Will we be better off once the children are in school, or am I living in cloud cuckoo land?

[fisil]

This is the maths:

NOW:
After tax and childcare I bring home £240 per month.

THEN:
I can earn £300 for a half day consultancy. So I quit work once both boys are in school and take on occassional consultancy work during school hours or when dp is available.

But that just seems too good to be true. So am I missing something? The way I see it is that we won't be paying out nursery fees, so we'll be quids in. But there's always something else that takes your money. So what is it?

School dinners
Fundraising events for school
After school clubs
Football on a saturday
School uniform, school shoes, trainers
After school childcare
Kids parties
Presents for other kids parties

Because you have more money coming in, you take on more debt. Bigger car etc. More skint

Good point Klauz33, but ...

Packed lunch
Have fundraising at nursery already
OK after school clubs
and football etc.
Have to buy clothes anyway
Won't use any childcare
Have parties now & pressies (and maybe I can make them horrible so they have no friends)

So after school clubs and football - that won't cost one and half grand a month, surely?

but mears, if I make a specific decision that I want to be home for my children and retain the same standard of living (well, avoid becoming homeless), hopefully I'll be able to resist?

Go for it Fisil - let us know how you get on

presumably the consultancy work is not guaranteed so you run the risk of earning nothing?

Sounds good to me!

Most of the reason for not being any better off when they are at school is because there is still after school child care to arrange which can be more expensive than expected!

If you can do without that, which it seems you can - then you should be quids in!!!

If the consultancy work is likely to be regular then i don't think you're missing a trick. School dinners and play centres etc take a wee chunk but nothing compared to nursery fees. That's what i've found, anyway.

Thing to consider is what is a "half day's work". or will they want "a day". If you have to travel after taking kids to school then pick them up, your day will need to be short even with afterschool care (generally available to 6pm either at a club or childminder). You might get lucky and find a later collection.

Why don't you do the consultancy now, you would be better off - or am I missing something?

Wow, thanks for all the thoughts.

Thanks CD, a rosey, bright outlook! But you're right, it wouldn't be every day, in fact it would be fairly seasonal, and definitely term time only. However, as a teacher I can always earn £175 a day at a moments notice for doing supply. It is shitty, but it will keep us alive! And I could get a couple of tutees which would bring in a steady £50 a week for about half the year.

DP is also thinking of going freelance, and we would be able to try to coordinate our days. So if I needed the odd extra travel time or evening session here and there. Plus the school we've chosen has very flexible wrap around care that you can book into on the day for about a tenner.

So why not now? I don't want it to be high pressure - but if I had to earn enough to keep the boys in nursery then I think it would be pretty stressful. Plus I've only been a consultant since August, and I reckon I ought to get in a couple of years experience (and contacts lol) before I go independent!

You've made me feel very positive.

One last question:

London: (lots of customers close at hand, schools have loads of money, travel takes for ever and everything's expensive)

Peterborough: (less customers or further to travel, virtually free mortgage and newly retired grandparents who'd be able to help out with childcare)

Which?

peterborough sounds much better Less rush, less stress, more chilling

The big expense to watch out IME is holidays. Holidays during school holidays are far more expensive than term time, and this for us has been our largest increase in cost (other than schhol fees).

Also consultancy doesn't always mean that you pick your hours. I frequently have to work my plans around the business, so school hours don't alwasy fit and I'm resorting to afterschool care.

that's useful about the hours ladymuck.

I'm a teacher, so I've never been able to take a holiday in term time anyway, so that will make no difference.

Don't forget school trips. Some are relatively inexpensive but others can cost a bit.

Fisil I think you are on a winner, presuming you are okay with the local schools? I thought I was going down this route too after the nursery fees finished, but when we discovered we didn't have a hope in hell of getting DD into the local school we wanted for her, we reasoned that we had already been forking out the funds for nursery, and sent her private. So much for that balloon!!

sure grandparents are happy about doing childcare and will not be gadding off on holiday just when you need them most? Where's the school with good childcare - London or Peterborough?

As kids get older they get more demanding of money. We don't yet have demands for designer clothes but I can see the interest beginning to develop. Secondary school uniform is more expensive than primary, they insist on having school lunches, you may have to pay bus fares.

However make the effort to make nice friends at school and they will help with the child care in emergencies A bit of money on parties can reap rewards......