Hi everyone, firstly, I am so happy to be pregnant, wanted this more than anything. Me and DH have been together over 10 years, moved into our forever home last year, quite financially comfortable albeit not well off but we pay mortgage, cars etc and have money left to save. I started freaking out recently at the thought of childcare etc. I get 90%pay for 6 weeks followed by 12 weeks at 50% + stat so I think this should be OK, but when it goes to just statutory I am now freaking out about what we're going to do, I don't want to go back to work full time when baby is 18 weeks old! Plan was to save the next 7 months and top up statutory with savings, but then we thought it might be better to clear some outstanding finances (2 cars and kitchen) to bring monthly payments down. On top of that, when I do go back, child care is astronomical, we don't have family nearby, they live over 2 hrs away. Anyone else having this concern or got through it by thinking of something out of the box? Please no sarcasm or rude comments, we have both always worked FT, not entitled to any benefits and never have had any, as far as I can see the only time we get help is 3 year old 30 hours a week. I know it'll be OK as loads of people with less manage I just don't know how!