AIBU to take out a personal loan while my DS is at nursery?

[Goldduck]

We are both teachers (I'm part time and my husband is full time). My DS is still quite a way off his free 30 hours at nursery. Would I BU to consider taking out a personal loan? I just want to be about to spend more freely and have more experiences together as a family without always worrying that we're depleting the modest amount of savings we have in the bank. Or should I just stick it out for another year or so? I would also like to do some minor home renovations and I am very impatient! I know I could easily get a loan and could pay it back no problem. It would just be nice to see a larger amount in the bank and then not feel guilty about booking breaks away or spending money on our home.

You are just extending the problem. When you move to funded hours every loan repayment will annoy you.

Find free things to do. Learning to live on a budget is a massive gift to yours and your family.

What @Oldpeoplesprinting said
Your DC will not remember anything much before 5 so don't waste money now as you'll be wasting time later working to pay for it - right at the time they will remember!

Ditto home improvements - a preschooler can make their own "improvements" to a freshly decorated room with a felt tip in seconds!
Wait til they are older and less likely to trash it (less!)

National Trust membership is an excellent way to have cheap days out a preschool age, they have loads of events over the summer and great playgrounds at many of their properties.

You know that you can't be more free with spending with a loan? You have to make the repayments.

If you take out a loan so you can spend more, you'll blow the loan quickly and then still have to find the money for your repayments

It's bizarre to take a loan out for junk and general spending when we can't travel and many things are still closed and might be again if posters on here get their way.

What do you need that can't wait a year or more?

Are you planning on having more children? If so you definitely wouldn’t want to be paying a loan and another set of fees. I do know people who have taken out loans to pay the fees when they’ve had two children in at once on the basis of it being a temporary expense. Do the numbers even stack up for your though if it’s about days out/home improvements? How much were you thinking and what world be the monthly payments?

You need to remember that working part-time is your main, big luxury. Embrace that.

Do cheap and free things. Your child won't remember anyway. We've made a conscious decision to go for cheap stuff this summer. Why spend loads we don't need to.

You don’t know what financial challenges are just around the corner. Live within your means or try and increase your income. I’m sure most parents have felt like this when the money was being used for childcare.

@Goldduck

I have a slightly different view point as I know a number of people who have died young and so I have, within reason, a ‘life is for living’ attitude.
It depends completely on whether you can afford the repayments comfortably.

We spend a lot on the children, mostly taking them places, and I have actually got a loan in the past to do up their rooms, buy things for their leisure (such as a brilliant climbing frame and a table tennis table etc) and also book a trip of a life time. I don’t regret it at all.

A few years later it’s all paid off. My children now no longer want a fun and amazing bedroom as they are teenagers and I’m so glad I did it when they were young. They were not toddlers though and old enough to remember.

I do think about the future but I’m also very aware that 1) we might not get that future we are saving for and life is for living now, and 2) our children are only little for a short period.

We are not in any debt now apart from the mortgage. We also earn a lot more now but I still spend probably more than I should with the ‘I’ll never get this time back’ attitude. I don’t over pay on my mortgage because I want to spend money now while I have the dc at home. My boys have had some great experiences and lots of fun which I don’t ever regret.

No your thinking is all wrong. Not only would it not make financial sense but it becomes a way of thinking that just leads to a never ending series of loans because it seems easy at the beginning. There is an old saying “borrowing is a rich mans hobby”. Why not put money aside each pay day in a separate account and use what you save for all these extras you want. Loans are too easy to get and you can repent at leisure.

I'm with everyone else, it's a no for the loan.

I do understand how frustrating it is with the household stuff though, we are renovating our flat bit by bit and after 2 years we still have only done one major thing and no rooms are finished (most of them not even started!) but it's not worth getting into debt for.

As for trips away, we thought after buying our flat we might be able to book our first family holiday. Ha. Ha. Ha 😑

There's loads of free (and cheap) stuff to do with kids and when they're young they don't care about costly stuff. Hopefully things will open up much more from this summer but some things we did (some pre-covid) that cost barely anything:
Messy Church (donations only)
National Trust (membership once a year then free)
Walks in the woods
Trips to the park
Wander into town/ride on the carousel (£1.50) and free drink and cake with my John Lewis vouchers!
Kids AM at the cinema (about £2.50 I think)
Seeing friends
Soft play (under £5 for a toddler)
Summer Fairs/ Church fairs (£5 spending money goes quite far)

Theme parks, trips away etc are a bit wasted on toddlers. Definitely not worth getting into debt for!

As for doing up your house, basic DIY and painting you and your husband can do yourselves. We did all our own until finances allowed.

Can you work full time? That would make more sense than borrowing money and you'd have less days to fill with "activities".

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful responses 😊 I think I just needed a reality check! You're all right, the house can wait a bit longer. A good clean when I finish for summer will have it looking loads better (it's a bit post apocalyptic right now coming to the end of term 😅). I think I just thought with us both being teachers we'd have more spare money. I'm really careful and regularly check that we're getting the best deals on things and spend wisely. We don't have a huge mortgage and just have a small repayment on an essential purchase. I think I'm just spending too much time seeing people live an Insta life with their toddlers in their perfect homes and frequent mini breaks. I know my luxury is the time I have with my little one and I know that I'm really lucky to be able to do that. Thank you for all the lovely suggestions for days out too. I'm going to put together a fun and cheap summer schedule to brighten myself up 😀

And no, I don't teach anything finance related 🤣🤣

Ridiculous idea! Live within your means, you have savings if you need to use them for big expenses. You’re actually in a really fortunate position because you have lots of good choices. Taking out a loan because you’re impatient and want to see a bigger number in your bank account is crazy!

Could you take on another job, such as tutoring? I charge £30ph for GCSE tutoring, currently on Zoom, and have a lot of interest and a waiting list. You would only need to do a few hours per week to be able to put money away for "fun"