To ask if anyone is on a lower income and manages fine with a baby?

[Ffs555]

My partner and I have a combined income of approx 41k a year, I earn around 8k more PA than he does.
I work 9-5 hours hybrid remote and he works mainly evenings and weekends.
I'd have childcare support once a week from parents which I'm very grateful for.
My plan is to take my laptop and my baby to my parents' once a week, I work from home there whilst my parents look after our baby, not sure how doable this would be but worth a thought.
Childminders in my area are approx £126 per week for 25h per week (North West)
According to the entitledto calculator we're entitled to help that pretty much covers that cost.
I am not pregnant but just musing. I'm almost 33 and I don't want to leave it much longer really.
I know there are people on lower income than us who likely manage fine, but I feel like everyone around me is earning much more. Just wondering if it sounds like we'd manage.

I'm just using the 25h as an example, we wouldn't need full time childcare but certainly part time.

I think you'll be perfectly fine on that income

As your DH works evenings and weekends is he going to care for dc while you work and vice versa?
This is often a pretty economical way of raising dc but can be tiring and hard to get family time.

whats your rent/ mortgage.

Our rent and all bills totals up to £1050 per month which is very affordable ATM.
Yes I think we will try to do that as much as possible but do worry we'd not have any time together

You’ll manage. It might be tight for the first few years with few luxuries and feel as if you do little more than work to pay bills and childcare, but that changes as your child gets older and you have more flexibility to pursue better jobs / promotions.

Sounds fine and like us. Also planning to do similar as in take to parents and work from there, parents suggestion. People make it work. I wouldn’t leave it! Xx

Is there a reason your partner isn't going up to full time hours at the minute? You have no children currently and if he's only earning about £16k then he isn't working full time hours.

It's because his hours got reduced by work so he's currently looking for a new job. Thanks for the replies it makes me feel more assured

Sounds stupid but is it normal to get childcare bills covered by UC? Sometimes it seems like the higher earners are the most out of pocket due to not being eligible for any/much help.

Pretty much! I always found it really annoying that a friend who didn't work got all of her childcare paid for and yet we only got 15 hours or something like that once ours turned 3!

You aren't low income though so you will be fine.

They didn't get childcare paid for , the child acessed free pre school education.

I'm not even sure what's classed as low income tbh, certainly we aren't the lowest but many people are on at least double what we earn.

If you really want to be a parent the only thing that matters is that you can cover what you need to & you certainly are not low income.

How much money you have doesn't impact on how much you love & care for a child & kids don't actually give a crap about how much money you have, they just want you present. Time is more important than money as a parent imo. I'd rather be skint and at every sports day then wealthy & not.

with No childcare costs I think you will be fine. I disagree with the poster who says it gets cheaper as they get older- they don’t!

Which working parents need to pay for.

Please do not believe they get cheaper as they get older!
Tweens/teens often have hobbies (yes they are a choice but they contribute significantly to their quality of life) and even things like clothing and footwear sky rocket in price, my eldest has size 14 feet....shoes are not cheap!!!
Me and my husband agree we are more financially stretched right now than when they were little (obviously COL hasn't helped).

Many years ago when we were planning a family, it was more usual for Mums to stay home than continue working. We decided that we'd do a trial run and save ALL of my wages for a year before TTC. We discovered that things might be pretty tight, but that we could manage, and if things really got tight, I could look for a bit of P/T work. Is there a way that you could come up with something similar OP? For example, get an idea of what having a child would cost you on a monthly basis, in nappies, milk, clothes, etc., and put that money aside for a few months to see how tight things would be. I realise that you're not thinking of quitting work, but there will be additional expenses that you don't pay out now, so if you can come up with a sensible figure, it will not only give you confidence that you can manage, but will also give you a bit of a nest egg to fall back on for the bigger expenses.

Generally because your child is more privileged than their children are. FWIW you can be a single parent who works and qualify for it.

Bit sad to be jealous of 2 year olds from the poorest families getting 15 free hours a week. You get 30 for your 3 year old as long as you earn less than 100k sooo

If your partner works evenings and weekends surely he's in an ideal position to look after the baby during the day, therefore not needing childcare?

You'll manage, we had a household income of 20k between us when the dc were small and survived.

If you can both look after the children without using child than £40k is great and not exactly skint.