https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:37:51 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228346 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 21:06:06 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 1228346@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We definitely budgeted and made a lot of plans before TTC. I'm glad we did because we have spent a ton of money on fertility treatments. We wouldn't have been able to afford them of we hadn't prepared before TTC. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228334 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 21:01:15 +0000 Mae 1228334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lindseykaye: this is actually what happened to us too. We had a plan and were going to TTC end of 2014/early 2015. But, surprise! lol. We'll be fine but things aren't going to be quite as easy as they would've been given another year of socking away cash into savings. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228328 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:58:38 +0000 lindseykaye 1228328@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were budgeting for it for a while by accomplishing other financial goals we had that were before saving for a baby (paying off debt, savings goals, affording life insurance, etc.).<br /> But our girl surprised us with a BFP 6 months earlier than we planned on TTC. So, we were in a place where we knew we could afford it but didn't meet some goals we would have liked to and cut some fun things we had planned like travel. Though I was 35 weeks pregnant when the trip was scheduled so it was an easy choice not to fly across the country and save the money. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228255 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:29:54 +0000 Beyond2 1228255@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>In order to TTC we decided we wanted to be debt free and have $X in saving. We accomplished that and then I ran budgets out for pretty much every possible scenario since we planned for me to stay home after baby. I'm so thankful we did all that. I feel like we were in a great place when we started to TTC. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228228 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:20:37 +0000 ElbieKay 1228228@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We save almost 30% of our combined after tax salaries without trying too hard. So, assuming we will cut back on travel and restaurants, I figured there would be plenty of wiggle room. Swinging childcare plus college savings will be tight, but we will make it work. We both have good jobs and get paid decent bonuses too, so there is usually a way to make things work. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228208 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:15:10 +0000 Penny Lane 1228208@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we didn't have a plan. we knew we would be able to cover the basics, and went from there! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228193 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:11:46 +0000 shinymama 1228193@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We didn't budget because we're lazy and don't ever track anything. However we had a good idea of what our expenses would be and knew that a LO wouldn't impact our lifestyle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228147 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:53:02 +0000 yellowbird 1228147@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: im definitely a planner. I had everything mapped out before! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228131 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:39:49 +0000 Bookish 1228131@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Honestly? I budgeted down to the dollar. DH and I don't make enough for us to fudge it, so I ran endless budgets to figure out if we could afford a baby. We planned out how to save a small nest egg for maternity leave, and stuck to a strict budget...until I got my new job and a 20% raise! Despite the extra money, I'm so glad I planned as much as I did. DH and I felt way more comfortable TTC once we knew we could provide for a LO! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228128 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:36:51 +0000 MamaMoose 1228128@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My husband and I both have variable income because we earn salaries plus commission. So there was no way for us to have exact budgeting numbers. But we were maxing out retirement and still saving a very significant amount every month so we knew there was more than enough room to add baby costs + child care costs + college savings costs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228112 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:31:20 +0000 PurplePeony 1228112@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're in the middle. We don't really budget now, we just put money aside for bills and savings automatically and spend the leftover money as we like. So serious budgeting for the baby wasn't really on our radar. However, we waited to TTC until we knew we can afford baby expenses with mainly just adjustments to our dining out/hobby/play expenses (which we'd expect to change post-baby anyway). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228071 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:07:03 +0000 Kimberlybee 1228071@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were in a good place financially and were able to rectify our careless spending habits from our early twenties by cutting back and budgeting. Having our baby meant spending less on us and more on her and savings is nonnegotiable now, it's a must. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228068 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:06:21 +0000 LalaYes 1228068@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I to am a TTC planner but the older I get the less I hold on to my plans. However, there are a couple of things that we needed to do financially before thinking about kids. To me it was really important that we bought a home first and my husband wanted our debts to be minimal. We worked toward our goal and we have a lovely home and our debt situation in comfortable for us. When we do have a baby I would like to say home, so in the mean time we've been saving money for the unexpected so that we can stay out of debt.</p> <p>Once someone I admire gave me some advice to not worry about it so much because when the baby is there you figure it out because you have to. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228062 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:01:40 +0000 HLK208 1228062@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Surprise baby. We are very fortunate for how our finances worked out (DH got his "real" job a few days before I found out I was pregnant). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228061 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:01:01 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1228061@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We made sure we were debt free and had the means to raise a child before we got married and it was a good thing since we brought a whoops baby home from our honeymoon. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228060 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:00:53 +0000 lemondrop 1228060@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We knew we had enough to cover what we needed, then we made adjustments to our lifestyle so we had some wiggle room. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228053 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:55:39 +0000 blackbird 1228053@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Budgeted. We knew we could afford her. </p> <p>The "you make it work" strategy makes me crazy! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228038 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:49:36 +0000 Glitter 1228038@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I voted for general sense but not exact math. We're comfortable enough for just the two of us so we figured adding another to the mix would be doable. Plus we have room to scale back if we need to. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228018 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:43:08 +0000 autumnlove 1228018@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Surprise baby made us get ready. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1228001 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:20:56 +0000 artsyfartsy 1228001@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We knew we can cover baby expenses. I didn't do the exact math to figure it out but I didn't jump into it with no money just expecting it to work either! We always will make it work no matter what...but I definitely don't rely on my family to pick up the slack. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227992 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:09:42 +0000 Mrs. Lion 1227992@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We always budget for everything, so we were very comfortable with our finances when we started TTC. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227988 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:08:22 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 1227988@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm a lot like you! For our first pregnancy, we planned and saved for everything. </p> <p>Now that we are TTC#2, were a lot more of "we will figure it out!" </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227982 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 18:05:10 +0000 Cole 1227982@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had a financial goal but we are ttc and are short of our goal. At the same time, we know we are financially stable enough that it isn't an irresponsible decision. We can live off of my husband's salary so the plan for now is for me to stay home or work part time but we have the wiggle room for me to go back to work and be able to contribute financially. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227969 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:58:51 +0000 Foodnerd81 1227969@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are like you- not down to the exact numbers but we needed to know we could afford to raise a baby the way we want to. We also planned for me to sah which was a big factor. </p> <p>I cannot fathom not planning it out at least somewhat. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227967 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:58:20 +0000 Mae 1227967@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MapleMoose: haha me too! My husband is an accountant. And I'm a lawyer. I don't think our personalities lend themselves to flying by the seat of our pants. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227964 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:56:37 +0000 MapleMoose 1227964@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm married to an accountant. Everything is budgeted ahead of time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227963 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:56:03 +0000 Ra 1227963@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We knew we were in a good place financially but we didn't do any sort of budgeting. I don't even know how you would budget a baby; there are so many unexpected expenses! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227962 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:55:19 +0000 looch 1227962@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are older parents ( married at 33) so we already had a small nest egg each. We had a financial goal to first save enough for our house down payment then we saved a year of living expenses, then we started ttcing.</p> <p>We are very much planners, "winging it" isn't in my husband's vocabulary. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-was-your-familyfinancial-planning-philosophy#post-1227956 Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:52:13 +0000 Mae 1227956@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>One of the big reasons I wanted to wait to have kids is I wanted to be financially "ready." Which to me meant figuring out before we decided to TTC exactly how we were going to pay for daycare, extra baby expenses (insurance, medical care, diapers, formula, clothes, etc), without sacrificing our standard of living or our savings goals. So I guess you could say… I'm a planner! </p> <p>Last year I remember asking a friend of mine who I knew was struggling financially and also really working at TTC if she was worried about what would happen when the baby got here and she said she never worried about it at all. They would "figure it out" and that their families "wouldn't let them starve or go unclothed." It sort of gave me hives just thinking about jumping into having a kid with no plan of how to like… live… after having said kid. </p> <p>So, just curious about the breakdown here and how many people are total planners like me vs. "eh, it'll work out" people!</p> <p>Poll allows for multiple votes if you changed your philosophy for different babies. </p>