to worry about maternity leave and money?

[Crisscrosscranky]

I'm going to start this with a caveat that I know we're in a better position than a lot of people and that's one of the reasons I don't feel I could talk to my RL friends about this.

I'm due to start my maternity leave in June and at the moment plan to take 6 months off; however if I can extend this to a year I'd like to.

My husband and I earn about the same but my husband is paid weekly.
During my maternity leave this worries me from a cashflow POV; at the moment we both get paid into one account and all the direct debits come off on 1st of the month after I've been paid - our total direct debits including mortgage come to £1800; we save about £800 a month and expect to have £12,000 in an 'easy access' savings account when I start my maternity leave. This works well for us at the moment and we don't have 'his and hers' money; it's all 'ours'.

I've said we should us some of our savings to pay for things like car insurance, council tax and DD's 11+ tutor in full for the year which would bring our savings down to about £9500 and our monthly DD to £1500 which would be more manageable once I go onto SMP [about month 4 after my OMP runs out] and his weekly pay. My DH has said I'm being unreasonable and just to change some of the DD dates to spread them out; I don't think this will necessarily help as he's paid every Wednesday and I don't want to have to faf about wondering what's coming off when if that makes sense or if the payment will be due on a Tuesday in X month. He's snapped this morning and said to leave things as they are and tap into the savings if we need it; he's upset that I feel I pay for the bills and that he can't "support us". He feels as though I'm making out I'm having to go back to work after 6 months because he's not earning enough. It's true that if he was paid monthly I'd probably be looking at 9 months minimum.

I don't know if I'm being unreasonable or not. I suppose it's more of a WWYD about paying out 'big bills' from savings or leavings things as they are and unclenching a little?

I would do as you suggest and move the dd amount into your savings so you're covering it.

I did this too on mat leave but now I pay everything in one go as it suits me to budget this way.

Leave hi to sort them if that's what he wants. Keep the savings incase they are needed.

Been paid weekly or monthly doesn't really better on the whole. Pay dates for things can change so try not to worry.

Congratulations on the pregnancy

I would actually make his pay monthly instead of weekly. I would transfer his weekly pay into a separate account and only then transfer the lot to your joint account (or wherever your bills come out of) ready for 1st of the month. If you need to bring the gap then you use some of your savings. That way he might feel like he is contributing properly and money isn't coming in in "bits".

why does it make any difference if he's paid weekly or monthly - it's the same amount of money not sure why monthly would allow u to take 9 months. Just change date of the direct debits so some come out each wk. Your making this an issue because you don't want to faff but making your dh feel crap

I'd transfer one month of his pay from savings to joint account. Then effectively you're a month ahead and can allow his weekly pay to build up so there's a while months there for the 1st each month. Does that make sense? I theory that means that whenever you go back to work there would be a months overlap where you could repay the savings if in a position to do so. That will depend on whether his pay and your May pay are enough to cover outgoings or you're likely to have to dip into savings anyway though.

Money is money whether it's weekly or monthly, not sure how him being paid weekly means you have to go back three months earlier than if he was paid monthly

Could you transfer the difference between your maternity pay and salary from savings into current account at the start of each month?

You either have enough money for the bills or you don't. I don't understand why being paid weekly would make any difference, unless you were financially reckless and didn't let the weekly payments accumulate to cover the bills at the end of the month.

There's no difference between being paid weekly or monthly, it's the same amount of money. There's certainly not enough difference to say you'd take minimum 9 months mat leave if your dh was paid monthly instead of weekly, no wonder he feels crap.

Moving direct debit dates is a pita, much easier to have them all come out at once then in bits and pieces, plus you'd be changing them all back when you go back to work.

What I'd do in your place is set up a standing order to transfer the the shortfall in smp to your joint account to cover the direct debits. Then you can top up the savings out of your dh's wage when it goes in.

YANBU having DDs on all different dates of the month can be a faff and awfully confusing. After you go onto SMP can you pay £1800 per month into the account before the 1st of the month so all DDs are covered? Then your DH could do a weekly transfer of X amount of money, to be decided by yourselves, back into the savings account to replenish it a bit. If you can then live on the rest of DHs pay plus your SMP you should be fine.

Cross posted with tinyterrors

I would have thought being paid weekly was more of a safety net?

Ie, if some unexpected bill comes in, you have to wait a week at most to access funds, rather than a month.

You have 12k in savings. Why are you even worried about.money?

I wouldn't worry. Unless your OH is usually crap with finances, let him deal with it. You'll have more than enough to deal with, and you're on a very good position anyway. DP and I had maybe £3k in savings when I went on mat leave, and he was only on 20k per year. We still managed without faffing around with direct debits. They all came out of my account, and SMP was enough to cover that. DP paid the rent.

I don't understand the "problem" of being paid weekly. If it's an issue, set up a new account for the weekly pay to go into, then set up a standing order to pay it from that account into the normal account on the last day of each month.

Also, if you've got 12k in savings, you really don't have anything to fret about.

^ wot IMissGin.

Transfer one months wages into your current account, so as his weekly money come it, it is topping that fund up again. Simples.

I would look at reducing some costs... you say you are paying for insurance on a monthly basis - is it cheaper to pay it annual? Some insurance is lower cost if paid annually, others it makes little to no difference. Car insurance is one I would look at in particular.

Moving some money from savings account to current account near month end, so it is there to cover any DDs that are early in the month sounds a good idea. The savings (emergency fund) is there to cover events such as reduced salary due to childbirth. Do keep an eye on the savings account and replenish it as soon as possible.

Nap we have more than that in savings and I still 'worry' about money. It's how I manage to, you know, save if I'm thinking about what my money is doing

What a shitty, condescending post.