Partner's salary/stayathome mum

[calistassouth]

Hi!
I've stopped working due to us being due in March with our first baby.
My husband has said it's fine that I am a stay at home mum and he will support us.
I feel happy to do this, but I'm worried that his salary will end up being too little to support a whole family of two adults and one baby. Or will become an issue as baby gets older?
He makes £24,000.
Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is going to be enough for us to live comfortably?
I know there are other factors, like mortgage etc (£480 per month)
but in general, is one salary at this bracket enough to be okay..?
Thanks!

@RigaBalsam

Surely you would get tax credits on 24k

This says you can only get tax credits if you're disabled?

I dont think its nearly enough. You'll probably have to do some part time work. Could you do a couple of nights a week somewhere.

@calistassouth

I did the calculations for not being disabled. You can still claim for one child. I got them a few years back on a similar salary.

I meant car payments including tax & insurance.

You may not want any abroad holidays but no breaks at all? I don’t think you can afford to be a SAHM, sorry,
It wouldn’t leave you any room to save so what if your car needs repairs or house, white goods need replacing etc.
Clothes for your child as they grew
Also shoes

I couldn’t think of anything worse than having to count every single penny every month. You’d be better working part time OP.

You can't start a new claim for tax credits anymore. They would be entitled to some Universal Credit though

It truthfully depends. In your shoes I’d look at your bank statements for the last three months and itemise everything. What was frivolous spending / essential etc. Work out your minimum outgoings and see if it’s doable.

Everyone is different - some people think having £200 a month is a pittance whereas for others it’s a huge amount.

The only thing is have you considered all your moving costs if the plan is to go somewhere else? Because that can cost a huge amount.

SAHM here who lives in the bath / Bristol area. It would be tight on 24k mainly because bath / Bristol house prices are pretty high.

If you’re prepared to live in some of the cheaper areas it would prob work out ok.
I was a single mum on 24k and managed fine on just one salary for me and my eldest.

We’re a family of 5 living off 37k (was 32 last year) and we’re fine. We could live off less but we’re lucky to have a small mortgage payment a month and o meal plan / budget carefully. We still have treats and new clothes etc

We moved to the SW from the North - hell of a lot more expensive & we’d struggle to buy in Bath/Bristol on our combined 100k+ salaries.

I’d be wary about your own financial security above everything.

It's enough to live but not 'live comfortably'.

@HappyPotato

You can't start a new claim for tax credits anymore. They would be entitled to some Universal Credit though

It would be a nominal a mount around £15 per week (currently £35 with temporary covid related uplift)

Plus child benefit - £21per week.

As PP, you need to budget for your own pension contributions and life and critical illness cover for your DH.

Have you looked at house prices in Bristol/Bath? They're not much cheaper than London so I expect your mortgage payments will be considerably higher than they are now.

It can be done, obviously. People do do it. I wouldn't want to do it in the Bath/Bristol area though. I think it would be both tight and precarious.

I think it is doable but could be a bit tight TBH. ATM it may be OK but if something breaks down or the car fails it MOT, what happens then? Maybe try for a while and see how you go?

You could probably spend a lot less on food. £400 per month for 2 people could definitely be decreased.

It’s doable OP.

My other half is on £23500 and we managed when DD was born last year; however I am now back at work full time and went back when my maternity was over because A) we had to budget and be so tight I was worried about not having the perfect first Christmas as a family (materialistic to you, but we’ve always had ‘grand’ christmases growing up.. traditional if you will)

B) I found myself almost feeling a bit guilty after a while that OP was bringing home the dish and I was spending it and then feeling crap that I couldn’t buy myself or DD something nice one in a while.

C) I had always planned to be a stay at home mum; but when it boiled down to it I really needed to go back to work for my own sanity lol. It was a lovely chunk of time off with DD but I wasn’t me anymore and now I’m back at work, working from home; both me and DD are much happier and less stressed.

Everyone is different; so I am just saying to stay open minded. If you can manage and cope by cutting back on expenses and budgeting, then that’s great and you’ll be fine. But don’t feel disheartened if some months in you start to get the itch to bring in some more money and feel like you need to have a day or two for you (at work but without child at least!)

You’ll know what’s best for you and your family when it comes to it.

It may well be manageable but it would be tight and what happens if you have an unexpected bill do you have savings

I earn a little more than that but have a DH who earns too so we're managing.

We have a monthly spreadsheet that runs throughout the FY and picks up an annual spend of things that change all the time. From this we have a separate outgoings sheet that lets us plan every single outgoing and every single bit of income.

I know that we'd have to cut back on so much of our expenditure to manage on that income. We'd manage but it wouldn't be nice or something we could do long term. Our mortgage is almost £800 per month though so that is a big difference.

I would say that is nowhere near enough to live on. I would also advise you to "keep a hand in" the world of work. Even if it's not your choice of career, having a job even 10 hours a week will give you so many benefits (something to talk about, independence, your own money, no huge gaps in the cv, work friends), also it will be good for your DH to have sole responsibility for the baby whilst you are gone (this really helped seal the bond between my DH and DD1 when I first went back to work when she was 14 months). I gave up my career when I had my first child and have done various job since then and having that time away from the family has been really good for me.

I worked ten hours a week over two days when DS was little, what I earned went to the CM and petrol and we had the price of a takeaway left at the end of the month.

Stuck it out and when he went to school I increased my hours, and have never looked back career wise.

@Lockandtees

Also, benefits are surely for people who really need them. They’re meant to be a safety net. They’re not there to fund your lifestyle because you just choose not to work. That’s not why we have a benefit system.

Is this directed at me?! When have I mentioned benefits in this thread?

How are you managing now on one salary?

@Tier10

How are you managing now on one salary?

We're good, but we don't have a baby yet, and we have a very small mortgage payment.