Do we have enough for children

[Enoughfor]

My DH and I are now 33 and wanting to have children. However, and I am probably being unreasonable but am a bit worried about our finances and whether it’s ‘enough’ or if we need to try and climb the career ladder and get payrises first. Our total household income after tax is 3k.

I have (many) twins in the family so am trying to figure out if we could afford 2 kids if that happened.

We have household outgoings of about this 2.2k currently. Do we need to make more first or is this a reasonable sum for children?

It rather depends on what you're planning on spending on them. Do a budget and work it out.

@Lockheart genuinely not being facetious but how do you budget for children? I have no idea how much a child costs other than ‘big picture’ ONS stats of around 180k until age 18?

Given people have children when they have spent their whole life on benefits, yes, you’ll be fine.

Childcare is by far the biggest cost - or alternatively loss of earnings if you decide to work part time or be a SAHM. If you have family who are willing to - reliably! - help with childcare it will help. Check out local nurseries for an idea of how much it will cost.

I always think if you wait until you can afford children, you would never have them.

You’ll be absolutely fine. They really don’t cost much until they get to school. And even then people exaggerate.

Depends on childcare costs, are you planning to move house to somewhere bigger, will you want to go part time, how many children, are any of your outgoings adjustable… how long is a piece of string

[quote Enoughfor]@Lockheart genuinely not being facetious but how do you budget for children? I have no idea how much a child costs other than ‘big picture’ ONS stats of around 180k until age 18?[/quote]
Look up some local nurseries and see how much they charge per day. Multiple that up for however many days a week/month you’ll need childcare for.

So many factors to consider Op, if you rent a one bed studio flat for £2k then no you might not, it all depends on the variables before anyone can advise!

We use tax free childcare three days a week and it's £612. By far the biggest cost. No idea how we'd have coped with twins!

What is the split of income between you and DH?
What maternity package would you get if any?
How long would you take off work?
What would your childcare plans be?

Childcare is by far the biggest expense

£612 a month I meant to say

What are your plans for childcare? If you need full time childcare it will cost more than £800 per month. We have twins and the cost of childcare is £3k a month (we are in SE London). Add in two car seats at £350, double buggy etc and it is not cheap!

how do you budget for children?

Breastfeed, babygrows and cloth nappies will save you lots of money. If you had twins you dont have enough money soare for nursery atm.

It’s a combination of lost income plus childcare costs initially.

I lost 30k income going part time, then paid 6k per annum childcare for each child.

So once I had two kids, we were 42k per year down

Agree you need to look at childcare. Will you be using a nursery? childminder?will grandparents help?

[quote Enoughfor]@Lockheart genuinely not being facetious but how do you budget for children? I have no idea how much a child costs other than ‘big picture’ ONS stats of around 180k until age 18?[/quote]
Think about your life now and think about your life with children. Do you need a bigger house, a bigger car? Will you need childcare? How and where will you be educating them? Do you plan on buying brand new everything or get second hand things? Do you need to factor in buying formula?

Research.

What savings do you have? Do you have enough savings now to cover your’s and your dh’s wages on maternity and parental leave? I would thoroughly encourage sharing leave. Do you have enough saved for a carseat? Pram? Cot? Moses basket?

How much is childcare in your area? What type is available? What are the options that work for your’s and your dh’s work hours?

Maternity leave for us was cheaper than the following year with childcare – we had a tiny mortgage, low outgoings, second-hand clothes, breastfeeding, reusable nappies, and we’d saved to cover the loss of income.

The first year after going back to work was £1,450 a month in childcare fees alone. And she eats like a horse and grows like a weed, and we chose to move somewhere bigger, so bigger outgoings.

You can cut your cloth, basically.

The only major expense is childcare in the early years. They eat what you eat and child benefit might be just about enough to cover nappies and formula if you chose not to breastfeed. Clothes and toys can be cheaply acquired second hand.

Things like days out I find tends to come out of the money you probably now spend on nights out.

Do you have any family who would look after them while you are at work? What are childminder day rates where you live? That would be my starting point. Then also look at your maternity package to see how much you would be earning while you are off. I would make sure you have enough in savings to cover your shortfall for the last few months. Saving £500 a month during pregnancy leaves you with £4.5k for maternity leave.

Finally, where do you live? Do you have room for kids if you stay put? If not, you will need to factor in increased mortgage or rent.

Childcare varies massively by location. Mat pay packages also vary hugely. Cost of going part time if that's what you want is the real long term killer.

@Malteser71

It’s a combination of lost income plus childcare costs initially.

I lost 30k income going part time, then paid 6k per annum childcare for each child.

So once I had two kids, we were 42k per year down

Add pension contributions to that too.

I think people saying don’t worry it’ll be fine are naive unless their husband is the sole breadwinner or the are SAHMs on benefits.

Cloth nappies and breastfeeding will not save you £1k per month per child for nursery if you need to work full time

1. work out how you manage your outgoing on reduced pay on maternity leave.
2. then work out if the slack in your budget will cover full time childcare, and some extra costs eg nappies or higher utility bills. Remember to add tax free childcare & child benefit, and check if you have any subscriptions etc you could cut if you needed to.
3. if 2 = no, check if you went part time whether you might be eligible for any UC based on your remaining income etc.