Anyone have 3 children? Advice?

[KewNutty]

Uk based
So i have a 6yo and 8 mo and am pregnant with no. 3 . My partner seems to think that this baby is going to throw us into a financial pit. He believes were going to have to give up our house (mortgaged 3 bed) and always be struggling to get by. Let me clarify that were not struggling as such atm, were having to be a little tight, but having said that we do still have cash spare for a few extra things each month (e.g. we just went away for the weekend to visit his parents) what i want to know is how much of a difference financially did u feel things changed going from 2 children to 3? Thank you.

You'll have two in childcare at the same time (assuming you're going to be working), which may be financially quite tricky, but it's only for a couple of years, and then your middle child will go to school. I only have two, but found the most difficult stage money wise was when they were both in nursery/preschool as I could only work around their hours there, so really wasn't able to bring in very much money. Luckily family helped us with childcare costs, and dc2 only did 2 days for a while due to costs. Since they've both been full time at school and we've both started earning more, everything is much easier financially.

Honestly not much until I needed to pay for childcare

I had three in three years (one then twins) which left us with a big childcare bill but otherwise I didn’t find three was more expensive. We already had enough car seats, and the big stuff like cots and toddler beds. We accepted any hand me downs and we bulk make meals so food bill isn’t much bigger. When they’re eligible for 30 free hours childcare it will make a big difference.

I had two DC instead of three. We got on fine, even in a less financially well off time.

Childcare, their activities and uni fees could be punishing but some of these are optional I guess. The more children people have then more sacrifices have to be made unless they are well off

We have 3 children, our oldest ones were 7 and 2.5 when our youngest were born. We fall into the "things are tight caregory". I unexpectedly fell pregnant (2 forms of contraception) and just couldn't terminate. I am a sahm and DH had had 2 jobs for a couple of years. I'm now job hunting ready for our youngest to start school in September. We've avoided childcare due to this and life has been frugal but comfortable ish. We manage a good christmas and birthdays, plus a family holiday. All of our money is allocated each month to a budget of some kind, be it mot or hair cuts. I keep a spreadsheet which allows us to theoretically go "overdrawn" on some pots of money - everything balances out in the end. I can usually find some money for the occasional takeaway or meal out. We don't routinely buy coffees out of have lots of day trips. The children have a couple of after school clubs. I ache for a new carpet and to decorate and to get a new car. I cannot wait to return to work but I will miss what we have had, but have been grateful for it. It worked for us also due to children's additional needs.

It's not always been easy and as they get older I can see I need to throw myself back into my career (I've been out of the workplace for about 4 years) to get us to where we want to be in life.

We had to get a bigger car to have 3 in a mix of car seats/not, had two in childcare at once, holidays often cost more as need two rooms or two/three bedroom suite/villa etc. we also upgraded house from 3 bed with tiny 3rd room to 4 bed so they'd all have own room. So writing it down seems like it's cost us a lot more! Day to day it doesn't seem terrible.

I didn't notice any difference. We had a 5yo and a 2 yo when youngest was born. We both work part-time so there hasn't been any need for childcare. Holidays can obviously cost more but apart from that I really wouldn't say our spending would have gone up because of the kids. Like others have said, you'll probably already have prams, clothes, toys etc from the older siblings. The third one just sort of comes along and has the scraps everyone else has already used 😬

Was this 3rd planned?