New Parents and Money

Makky's Mom gave me some great ideas for some new posts until I can get my creative flow going again. Thanks pal!

I gave an interview to my daughter about her experiences since becoming a new parent and how it relates to money.

As new parents you've undoubtedly had many changes in your financial situation.
Q. 1. : What changes were you expecting?

A. I knew I was going to have to reduce spending on myself and there would be increased costs associated to the baby's needs. I also knew there was going to be a decrease in my income and that it was going to be difficult to budget. I knew expenses overall were going to go up, but not by how much.

Q. 2.: What change(s) caught you by surprise?

A. The cost of formula for supplement feeding. I had planned to breastfeed exclusively, but I have had to use formula as well. The actual amount of maternity/parental benefits from EI was also a surprise. It was a lot less than what I hoped for, due to reduced hours in my last month of work. Daddy's income isn't enough to meet our obligations, which was also a surprise. the waiting time between finishing work and getting benefits from EI was a huge surprise because I went over a month without any income. As soon as my son was born, I signed up for CCTB. I was surprised by how long I have to wait to get the benefit and in not knowing how much we will get. All this waiting caused us to fall behind in our bills.

Q. 3. : What has been your biggest financial challenge since your child's birth?

A. Rent!  We're still trying to catch up with rent payments. Going so long without money made us fall behind. We've had issues with food and groceries but we found ways to deal with that.

Q. 4. : Do you worry or stress out about money?

A. yes, because we don't make enough money right now to have the necessities like food and rent. It's more stressful than it was when I was caring only for myself. Now that I have my son depending on me/us to provide for him. We both stress about money, which leads to arguments, about where the money we do get should go. It seems that our priorities are different.

Q.5. Do you budget or have a spending plan?

A. I do budget for my income only. I don't always do it, or stick to the budget, but I'm getting better with it. Daddy doesn't budget at all.

Q. 6. Does it bother you that you budget and he doesn't?

A. Yes. I'd like for us to do the budgeting together, instead of the way it is now. his priorities are more immediate - "I need this and this and this in order to get back and forth to work". It makes me feel like all the important stuff falls on my shoulders for my income, mostly because he makes so little money, and it gets eaten up by transportation costs. He's an impulse spender and has trouble seeing the big picture.


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Part two of the interview tomorrow!