Money....

[Toffee12]

Hey all! I'm new

Like most people wanting to TTC/or actively TTC I worry about money. Basically we have £4,000 on a credit card, which we can easily pay the minimum payments of £90 a month. We are in our overdraft too, but that will be paid off very soon.

The credit card is on a 0% balance transfer card for 22 months (21 from now). We are aiming to pay about £1500-2000 of it over the next year before TTC. It will be likely that we'll have to transfer it again to another 0% card.

Our joint income pre-tax is £38,700 a year the moment we have approx £200 spare to spend on whatever (after all food, bills, morgtage putting £160 on CC, paying off overdraft etc). Currently our disposable income goes on meals, take aways, books etc-all of which we can live without.

Part of me thinks we should aim to completely clear it (around 2 years) before TTC. Another part of me says to go for it in a year(ish) time as long as we know we can pay the min payments. The other part says, like a lot say, if we wait for money, we'll never had kids.

I'd love to hear from people in a similar situation-people that have credit cards which will go on for a good while, but aren't out of their depth.

Thanks,

Toffee12 xxx

 

[SarahLouB]

I am in a similar situation but my debt it a lot highter! 15k on credit cards!!! We are aiming to have it paid off by the beginning of next year but the way things are going at the moment I very much doubt that will happen.

We had been putting off having a baby for so long because we worry about money but in the end we decided that we are NEVER going to have enough money so we might as well just go for it and see what happens!

 

[Leah04x]

Hi! Welcome to PF!

I'm not in exactly the same position as you.. Neither me or my OH have credit cards, but we have cars on finance etc, and almost all of our income goes on paying bills.
Personally, I don't think there's ever a 'right time' to have a child.. I don't think you can prepare yourself for what parenthood brings..
I think that as long as you can cover all of your outgoings and be paying off the debt, you can offer your child a stable upbringing with everything they need, you should just go ahead and start trying for a little one..
I agree with 'if we wait for money, we'll never have kids'..

As we weren't in the best financial position, we decided to not use any contraception.. If it was to happen, great, but we weren't necessarily trying.. After 5 months, I fell pregnant and I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant.. If you think you can clear your debt in 2 years, I'd say go for it.. Remember that you might not fall pregnant straight away anyway, it may take 6 months and then you can carrying on paying it off during your pregnancy - so that's 15 months of still paying off your debt, you'd be nearly done!

Anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling! Haha..

Wishing you all the best xx

 

[Toffee12]

Thanks ladies

We will go for it in a years time I'm waiting for £250 from the tax man-so that will clear a good chunk of our overdraft!

OH wanted to buy a new computer, but thankfully he has realised he can't and is ok with it! So trust me, he's up for it haha x

 

[Titch85]

Neither me or OH have credit cards but we are both using our overdrafts, by the end of the year we should be sorted as we both have cars on finance and both cars will be paid off in July. We'll have about £500 (between us) a month more so we can pay off the small debts that we have over the next few months and then we'll start saving extra hard. I am of the same opinion as above, there's never going to be a 'good time' to have children, so we've started trying now and there's no guarantee it will happen straight away.

 

[Toffee12]

We could clear more, but it'd mean no treats whatsoever (and we don't buy much really). Once our wedding is over, we can then hopefully tackle it a good chunk

 

[Leah04x]

Yay! Sounds like you've got it all sorted! xx

 

[Toffee12]

Well, somewhat sorted hehe x

 

[Froslass]

Neither myself or OH have credit cards, we earn 20000 a year. OH has 2 jobs and I do some Twitter stuff for my dad that he pays me for ( it does go through the books lol). By the time we've paid rent, bills etc we have about 300 left xx before we had wee chookie we were out every weekend but its worth it x

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

 

[Froslass]

We paid OHs card off just before my birthday in April and got rid if it x our overdraft is 600 x I got rid of my card (got it when I was 18) this time last year x

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[i.love]

Hun if you are sure you can pay it off, go for it. There is never a perfect time for having kids.

I just want to say that I found it quite surprising how little it cost to have a baby. First 6 months were very cheap for us - we were given some clothes as gifts, some stuff like car seats were handed down to us from relatives. Nappies etc were easily covered by 80 pounds a month that you will be getting from the government. Even if we weren't given any stuff, you can pick up things very cheap n eBay, car boot sales (!) and also on freecycle (website where people offer unwanted things for free. We got our crib there).

Good luck!

 

[Frankinstein12]

Last post is right, having a child can be as expensive or inexpensive as you make it we are starting to try in October, job wise I work part time on an as and when needed basis, it's crap! Pays well when there's work but I'm hoping to do my teacher training next year, I didn't get on the course this year which prompted us to have a baby Inbetween. My partner is a scaffolder, and earns about 30odd a year, we don't have cred cards, I stick to, of I can't afford it I can't have it haha so there's no need for one, only thing we are worried about is mortgage rate going up next year, x

 

[Toffee12]

I plan to get a lot of the clothes off ebay/second hand. I figure they grow out of them so fast, no point spending a fortune! I think family would love to help with pram/cot (My mum will spoil them rotten).

In 9 months time I'll make sure I start taking my vitamins etc, and aim to TTC a few months later. At least I have some form of goal

The thing that concerns me the most is childcare after maternity leave/drop in income, however, our parents are divorced and with new partners/husband/wife, so we should have enough help. My job is quite flexible-I work in care.

Toffee xxx

 

[Sassysugar]

Hi Toffee and welcome

I agree with what the girls say, you can end up putting off a baby forever due to money. I think sometimes you just have to go for it and it's amazing how you just find the money to cope. We had some debt when we started ttc (long story got screwed over by evans halshaw) but we're all sorted now. I also haven't gone back to work as we moved abroad for a while with my OH's job.

Child care was worrying me if I had been going back to work, but as we're thinking of having another one soonish, it will be better for me to be a sahm with 2 children while they're young.

It sounds like you have a plan in place anyway to get rid of your debt which is always good. Good luck hun

 

[Iwant3]

I'm definately with the saying 'if you wait for the perfect time, you'll never do it!' There are no guarantees you will be ready financially in a year - as things change btw you are really patient waiting a year, lol

I have 4 credit cards, mortgage, a loan and our wages just about cover our outgoings every month - we already have 2 kids and if I had waited to be debt free to have them we would still be childless tbh! we are now ttc no 3.........DH is 40 and I am 34 in a few weeks so we are just going for it - and things seem to always work out somehow

 

[Toffee12]

Thanks everyone! We probably won't clear it, but definitely clear some! I'm setting up a savings account to put money in for car services, cat injections etc that come out once a year. Just so we level the spending out throughout the year. We are pretty skint haha, and have £25 a week each to spend on whatever we want, it's do-able The more debt we clear, the more we'll have in the long run. We can't TTC til March next year at the earliest anyway. OH has 12 month probation period in his new job, so it'd be risky to so before he's passed.

 

[Toffee12]

I've done a debt plan

Aim to clear the overdraft by Christmas! Basically start vitamins in March next year, TTC in June (1st year anniversary), if we fell pregnant straight away, we'd still have a good while to carry on paying off a good chunk before the 0% ends. In December when the 0% interest ends, switch to another 0% card and just do min payments (they'll be very low by that point. If it took us a while to get pregnant, then we'd most likely of cleared it anyway!