How does anyone afford a 2nd maternity leave?

[maybemumm]

When you’re TTC a first, you can save up to cover the shortfall in pay throughout maternity leave.

Even if you wait until first goes to school, if you both work full time presumably you still have to pay for wraparound before and after school care for some or all of the days - which isn’t cheap. How do you then save for a second maternity leave with that extra cost? Plus the cost of birthdays, parties, Christmas, days out, holidays, new clothes and uniform, new shoes every few months for #1 which all obviously costs a lot. Before you have one you can choose to save all your disposable income in theory. You don’t have that same flexibility of choice for the second time round - not to mention there are plenty of people I know who reduce their working hours a lot after having just one. This would mean you’d get less maternity pay as well?

Just started maternity leave for DC4.

Lots of things are different. The main two are obvious. DH earns more than he did - he was still training for first mat leave, now he's fully qualified. I've also done my best to push for extra responsibility between Mat leaves so that we could save when possible.

We don't need to spend much on clothes/books/toys etc. We have everything we need already! We keep costs down as much as possible.

We have relatively large age gaps - 4 years between first and end. That helps childcare costs.

We always prioritised reducing mortgage etc over holidays/spending. That means our monthly expenditure on mortgage is much less than it used to be. Our fixes amount each month on mortgage is less than half of what it was on my first mat leave.

I have 3. Mine are 4 years apart for a reason!

we bought our house based on one salary rather than both

You won’t need wrap around care if you’re on Mat leave so will save a bit there. It is hard but tag on holidays etc and you just need to take less time off if your maternity pay is mainly statutory.

We are able to save. I'm expecting twins this time which means we're going from 1-3 so have to deal with an extra set of nursery fees that we weren't expecting too but it's more than manageable because I'll be going back after 12 weeks as opposed to 9 months or 12 months.

We could afford a longer maternity leave but obviously it would mean saving more money, it isn't what I want anyway.

Spend less - no nursery fees for dc1, no holidays, mostly second hand clothes, not eating out, not going to cinema / theatre etc. Budget hard and stick to it.

I’ve never saved for maternity leave (on dc3 now), dc2 arent usually as expensive as the first as you have most things you need and you realise to don’t need half the stuff you think you do.

By my workplace (NHS) having a good maternity package and doing 45 hours of overtime plus nights and weekends in my calculation months. By doing that I'm pretty much getting 12 months full pay. Luckily I had straight forward pregnancies

That’s a good idea, I suppose if you can do overtime and boost it up that way you’d be crazy not to

DB and SIL well SIL is having a second maternity leave. She went back after 6 months with first child and with the second child she’s taking a year off. They’ve saved a lot of money though and she will more than likely be looking for a new job as she worked some evenings and weekend days. She worked right up until a week before the birth. As older DC is 5 they had that time to save (was meant to be sooner).

So similar to @alexisccd. I know this isn’t common for lots of families and to be honest I don’t know how many manage unless with family help.

I’ll have three under 4, and work in healthcare so have (part)funded mat leave (6 weeks full, 18 weeks half, SMP). I’ve taken the 6 months with a wage and then gone back. Baby 1 I used annual leave to return part time. Baby 2 I used annual leave to extend mat leave to 7.5 months, then condensed my hours and returned part time (4 days in 3). I picked up to full time (and extra shifts) in my qualifying weeks before baby #3. So I’ve been as strategic as possible.

At times it’s exhausting. HG got me in this pregnancy and I knew I couldn’t afford to take sick leave, so worked through it. Working my week and spending at least one night every weekend in hospital for a few months. BUT, it’s a snapshot in time - and long term means we get to have the family I never thought would be possible (our first was IVF).

In the 4 years, I’ve been promoted - to get these opportunities I studied while on maternity leave. DH also earns more. Our kids go to a minder (rather than nursery which in my area is double the cost - and don’t go/go a LOT less when I’m on maternity leave. Which saves us a fortune). They’ve nothing new (other than gifts).

The eldest will be in school once the youngest needs childcare.

But the biggest difference for me has been not taking a year off with each one. As I wouldn’t have been entitled to mat. leave for #2 if I had done!

My company gives a good maternity package - 6 months full pay and 3 months half pay. My DC is 3, so gets 30 free hours at nursery.

As he’s also only 3, i don’t obv have to buy school uniform. His clothes are cheap as they get paint stains at nursery anyway, I don’t throw birthday parties for him and we don’t spend lots of birthday and xmas as he doesn’t quite get it yet and isn’t bothered about presents. So may also depend on age gap of the children.

Oh and we also haven’t been on holidays abroad yet because he would be a nightmare on a plane, and we save a lot by not eating out as he wouldn’t sit still in a restaurant!

We saved enough for two mat leaves before I even got pregnant the first time. We decided that if we couldn't have a second we'd use the money for something else instead.