To ask if you’ve got 3 kids?

[Coconutsandpalmtree]

How do you live? Ie how big is your home and what’s your set up?

how much do you earn gross and net monthly?

i know it’s super invasive but we’re all friends/ anonymous strangers here. My reason for asking was the fact I was absolutely slaughtered by some poster about my tiny tiddly 4 bed home by some posters on my other thread, so I’m genuinely wondering if I’m delulu for considering a 3rd

3 children, four bedrooms, two sitting rooms. All three have now left leaving myself and husband rattling a bit. Would quite like to downsize but then where would everyone go for Birthdays, Easter, Christmas?

You earn well, maybe your dh a little too well, lose tf childcare over 100 and personal allowance At 120 don’t you?

rates will come down if that makes you feel better, definitely by 2025 so if you buy maybe look at a tracker ?

Have two, trying for a third.

Income is around 100k between us before tax. We both work part time. Mortgage is £1200 per month, likely to go up in September when our fixed rate ends.

We have a 3 bed terrace with a loft conversion. The children currently have a bedroom each, then there's our bedroom, and we use the loft conversion as a home office and occasional spare room.

If/when DC3 comes along we'll see if our older two are up for sharing a room. At the moment they love the idea but they keep each other awake like anything when they share on holiday. If sharing doesn't work we would use the loft conversion as our bedroom and convert our garden shed to a home office.

rates will come down a bit by then or you could go on a tracker

the markets are predicting 2 cuts this year, one likely in august. Swaps are down and inflation is down too

I have a 12 yo DSS ( with us 40% of the time) and 2 preschool age boys. We have a 3 bed end of terrace house. Original plan was for younger ones to share but for a variety of reasons we decided not to. We split the master bedroom so we now essentially have 3 box rooms for each of the boys and a double for me and DP.

Household income of approx 80k. So monthly take home of about 5k a month between us. Its pretty tight right now with both in full time nursery but my 4 yo is starting school this year and my 18 mo will get funding from September so it will become easier soon.

We live in an area where the average house is the national average house price. Our mortgage is 1200 a month

When the rates dip, the prices will rise.

DT are at school from September though, so bloody awful double childcare is over.

Eldest was public school. DT we have been incredibly lucky and got them into a tiny state primary that is getting better results then the local public pre-prep, insanely competitive so no idea how we got two of the places, but frankly thank god because £7k term fees for the two of them, plus this impending mortgage would be impossible.

I know, I was hoping there would be a rate cut by now and we'd have tried to lock in a new fix, hasn't happened yet though and getting a bit nervous!

We will be ok though, my eldest starts school in September so we won't be paying for childcare for him anymore. I was hoping not to have to put the money we'd save straight into the mortgage but such is life.

£90 for a beach day! You’re choosing to spend that much, it’s not how much it costs. We live near the beach and go regularly in the summer. Today we went and it cost nothing. We walk or cycle down, we tend to bring snack or beers and picnic dinner. Might get an ice cream occasionally sure, but generally have hours of fun and definitely don’t spend 90 quid!

Are they the same sex? I know loads of same sex siblings that shared a double bedroom growing up. Or you and DH could work elsewhere in the house so each child has their own bedroom?

3 here - single mum on about £38k
4 bed semi detached house (recently moved from a 3 bed). All have own rooms, 2 reception rooms and a conservatory. We all rub along ok, there’s enough space

A tiny 4 bed house? 🤣 No they need to mind their own business.

To an extent but the prices never really fell that much all things considered due to the lack of homes here. Generally speaking lower rates make things more affordable.

when rates were low the BTL sector for instance was booming but now those with small portfolios are really feeling it and that’s the rates rather than the price.

it’s not like the rates will fall to 3% and then houses will cost 100k more, it’s an increase over time that will happen if rates are low or high, property generally speaking is one of the few investments that rises faster than inflation, when they are low means they will rise slightly faster.

3 kids, smallish 4 bed 1 bathroom semi. About to extend to add a bedroom, a bathroom and bigger kitchen. Combined salary 70k. We're not loaded but we're fine!

Don’t panic, we all thought may and then swaps went a bit mental so then June but it looked unlikely. So now august is likely.

you won’t have an erc On a tracker and that will be cheaper than your svr, if you wanted to wait a while. But some are .15 above BBR which is low, so when then goes down you’ll be laughing.

but fixes aren’t based on the BBR they are based on swaps which is different and they are trending down which is why you’re seeing rates now well below bbr.

inflation is a good indicator

Did you even read my post?

Yes we chose to do so. The point is, what kind of life is it to not have the option, or try and convince ourselves that we're perfectly happy never (or very rarely) having a treat.

We could never eat out and take a packed lunch. Virtually free. Not the life I want for my children. It's not about spoiling them, it's about having the choice. Definitely, they love a picnic. But not because treats have to be so few and far between that it's no ice-cream and packed lunch out of necessity.

I agree with you. There are 5 of us in a 3 bed. Being financially secure is better for us than having the extra space.

But most of us are perfectly happy without spending £90 at the beach. But I guess we’re all different and have different priorities in life.

I must admit that it does feel that a cheap day out these days starts at £50, which doesn’t include fuel or parking. We do have a number of annual passes for places, or parking permits, so that we can visit frequently whilst just having one bigger financial hit for the entry costs.

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention about the jump from 2 -3 is the cars. Most bog standard vehicles are tough to fit 3 car seats in.

We ended up having to upgrade our car as DSS really struggled to fit between the 2 car seats in the back but have a friend with 3 preschool age children and they have also just upgraded to a minivan

Yeah completely agree. We’ve an xc90 (2019) you can have a car seat middle back but no support leg, it’s got no isofix in the middle BUT can take a belted seat, so infant carrier goes there or front (airbag off) , and me in the middle back.

on the school run I do see a lot of really dangerous car set ups over similar issues, the amount of really young children in the front (4/5 year olds) no car seat is scary

Yes, we have a discovery 4 simply because it has 3 full seats in the back plus the 2 fold ups for extras.

We did have smaller cars when they were smaller, but our secondary kids get taller by the minute.

We have three aged 10, 8 and 5.
Earn about 90k between us and have a 4 bedroom house. However one bedroom is V small so my middle and youngest share for now whilst eldest has his own room. Plenty of room and adore being a mum of 3, even if it does chuck allsorts of spanners in the works!

Smallish 3 bed semi detached with an ensuite loft which is mine and dh's. All 3 dc have their own room.
It's fine to share when they're young but it's tricky when they're at secondary school and one needs to study late and can't use the desk in their room. Dining table isn't ideal during the day as lots of activity and then annoying if they need to move there due to an exam the next day or something.

I'm not saying it can't work as people make do, but it is hard.

Because we didn't max out on the mortgage, we can afford to take dc to other countries and we do it as cheaply as possible. We've also been all over the uk, including some of the little islands around.

We have 5. 3 bedrooms, not very big.
3 girls share, 2 boys share, then one more added in the mix EOW.

3 kids
Moved from a 3 bed to 4 bed, which we turned into a 5 bed. I need my own room away from DH so I get some sleep. It's much better now I can sleep, so we have a bedroom each and no spare room.

Income before tax about 80k but we're in South East. Kids in state schools.