Nursery

To be fair I don't even know how we can afford maternity!! Government gives half of the minimum wage on maternity leave and we are supposed to take care of a child in the meantime. Ridiculous. I won't be able to do more than 3 months

Yeah I'm the same I'm gonna have to save loads and even then I may not be able to make the 8 months which just kills me it's a joke and will have to have probably at least a 5 year age gap until the next baby because who can afford two kids in nursery..not meee

I’ve saved a lot to carry me though this year. I’m very lucky my mortgage and bills are quite low. But tbh id only end up having £100 left over a month to live off. So I’m going to budget like mad xxx

I'm going to try my hardest to save 500 a month ( I'm lucky I get full pay for 18 weeks) so I'm hoping saving that will be enough but really worries me xx

It’s ridiculous how much it costs! I’ve looked into a few nurseries and they are all £65 a day! We’ve got no family close either so have no support at all. Have you looked at the new childcare free hours? They’ve changed and will be changing again over the next year. From what I can see, next September working families will get 30 free hours a week in term time for kids over 9 months x

no way? Do you have to qualify for that? All these different things confuse me

https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ there is some info here x

From September 2024, working parents with babies 9 months old + are entitled to 15 hours free childcare per week (this works out about 11 hours per week if you take it over the whole year rather than 38 week term time only) this goes up to 30 hours in September 2025.

Also entitled to tax free childcare which means a 20% reduction. X

The funded hours help a lot to be fair. With my eldest we had to wait until he was almost three and a half to get any funded hours (May birthday) but with my youngest he'll get some funding from just over a year. It's not brilliant but it is getting better quickly. We paid £1500 a month for years until we got that funding so could've saved a lot!

Nursery fees are very pricey, working in a nursery myself. One perk from working there is getting a discount on fees. If you’re flexible with a job you could always look into working at a nursery to help with fees. Also, 1 year government funding should be coming in soon which again will reduce your fees massively. 15 hours for 2 year and 3 year funding are already in place so that helps later on x