You will live to your means iykwim. I did go back to work when my DD1 was 7 months but this was only because DH started his own business and although i had every faith in him i needed security and to know that if it failed we had some money coming in. I only did 20hrs a week and worked 2 half days and 6am til 9am 2 days a week. I never put DD in day care i am lucky and had family available to help out. Once the business picked up and i fell pg with DD2 i gave up work (hopefully until the girls are at school) Because we are now on one income it can be tough but like i said you live to your means. Also as you said you will get parenting payments. Yes you may have to go without luxuries etc but it's worth it. My favourite thing to tell ppl when they say they are waiting until they can 'afford' to have kids is "if we all waited until we could afford them etc the population would be very low as i dont know anyone off the top of my head who can afford it" Most ppl i know do make ends meet.