they're pay (v personal I know!)?
Do you receive wtc ctc and cb?

I don't want this to turn into a bashing thread for or about anyone. It's genuine curiosity of how others live that is all.

Morethan I'm going to start a nosy thread - I'm curious!

Bertie

I suppose people just live according to income.
My philosophy has always been if we haven't got the money we can't have it or will have to save.
Some people seem to have lots of money but I suppose if they have high mortgage, dc in private school, a couple of top of the range cars, a few hols each year etc.

morethan we live in London so our mortgage is high and we overpay a lot. A lot goes into pensions, savings, and tuition fees for my postgrad. We have a good lifestyle though - we like foreign holidays, eating out, theatre, cinema, expensive hobbies. No school fees or flash cars though, and we're quite restrained with gadgets/clothes/toiletries.

I know what you mean morethan...I don't begrudge high earners at all but there is a thread going ATM about someone not putting in an expense claim for £20k

It's a different world!
:)

SAHM for 7yrs

2 DC - 10 yrs and 7 yrs
DH earns £500k+ as lawyer

I do the odd bit of consultancy work here and there but no real drive to go back to work as stress on family wouldn't be justified

I'm a recent sahm. I took redundancy 3 months into maternity leave with what is now my 9 month old.

H is a senior level engineer/manager and on circa £50k with overtime but not inc any bonus.

We have a mortgage and bought a doer upper so are choosing to spend most of our spare cash on doing up the house rather than holidays etc.

I think I'm going to set up a small home business as I like to be doing something. But in in no hurry and if H gets the promotion we're hoping for I may well not need to.

SAHM for 10yrs. 2 Primary aged DC.
DH - telecoms industry on £135K + bonus.
No benefits.

Morethan* must have missed your post.
Well done for keeping within your budget.
Like you, l've no idea what large earners could possibly spend it on.
My previous job (before l was at home) was amazingly well paid, but nothing like what l've read in some posts today!

It just goes if you earn quite a lot (as I do). Mortgage on a London house is a huge expense. Several lots of school fees. A couple of foreign holidays for a large family. Paying down mortgage in chunks. The secret whatever your income is is all in the Charles Dickens quote . "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."
If you both work full time you probably have £30k child care costs on top of the mortgage too.

However you know every day how very fortunate you are that you picked the XYZ career that pays a lot. I hope most of us on those sorts of incomes never take them for granted. The things that make most of us happy are the same - looking at a rose, sunshine, a walk, a child's face, whether you earn £500k or £5k or nothing.

Nervous about posting BUT here goes.........

3 DC 25 22 16. Been a SAHM for 15 years although did work part time for 7 years during this time 3 of those as a child minder.
DH self employed for past 25 years built up a great business had a great income then Credit Crunch and everything went pear shaped.

We get CB WTC and husband's take home pay averages £500 per week.
However work is weather dependant (construction) so there are weeks when we only have WTC and CB to live on.( 22 and 25 year old financially independent)

We are seriously over stretched as we remortgaged in boom times haven't had holiday, meal out or weekend away in 5 years.

I suppose that's true...you live to your means.
But some of the sums on here...wow!

Sorry to hear that maverick..hope things pick up soon x

4 kids, eldest is 8. Have been at home since he was 3, so 5 years. This is no longer through choice, he is autistic and I cannot get childcare appropriate for him at this age.

Husband earns circa £20k, I get carers allowance, we get CTC but not WTC. We also get help with rent (about half is paid) as we live in an expensive area and are in a private rental.

We are stretched too...we bought our house during the slump in 2011 and the only mortgage we could get was 5% fixed rate :(
Ends in 16 months thank god.
I drive a 10 year old car with a mystery leak
No holidays abroad
No going out
We don't drink or smoke.
The house is a money pit sadly and we have had to spend £15k since we moved in :(

SAHM for 5 years.

Kids just turned 5 and almost 7.
DH IT director on £65k.
No CB, WTC or anything else.

I'm going back to work in September as a p/t teacher.

Poor you Baddz I feel your pain.

DH was on about £50k before we left London and our rent swallowed up a large chunk of that. I was working too, but my wage only just covered childcare and travel so we weren't any better off for it.

We didn't gave a car or fancy holidays, but I didn't have to budget carefully in the supermarket and I appreciate our good fortune.

We're only going to be living in this country for 3 years so we do spend a lot of money traveling around and seeing as much of it as possible. DH is putting quite a lot into savings and pensions back in the UK too.

Sahm for about 11 years
Ds1 is 16
Ds2 is 12
Dd is 10
Dh approx £80k self employed
No benefits

SAHM 11yrs
Children 11and 8
Husband Corporate banker earning £125k + bonus (usually 20-25k)

We have a five year old car, an extended 1960s semi in Outer London. We do not drink or smoke. We don't eat out much, maybe once every 6 weeks. We own one TV, and one 3 year old computer. Our children attend state school. We tend to holiday in Britain. I wish I could answer where the money goes. I guess while his pay sounds high it attracts a lot of tax and no benefits (which is fair enough.). So there is a levelling affect between high incomes and moreidest ones. If you triple your salary, you do not triple your spending power.

I'd like to go back to work, but am finding it difficult to attract any interest from employers. Probably my own fault for being out of the market for so long, but there were valid reasons along the way for making the choices I did for our family. (Children's needs, demands of DH's job, lack of other support, etc.)

moreidest = more modest

Mon-Fri SAHM 8yrs, but i did work weekends up until january!
2 Dcs, 8 & 6 (oldest ha SN - ADHD/ASD/SPD/DCD and is the reason i gave up the weekend work).
DH is a Skilled Worker in the Manufacturing trade. He used to earn a good wage, but got made redundant, so we're now on 10k less than we used to be.
we get cb, ctc and wtc, but will likely lose wtc because of the overtime he does. Waiting on an outcome for DLA claim for DS.

SAHM 2 years. Previous salary £78K in IT as a project manager.
Now I get didly squat but really happy to spend time at home with dcs both under 7.
DH earns about £150K but sometimes get bonuses of £20K+ at a t time.
He is in IT.
We have a nice but very modest lifestyle. We have worked very hard to get to where we are and are both highly qualified.

Sorry forgot to add, DH is in retail management, the kids are 8, 7, 4 and 1.5.