I'm gonna be in the same situation 😢 and I can't bear to face the thought of leaving him or even the cost at the moment but I'm gonna have to prepare sooner rather than later xx @nelsley

Makes sense. I'll whip out the calculator! I could only just afford it with my son but now there's two that need childcare! 😐 my daughter was a surprise (a good one) but now I'm looking at quite hard times. I'll see if I can figure out how many hours would benefit but still have the problem of when. We don't have family close by and as I said my husbands schedule is not predictable. 😐 it's all so frustrating.

We had the same problem. Most mums do unfortunately. I had to return part time. At first my sister looked after him one day and then my husband asked for a set day off each week (he always had a week day off anyway) and that we we didn't have to pay for childcare. now my son goes to nursery. I do lose a fair bit of wages to nursery but we couldn't survive without the money I earn that's left over after childcare. If I worked full time however nursery would cost more than my wages. The trick is to work just enough hours so that you don't have to pay tax because that way you can work much less hours but be fairly close to a full time wage. eg. If I worked 3 days a week I would earn only 200 a month less than when I work 5 days because the extra money you earn goes straight to tax and national insurance.

Makes sense. I forgot to mention the other complication... my husbands job has variable hours and days. He can work any day of the week with shifts between 7am and midnight. they're not predictable though. 😕

I work part time, my partner is a carpenter so he works week days and I have quite a flexible job so I work evenings and weekends. That way we don't have to pay for childcare and we can still afford to have some treats (meals out etc) x