Are you saving for the baby now ??

[Mrs Doddy]

How many of you are saving now for having a baby ? - this year we have let our hair down a bit after 8 years of saving up to buy a house, new car, getting married, our last holiday this week, then we have christmas, I then need to pay off my overdraft so we haven't been able to save anything yet - which worries me a bit as H is worried how we are going to be able to cope with money. I have told him we will manage but I do want to have some emergency money. What if the boiler breaks down, or the washing machine or something ???????

We don't really have families that will pay for clothes or a cot or anything so we need to have the money ourselves.

 

[Poshie]

We started saving in October. Around about £500 /month which is for our emergency fund when I'm not working. Idea is that this will take some pressure and worry away for us over maternity time. I don't want DH stressing that he can't afford the mortgage this month or some other crisis. I thought whilst we can, we should save some. Having said that, we are also treating ourselves to a winter holiday in February, but that's it. I'd like to think though that if things got that bad, our families would help out.

 

[jillypoop]

We are going to start saving onc christmas is out the way. My family aren't good with imagination so I normally get mainly cash at christmas which will be going into the savings. I'm also gonna get one of those money jars you have to break to get into so any spare change can go into it but i can't get in it when i fancy a chinese!!

Poshie, you must be really well paid, wish we could afford to put £500 away a month!! My new job is £12600 plus commission on everything I sell so all my commission is going to go into savings, which should be good and I won't miss it because I was only getting paid £10,000 at my old job so hopefully will be putting £200 a month away.

 

[Poshie]

We do earn a reasonable joint wage yes. We do have a massive mortgage though and I wanted to save up enough to cover it for a few months. In a way it's scarier as to lose my wage will mean we'll lose half our household income. Also my DH is self employed so he doesn't necessarily get the same wage every month, or indeed know how much he'll bring in.

You are doing very well to save what you are saving

 

[jillypoop]

thanks I just hope that I can keep it up, i'm pretty awful with spending money. Hopefully I can grow up a bit soon and not buy things because they are nice, buy them because I need them! I'm hoping that my family will help us out when we do finally get pregnant, but my sister and all my friends want us to have a baby so I'm sure we'll get loads of presents when the time comes
At least the money you pay on the mortgage is going somewhere, I hate renting because our money is going into the landlords back pocket as opposed to our own house. Stupid recession, can't get a mortgage, apparently you are now needing around 30% as a deposit, and with the average house here about £120,000, thats never gonna happen.

good luck with saving everyone
xxx

 

[Poshie]

our money is going into the bank's back pocket as we currently have an interest only mortgage! That's another thing that worries us too, the equity we are losing on the house. I hope we can get another mortgage this time next year (based on values at that time). It will pick up again but it's going to be a long wait.

Anyway, enough depressing thoughts!

Happy TTC'ing

 

[fairy1984]

this is a real worry for me too and its so comforting to hear other people in a similar position. My OH and I are paid fairly OK wages and we have a joint mortgage based on that, therefore what happens when half of that money (i.e mine) goes?! the governmental maternity pay thing certainly doesnt compensate.

hmm dont think that was much of a constructive post but felt good to write it down

 

[Poshie]

Exactly the same concerns. Maternity pay won't even scratch the surface. I actually went into a panic about it a while back now. I did some research into it and came away with the knowledge that it would be okay. BUT I can't remember the reasons why! I just wanted to forget about it after I got the ok so I don't really remember.

Part of the reason for saving is to cover at least six months worth of mortgage, so I assume this would count in our favour when renewing mortgage. Our's is up next November. How about you?

 

[fairy1984]

ooh Poshie sounds like we're in similar positions as we're saving a similar amount each month.

we're saving to cover about 6 months of the mortgage but luckily we signed up for a ridiculously long mortgage term this time so dont have to re-new for 4 years and therefore know how much we'll need.

My thoughts on the maternity pay were that it might just about cover nappies and day to day bits for a baby but thats it!

Dont want to hi-jack this threat but think its all under the same topic...can you ladies do your current jobs with a family? for example, with mine I can be asked to go away and travel to different places from monday-friday with very little notice so I'm actively trying to adjust be career to be more "baby friendly" at the moment.

 

[Poshie]

That's good you don't have renewal of mortgage to do for a good while. TTC wasn't on our minds when we got this mortgage, so made no allowance for that. I've got a feeling though that they will lend again as long as you are going back to work within a year (or something like that). Otherwise, think of how many people wouldn't be able to get mortgages, just because they have a baby! It would be ridiculous wouldn't it.

Well my job does involve some travelling but not on the scale that yours does. I have to go to meetings etc which involves travelling by car or train, probably about 1-2 a week. I think I should be able to continue after a baby (I'll have to go back to work after 9 months). I may ask to go part time for a while then gradually increase my hours back up to full time.

 

[m_t_rose]

OK so now I think I am OTT about saving each month my whole wage goes into saving and we use DH's to cover everything else. He wanted to do it that way so that if I want to stop working when the baby comes it wouldn't be a huge change for us.

 

[Drazic<3]

As has already been said, we are going to start saving after xmas.

Theoretically, ive saved £500, but the account was already £500 overdrawn... still, in my world thats £500 thats ours!!

I dont want to make a big deal of it with the OH, im a full time student but i work one day a week so make around £200 a month which covers the phone bill, internet..ect and leaves me with a few quid left over. After the xmas mayhem im going to try and put £50 a month in that account. its not much, but its a start.

 

[honeybunch2k7]

I have a general savings account. I'm sure that's where some of the money will come from. Also, I buy cheapie baby stuff online and at work. Hey I bought a pair of boy's baby pants for $5 when regular price was $32. I had to buy it lol. Ebay is also a lifesaver.

 

[Sam86]

i work as a waitress in TGI fridays and so every single tip i make goes into our baby jar. I only started doing this 5 days ago and so far we've £240. Not bad eh!! haha i'm a good waitress.

 

[honeybunch2k7]

^OH and I need a baby jar. I think I'd find it really exciting to see him put away money for a babe.

 

[ozbutterfly]

We have a baby account started. We've used the change jar for saving up for various things. It works quite well.

We can't do as much as we'd like to do because all my earnings go to paying for my student loans. I will truly be joyous the day those are well and truly paid off.

 

[FsMummy]

we are saving to move away atm so all of our money just goes into the savings account. we also have a change jar lol all our 2 pound coins and coppers go into it and you wouldnt believe how quickly it adds up!

 

[ozbutterfly]

It helps when you live in a country where you have $1 and $2 coins to put in along with the < $1 coins.

 

[Mrs Doddy]

<sigh> I have been trying to think of a way that we can pay off our overdrafts and start saving - I suggested we take a mortgage holiday be H isn't keen - he said ok but I know he doesn't want to do it - ok well we will have to do it the hard way but this means the house will not get decorated, no new carpets and we wont be able to start saving until mid year - if I get prgenant quickly we are going to have no money for baby stuff (our family wont help) arrrgggghhhhh

 

[ozbutterfly]

*hugs* You're not alone in having families that won't help.