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What do you do with your child's monthly Child Benefit payment?

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I use it to get his nappies , wipes and snacks for the month

Buy my daughter toys, games or clothes etc

I don’t do anything separate with it. It just gets swallowed up in my monthly income and just as quickly spat back out on whatever needs paying for, e.g. bills, food shopping etc.

Use it for things my daughter needs for the month. But my partner puts £100 in her savings each month so I guess that’s the same thing (minus the £4.20 extra from CB)

I don’t get it 😅

Generally just goes on things she wants/needs, this month's has gone straight on swimming lessons 😅

I have put his in a cash box with an added £5~ each payment since birth and will keep doing that for as long as I can then when his old enough I will give it to him along with any other savings I have for him

£50 in junior ISA and the rest towards household bills/ clothes for him x

It goes towards nursery fees or on things he needs. The option to put it in a savings account just isn’t an option for a lot of parents who claim child benefit.

Use to go on formula, nappies and wipes for the month when she was a baby she’s 4 now and it typically pays for any clubs she goes to or towards Christmas or birthday presents.

The replies here reassure me! Ours just goes into the household pot but I know a lot of people who put theirs in a savings account for their kids and I was worried this was quite common and I was making a mistake! I saw it again on a silly sponsored ad where the woman put the. Child benefits into an ISA. I think if you can afford to then why not, it's a nice lump sum for your kids education or something important when they are 18. If you need it every month then of course why not spend it on the things you need!

It just gets mashed up into our monthly money, we put £10 a month into his saver then anything he needs we just buy!

In an ideal world I'd put it in her savings like my parents did for me back then but I can't afford this at the moment with maternity pay so it goes towards bills. I put £20 a month into her saver

We do £50 a month into savings and spend the rest on day to day stuff he needs.

It goes towards nursery fees.

We use it to pay for his messy play classes, toddler groups and stay and plays atm. As he gets older I imagine it'll be for some kind of sport group etc

Currently use it for his swimming lessons. But once he’s older, I’ll put into his savings x

Stocks and shares Isa. We don't have loads of money but enough for things she needs and for us so trying to invest until she's 20

I use it to buy everything my daughter needs that month - clothes, shoes…etc. We do have a savings account for her but I can’t afford to put the entire amount in as we need it to buy her things she needs now.

I invest it in my child’s junior isa except for months when we really need it.

We don't get it, but if we did we'd add it to their isa accounts. There's no shame or anything to worry about if you're using it for day-to-day purchases. That's literally what it's there for!

We've been putting some in his savings account each month and then the rest goes on Tumble Tots, Little Kickers and any other groups we do or things like swimming

We use it for something fun for him, this month is an indoor climbing frame. In the past it's swimming lessons, baby classes, bath toys, water table etc.

I try and put half into savings for my daughter

Some goes into my kids savings. The rest goes on bits the kids need during the month

Ours goes on things they may want or need for the month. Nappies, milk, snacks, and some towards nursery fees

Just use it to pay bills 💸
Which includes nursery etc

@Hollie same here!

Towards any paid activity, swimming/baby classes etc..

I put it straight into his junior ISA

It goes usually towards food, mines paid weekly I get £60 for 3 kids, and most the time it goes towards the food shopping tbh x

Pays for water babies but we also save £100 a month into a savings account for him x

I put most of it in her savings. The goal is £1000 a year in the savings account, we made it just after her 1st birthday for the first year because mat pay was rubbish so the child benefit payment had to be used for general life. Now we have nursery fees our goal may have to reduce!

I buy what ever my daughter needs. This months shoes for nursery, two emergency replacements for her comfort toy that I'm going to start rotating just incase the original disappears. A waterbottle and tomorrow will be wipes. The rest I tend to spend on her food. I make sure she has healthy food while I'm quiet happy to sit and eat noodles day in day out

When things aren't so tight, when ever that might be, I plan to put it in her stocks and shares ISA as that bank accounts still made more then my savings account despite the stock market going haywire.

Towards the children's upkeep, but mainly extra curricular activities.

It just goes into our joint account and we spend it on whatever. We do put £80 in savings each month for him and will do the same for baby number 2 who is due next month x

Goes on his essentials and anything leftover will go on little treats, an afternoon out or be put aside for Christmas/birthday gifts or savings

So far, we've been adding to baby's savings but will be using it towards nursery costs later.

If I have everything he needs then it goes on activities and days out but if not then i use it to buy what he needs he has a savers but that comes out of my money for him

Not eligible but if I was I’d save it for them .

@Jade I thought everyone was eligible?

when i had my first, it was solely used for nappies, wipes and formula each month (the whole monthly allowance would go on those three things. we would bulk by a months worth of nappies, wipes and formula). as he got older, past one, it helps *occasionally* if we’re short on food shop money or bills, cause at the end of the day kid needs feeding and a roof over his head🤣 we have a second now so we’ve got the extra bit on top now, so it is still going on formula, nappies and wipes monthly, then the extra again is for things needed like food shop, or my son is starting school in september so i’ve said next CB i’ll buy his uniform. i’ve said that when we are hopefully earning more than we are (me specifically as im the part timer) and we can live comfortably on our wages, then the CB will then be split and put into each of the boys savings xxx

Not UK but Canadians get a childcare benefit too. We try to put a portion into savings each month, and how much depends on how we're doing otherwise. If we can manage without it it all goes into savings, if we need to dip into some of it for bills we can. But only ever before it goes into his savings. Once money has been transfered into his savings that's it. We'd out it on a credit card rather than dipping into that

@Char if you earn over 80k, you’re not eligible x

@Sinead well, you can claim it but you'd have to pay some if not all of it back plus do a tax return. So it makes no sense to claim. It's quite a silly system!

We spend it on him. Whether that is on new clothes or toys etc. This month’s and last was put aside and then spent on a new bed, mattress and sheets for him. We tend to buy nappies/wipes/cows milk/snacks within the food shop, so the child benefit is purely spent on him x

We don’t really think about it. It all goes into the general account everything comes out of. Just helps float the bills.

I don't get it anymore but I got it for a year after he was born and it was immediately put into his savings account ☺️

in our community

Am I overreacting???

So I have a younger sister (23yr old ) she has 3 kids , 5,2 & 1 yr old .
She is constantly asking for me to baby sit for free .Which at first i didn’t mind wtv but now it’s constant & I’m tired of it .I have my own kid to take care of and tbh I don’t like taking care of my nephews … I love them to death but I just can’t with 4 kids by my self …. She asked if I can babysit again tomorrow for 4 hours I said “sure for a small golden eagle coffee frm Dutch bros “and she got upset … girl I’m done

Going no contact with in laws, undecided.

Hey. So this is a bit of a long winded situation forgive me if you have to read on forever. Advice is really appreciated. I don't want to feel like I'm weaponising my child or using her as leverage in any way so I really need some honest advice as my concerns are genuine.

Since announcing our pregnancy , my sister in law and her 19 year old daughter have gone from being super close with us, to ignoring us completely. I mean ignoring scans, not asking how we are, ignoring our attempts to make plans for other family members birthdays, nothing. Unfortunately my partner's dad has been undergoing intensive cancer treatment so it has been a super delicate and emotional time for everyone, but everyone else in the family including father in law has been really excited for us and made space for this good thing amongst the bad which I'm so grateful for as I didn't expect it at all. We've tried not to make it seem like the most important thing going on right now and been there for support, meal prepped his parents some food for those days they've spent at hospital and can't make dinner, we've not done gender reveal parties or baby showers as a result of this big fall out / perhaps it not being the right time either.

So the sister in law has a history of making things about her, and upsetting people with her behaviour. It's not the first time, she did it over her brother's wedding because things didn't go her way. So I was semi prepared for a bit of resentment / inability to be happy for us. But I was still really quite hurt when it materialised. My first trimester was spent really upset not understanding what I did wrong to them to deserve them not welcoming my baby. We put our foot down after a few months of being ignored and decided to call out the behaviour, and we just got a complete attack in return. Apparently we are responsible for the fact she doesn't have a partner for support through her dad's cancer diagnosis, apparently we don't show up for the parents as much as she does (she works from home and lives round the corner, we are one hour away) apparently her daughter prefers how my partner was with her before I came along. Lots of things that just show resentment came up and we've had no apology for it, some of it felt like it came completely out of the blue. Apparently they were ignoring us because before Christmas we didn't like a photo of her daughter Infront of a Christmas tree. (We were going through some really sad stuff at the time). We have explained this, and said it's not really on the same scale as ignoring the existence of an entire new baby for months. It just felt like she was clutching at straws and throwing lots of punches rather than telling the truth as to why they decided to become upset with us after we became pregnant.

I've kept quiet, I've been in hospital twice with heart palpitations which turned out to be panic attacks. Had to go on anti depressants which made me really unwell for MONTHS, not keeping food or water in. Like I've not been okay at all and have communicated on two occasions that I need this to stop for the sake of baby whatever the issue is, theres more important things happening. Completely ignored. It's made things tricky in a sense of the family getting together too. My other sister in law (married to partners brother) is disgusted at how she's behaved and doesn't want much to do with her because she's been on the receiving end also.

I've had to scroll my feed and see bitchy videos from my niece about how 'talking to her is a privilege not an option ' with sister in law commenting things like 'damn right' after we were the ones ignored for months. The whole situation is just silly. But it's upset me a lot.

I've loved these girls like my own family for the past four years, but the way they've made me break down and put my baby at risk I really don't feel like I can move past. They obviously have a lot of resentment for me and I just feel like I can't then trust them around my baby, I feel like they don't deserve to get to hold my child or even look at her and I can't get past that feeling. My partner is in full support as he's seen how upset it has made me, he's been as worried as me at times for babys health amongst this.

I don't want any contact, have had them blocked for months anyway but I have a feeling they may try to show up when baby's here. What would you do?

There are a lot of details and things done and said left out but it's the jist of it. I've not spoken to them, I tried to reach out yet another time for this to stop and they ignored me and continued to ignore us revealing the gender too, but went straight on to wishing people a happy birthday in the same family chat the following day.

Is there any way to make space for your child to have a relationship when they've disrespected the mum and disregarded her feelings, health etc during pregnancy?

I've gotten to a stage I've dealt with it and have kind of decided what I think of them after all this, but having to make that decision on behalf of your child is something I've not experienced before.

Anyone else's husband?

I'm 8 days pp with our 4th baby, the others are all under the age of 4. Literally still in diapers, and my husband has the audacity to ask me to suck his dick today. Twice. He mentioned earlier this morning how horny he's been for days and my response was I'm sorry I still got like 5 weeks to go and he made some stupid comment about me having hands and a mouth still. I know he was joking he's not that much of an asshole lol but the last thing I want to do right now is be sexual. I feel like a milking cow and I'm wearing diapers like. Anyone else's husband? He's very open about the fact that he's been like taking care of it himself if you get me but that's been a thing in our relationship and im fine with it, it's just like asking me only a week after having an unmedicated vbac now back at home taking care of 4 kids and as im getting ready to finally go to sleep youre gonna ask me for that?

I don’t know what to do..

There’s this long distance happening. We are in the same room, but miles apart. He works from 10-9 five days a week. And the days he’s off I’m working. But he is a good husband, father, and provider. Is it wrong for me to be feeling so alone. (And yes we’ve talked about it but never come to a same conclusion) or am I being selfish, or is it time to start asking the harder questions..

Is this weird or am I being dramatic?

I’m living with my mum atm as me and my bd split up before I had my baby. I’ve been feeding my friends cat for about a week as she’s on holiday and mum got in from work (night shifts) and said she’d watch the baby so I don’t need to take him with me. I’ve just got back in and he’s in bed cuddled up with her asleep. No problem there but she’d got undressed to go to bed so he’s cuddled against her bare breast? And it’s just made me feel a tad uncomfortable. Is it just me or would anyone else feel a certain way about this??

Rainy days

What we doing on rainy days have two under 3