Returning to work after baby?

[RainMinusBow]

Long story short...

I'm on a relatively low wage (£9.50ph) as a Higher Level Teaching Assistant. I work ft in terms of school hours - 8.30 - 3.30 Mon to Fri.

I just don't see how it's going to be possible to ever return to work after my baby is born as surely childcare costs will cancel out anything I earn?!!

I do have a fiancé - he also works ft on around £24k pa.

We'll see how we go I guess. Rent alone is ridiculous but can't get a mortgage! Fiancé agrees returning ft isn't ideal but he's only on around £24k pa so might have no choice.

Could you work evenings or weekends as a tutor, or even doing childcare / babysitting (I know that's very different to being a HLTA, but other parents may feel more comfortable hiring a mature adult with experience with children to babysit, rather than

*rather than a local teenager (posted too soon!)

That way you could pick up a few hours a week when your partner is at home?

What happens if you look for a teaching role for a couple of days per week, and he drops down to part time too? You'd have to calculate extra time to your work (so if it's 2 days, you know that really it's 3 and arrange childcare accordingly!). But it could bring you down to only needing a day or two of paid childcare, and your better hourly rate would help the sums add up.
Or could you do tutoring? Or work for a company who makes educational resources? What sort of teacher were you? Massive props for walking away from it when you had too, conditions in teaching are absurd.
24k per year isn't a huge salary, and with your qualifications your earning power is probably more than his. DP and I earn roughly equal rates, and both work part time as we can't afford childcare and both have careers we value. I have gone back to work PT from about 9 months twice (in my third may leave now) and breastfed til 2 and a half, no pumping needed.

Yes I'd consider possibly teaching pt but it's very, very hard to get a pt teaching job now I'm at the top of my pay scale. With budgets in education as they are the vast majority of school have no choice but to go for newly qualified teachers. Also being out of teaching for so long will more than likely go against me.

It's so tricky, isn't it! I'd imagine a canny head would be keen to have more expensive senior teachers PT and the cheaper, more junior ones FT, but people can be so funny about part time work!
(Remember that even though you've been out of teaching you have still been in the classroom, so not a total gap!)
Would a bit of supply work to test the waters be plausible?

@DustyDoorframes It is! I did think about supply but the problem would be when the baby is here that it's a) Not a guaranteed stable income (which may be a problem as OH doesn't earn much) and b) Usually very last minute so not sure how that would work with childcare? Nightmare!!

You should get tax free childcare as it’s based on your income and savings don’t affect eligibility. That takes 20% off your bill up to a maximum of £2k a year. From that you can work out the weekly cost of childcare, then use an online calculator to work out your take home pay and see what the difference.

As well as the finances, it’s worth considering the career benefits of going back to work (if applicable) and whether you actually want to be a SAHM. I was lucky enough to be able to part time but I think I would have struggled being at home full time and missed working.

@Darkstar4855 Thank you. In an ideal world I'd love to return pt as I love my job and get a huge amount of job satisfaction from it. I guess it just depends if we can afford it! My OH agrees that pt would be perfect if we can manage it. We don't have much money (esp once rent is paid) but he's very supportive and hopefully we'll get by