How to afford more than 1 child?

[Murphy07]

I'd like a second child but nursery fees are between £650-800 a month for DS and after tax I only make £1400.

DH is on a 50k salary so I think we could probably afford a second child if I quit my job, but I'm worried it'd be really hard to get a job again if I take a break for a few years. I'd prefer not to lose my career prospects forever :/

Do I need to wait until DS is 4 and in school?

How do people afford to have 2 kids within 2-3 years of each other?

I changed jobs and did shift work when they were little so I could rely on DH/family for childcare in the evenings when I worked. Dd went to preschool part time from 2, and by the time dd2 started, her preschool bills were mainly covered by the 3 year old funding. It was a juggling act, but we wanted two close together, and I didn't want to go back to work full time in-between. They're now both at school and I can luckily work during school hours, as breakfast clubs, after school clubs seem to cost a fortune around here. Also need to consider the school holidays, again, I luckily can condense my hours into longer days, fewer days a week during the holidays as the holiday clubs cost around £100 a day for two children to attend, if I was paying that 5 days a week, it would not be feasible for me to work! Luckily between family help and DH working from home, we only need to send them once a week. It is definitely harder once they start school as unless you can start/finish in time with school runs, you need to hope there's space at the wraparound care, and be able to afford it too.

People spread their children out.
Also look at different ways of working, so weekends and evenings or early starts to use less childcare.

I also made my dh pay for most of the childcare as he was the higher earner so he was benefiting more from it! He got more out of the system of childcare vouchers that was in place then than i would have done too as it was like a salary sacrifice scheme i think. I dont know how the current system works

Could you try for a 3 year gap? So if you can take a years maternity you’ll be at home with both of them for that time. You can either massively reduce dc1 hours or cut them out completely. Try to save as much as possible during that year to put towards nursery fees following maternity.

When you go back to work dc1 will be 4 so you’ll only have a year of double fees (depending on when their birthday is with starting school). You could also try for a summer born baby so you have a years less nursery fees.

I wouldn’t give up work completely unless it’s something you can get back into easily as it’s better to take the hit for a year or two than lose your place in the workplace.

I went for the 3 year gap.
All 3 year olds in the UK get funding for their final year of pre-school/early years setting. You would receive either 15 or 30 hours funding per week. Then obviously they'll go to school.
If you take a year's maternity leave it will mean a minimal amount of time when both are at nursery.
It's one of the major reasons why the average age gap now is 3 years 8 months.