If both parents work FT

[Penguin27]

I'm thinking about what arrangements I'll need to make after my maternity leave finishes.

I've worked out that my take-home pay after tax, national insurance and travel costs will only cover childcare costs with about £5 per day left over.

DP's salary will just about cover the bills but we'd have nothing left over for food, petrol or general living expenses.

With commuting, if we both worked FT the baby would be in nursery 7-7 every weekday. We would barely get to see it except at weekends.

There is potentially scope for both of us to work from home one day per week, which would reduce the time spent at nursery by about 3-4hrs per day, but may or may not reduce the cost (depends on whether they charge per hour or 'session'). DP also has the potential to do compressed hours (35hrs over 4 days).

How can we make this work?

I like to be prepared! Baby isn’t due for several weeks yet. But the whole thing is making me anxious and I find it helps me to make some practical arrangements.

When should I be speaking to nurseries about signing baby up?

That’s good OP - thought you were going to say he/she is months old! I complete agree about practical things to keep busy... this is what I would do/I did re return to work:

1. Visit nurseries to get a feel of what you like/don’t like. Visit all kinds of places to get a good frame of reference, even if you think it’s out of price range or not somewhere you would choose.
2. Put baby’s name down for a full time place - you often have to pay a registration fee but this shouldn’t be different dependent on a part or full time place. It’s easier to negotiate then which days of the week you want if you end up needing only 2.5 days a week. People that try and find specific sessions at short notice are unlikely to get what they want so flexibility is good.
3. Put together a proposal for both your employers re flexible working request. The more effort you put into this, the more likely it is to be approved. If you put solutions to how any potential issues could be addressed then it’s very hard to get rejected.

Above all else, be open minded about timings/solutions etc. The important thing is to remember is that it’s not a forever arrangement so you want to make sure you don’t get set on one particular scenario.

PM me if you want any more specific help

Have you asked if your /dp employee still offer child care vouchers? They're going to be stopped soon, but I believe you're financially better off if you both claim them for one child (there was a comparison a while ago on moneysavingexpert).

Also I believe you can claim them as soon as baby is born so might be worth buying now to build up a reserve.

Thanks chicken, that’s really helpful

Not sure about DP’s employer but mine is still offering the old vouchers while it’s running and will sign up to the new scheme as well. I’ll have a look into claiming them early, thanks.

I’d be really surprised if your work let’s you work from home and have your baby at home! Surely they would know that you’d get no work done? My company wants to know what childcare provision is in place before they agree to you working from home!

Sorry I think I had miscalculated your working days v nursery days! Ignore me!

After our first child I went back to work full time but condensed not 4 days. I did one longer day, 8-7ish, then 3 days 8:00 - 5:30ish

Nursery bill for 4 days was around £850 - £900. Are you in a minimum wage job? I assumed so if your full time wage just covers the nursery bill if so might you be entitled to early years funding from 2 years old?

After our 2nd child I went back part time, 24 hours over 3 days. Oldest is 3 so pretty much covered by government funding. 3 days cost £670 for the baby.

Financially we're more comfortable if I work, it spreads the pressure out and the financial security. It's very expensive in the early years but the important thing is i've kept my career and employability. We considered one of staying at home but worried what opportunities they'd be for employment with 5 years out. I guess it depends of your quals / industry.

It is stressful though, if they're sick and you need to collect them etc. Having both cars set up with car seats helped for sharing out the ad hoc dramas and also the option of working from home if you need to leave the office early to collect.

I'm in a middle management job, so reasonably stressful but not crazy, no travel, client dinners etc. I'm in awe of how families work it if both parents are in high flying careers.

The hardest thing for me is trying to juggle house stuff - but we're getting better at it!

Thanks for sharing your experience babytalk.

No I’m actually paid quite a bit above minimum wage but SE London childcare costs are ridiculous that on top of commuting costs means there’s very little of my salary left over. But as you say, for employability and long-term financial stability, it make sense for me to go back to work. DH says he’s happy for me to be a SAHM and he’ll work two jobs if he has to - of course I’d never accept that, but I’m incredibly lucky!

We don’t have two cars so if I had to collect the baby due to illness it would be on public transport.

I don’t know how anyone manages it - low earners or high flyers! It feels very difficult. In a few years though it will definitely be worth it.

All my colleagues with young babies work full time with 1 or two days from home. In northern commuter towns childcare and nursery costs tend to be higher than the SE as kids need to be there for longer but if you both wfh you should never need to use the longer service more than 2 days per week.