The BUDGET

[edodgy]

Could someone explain to me what exactly the government is doing regarding Chid benefit starting in April 2006. Nemo and me were watching it before and Gordon Brown said that it will increase to 17.45 for every child. Now as far as we remember this is the amount the first child gets per week anyway so my question does this mean other siblings are going to get the same as the first born child now or not? Gordon was quite vague (unsuprisingly).

Wow one of my threads has kicked off!! I don't think second kids are much cheaper than the first , we had to buy a new carseat because my dd ended up using hers as a rocking horse/climbing toy etc and it was completley wrecked plus they only introduced side impact protection when my son was born and I wanted to get him this one for safety reasons. Also I ended up bottlefeeding my son alot earlier than my dd due to the complete stress of it all and I can honestly say if I had continued bf I would have spiralled into PND. When it comes to the clothes thing Jack does wear some of Eve's vests and sleepsuits but everything else is blantantly the wrong season and sex. I also buy all of Jack's clothes cheap on ebay but it adds up as he's a big baby and at 16 weeks is in 6-9 month clothes already. Child benefit is supposed to help with costs and IMHO second kids especially if they're a different sex and/or born in a different season are not much cheaper also as it's paid monthly things like car seats etc aren't as relevant as these are initial outlays rather than month by month expenditures. With two or more travel inevitably (when older) costs more, You have more mouths to feed, extra Birthday /Christmas presents to buy and lets face it more wine to buy to numb the pain!

OMG daisy 1999 i've just read your post I never realised that the second twin got the lower amount of child benefit thats terrible!

DD wears summer dresses in this weather; she won't wear anything else (except for pajamas). She wears vest+long-sleeve top and trousers/tights underneath... and her coat. There's no such thing as child benefit where I come from, so I wouldn't complain, whatever the amount.

IME .. 2nd children are much cheaper than the first .. mine are different season children too feb and may and there's no way I've spent as much on DD as I did on DS .. no way at all .. am also benefitting from friends' hand-me-downs .. didn't have friends with small children with first child

its not supposed to pay for everything is it .. its supposed to help

child benefit is a bonus meant to ease the cost burden, not cover all costs, if you can't afford children, don't have them...bet that gets a few people going

bk - actually I did have a summer girl and then a winder boy - ds wore pink babygros that were a size too big. you see I have no pride.

LOL I will admit to my ds wearing the odd frilly vest or pink babygrow but thats more to do with my tardiness at washing clothes than a bid to save money

pink suits him actually. I must admit it was both about avoiding waste and showing my militant-ish feminist side.