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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Savings before TTC

50 replies

lemongrassmartini1989 · 23/05/2020 17:56

What savings did you have specifically for a baby in the months and years before trying to conceive and whilst pregnant?

What did you end up spending it on? maternity pay top up? Baby equipment? furniture for nursery? Nursery fees? Or did you end up just putting it in savings for the child?

OP posts:
zscaler · 23/05/2020 18:00

We didn’t have any before TTC (used up in moving house and buying a car). I’m now 10 weeks pregnant, we have £2,500 in savings and are intending to have £10,000 saved by the end of my three months fully paid mat leave. The money will predominantly be used to top up maternity pay, but also on buying essentials.

We’re lucky to have very generous family who have said they will buy the nursery furniture and travel system which will be big savings.

Newchapter2020 · 23/05/2020 18:12

I'm in a slightly different position, where I will be using donor sperm, so I'll be a single parent. Obviously not getting pregnant right now. But I currently have £6000 and I'm planning on having £8/9000 by the time I actually start ttc. I will then be saving whilst pregnant. This money will be used to buy baby equipment, I won't need to use too much of it as I've cut my monthly outgoings to fit in with my maternity pay. Planning on using some of it to cover the difference in childcare and money coming in if I need to. As I'm on my own I'm just preparing to be aa prepared as possible. Would also like to have a long holiday and spend time with family abroad

Original poster
lemongrassmartini1989 · 23/05/2020 18:15

Good luck @newchapter2020. Sounds like you've got it all planned and under control.

OP posts:
Newchapter2020 · 23/05/2020 18:19

@lemongrassmartini1989 thank you. I didn't have the best upbringing and couple it with debt and low income, I want to be as prepared as possible. (Obviously low income isn't a bad thing, I know money isn't everything)

OlivejuiceU2 · 23/05/2020 18:44

We’ve been able to save 20K (which is probably way more than we need) will have a few K extra by the time mat leave starts. We wanted the extra cash behind us DPs job is not very secure, even more so due to the pandemic.
I’ve worked out I’ll need at least 3k to top up my mat pay as I’m taking a full year off.
We haven’t actually spent that much on baby stuff, they don’t actually need a lot especially to begin with and you can get stuff in sales or second hand.
DM did gift us £300 towards the travel system which was very generous of her.
We also took a hard look at our finances before getting pregnant and reduced down a lot of our bills.

mencken · 23/05/2020 18:50

everything can be second hand except mattress and possibly car seat. Babies don't need much stuff. They are expensive because they knacker up your earning potential for years, and they get pricey as teenagers.

MouthBreathingRage · 23/05/2020 18:53

This thread is the epitome of Mumsnet....

We had about £1500 in savings before our first arrive, that quickly disappeared on a couple of surprise bills. I was made redundant during pregnancy due to my place of work folding. It wasn't an easy couple of years, but we survived.

acquiescence · 23/05/2020 19:01

We didn’t save anything. Bought pretty much everything second hand (Pram most pricy at £150) and used furniture we had.
I had occupational maternity pay from the NHS which is generous and I split it over the whole year. It worked out we were a few hundred pounds worse off per month. We saved money by not going out for meals and drinks and didn’t go abroad. Child benefit paid for nappies and good. Pretty much the same with the second child apart from we had all the equipment and clothes already.

The main cost has been my salary sacrifice by reducing my hours, plus nursery.

Proudboomer · 23/05/2020 19:11

Mine are adults now so quite a few years ago but I saved 6 monyths salary. Intended to go back full time after 6 months ML and my mum had just retired and was going to do the majority of childcare. This went out the window when she was diagnosed with cancer just after ds1 was born and I ended up going back part time when ds was just over 8 months.

BumpBundle · 23/05/2020 19:12

We didn't TTC, the coil just doesn't work. We had around £45,000 in savings when he was born. We spent about £5000 on a new car that was more family friendly. We put £5000 into his bank account as soon as it was open (that was the maximum is account allowed) and then put all the money from other people into premium bonds. We got almost everything donated from other people so we only had to pay for some clothes and things like that - can't imagine we spent much because babies don't need much. Nappies cost a bit because the cheap ones just don't work, the kid gets nappy rash and it's so sad. You spend the same amount in clothes that you throw away from leaking. Formula costs a fortune so that was motivation is exclusively breastfeed.
Childcare is the kicker. It'll bleed you dry.

BumpBundle · 23/05/2020 19:16

Oh, I should've said that I didn't take any maternity leave so we didn't have any reduced income there.
Honestly, I think our child just about balanced out for the first few years. Child benefit and a reduction spending on nights out etc matched the cost of clothes, nappies and whatnot.
The only extra expense was childcare. Luckily I worked from home until he was six months old and then 85% of our childcare was covered by my husband's employer but otherwise it would have been insane.

PlatoAteMySnozcumber · 23/05/2020 19:18

The question is a bit pointless to be honest and depends totally on the circumstances of the poster. Surely you just work out how much you need to save? It depends on how much you will lose in pay on maternity leave, how much you need to save in advance for nursery fees when you go back to work and how much you plan to spend on stuff for the baby. Buying stuff for a baby and the nursery is peanuts compared to how much you might need due to loss in income and nursery fees until the baby is at school.

fishonabicycle · 23/05/2020 19:20

None! Had maternity pay for 6 months then back to work 4 days a week.

Thingsthatgo · 23/05/2020 19:26

Mostly it depends how much you’ll have coming during maternity leave, and if it’ll cover all your bills. Then It depends on how much you’ll have coming in when you go back to work and how much your childcare costs will be. Babies do not have to be hugely expensive, we spent very little on clothes, buggy, furniture etc, but we got an expensive car seat.

Littlepoppet1 · 23/05/2020 19:33

We didn't save anything specially for having a baby, we had about 5k in general savings which we could have dipped into if we needed but we didn’t need too. They don’t really need very much tbh, sure there’s loads of fancy stuff you can buy but much of it isn’t necessary. The biggest cost for us has been me reducing my hours to part time and paying for nursery 2 days a week but that didn’t kick in until DD was 10 months.

Merryoldgoat · 23/05/2020 19:45

Nothing. Put a little money away each month during pregnancy and during the 90% period of SMP.

However, my DH’s salary and SMP was enough to cover all bills and mortgage and allow us £100 ish each as personal spends.

Up until first set of mat leave we earned near identical salaries. At the point I went on mat leave we moved to a money pooling system rather than just a 50/50 split. We’ve maintained the pooling as I now work part time.

Bookoffacts · 23/05/2020 19:46

I had about £1000 in savings I spent about £600 on baby things. All bought new.
www.argos.co.uk/product/6185338

You don't have to spend thousands. People other than the rich have babies. £45000 indeed! It would take most people 20 years to save that! Have some empathy outside your bubble peps.

Bookoffacts · 23/05/2020 19:48

And throwing away clothes. Baby clothes are machine washable!

Stripeytopgirl · 23/05/2020 19:49

Nothing.

namechanger5678 · 23/05/2020 19:54

Nothing and had debt, tbh we were bought so many things by friends and family as gifts, took a years maternity and pregnant again with DC2, still don't have any savings but have less debt. We do have a house we rent out so I suppose that's an asset but I don't know I really worry about stuff that much so I didn't even think to have so much in savings before ttc

namechanger5678 · 23/05/2020 19:55

*i don't worry much

inwood · 23/05/2020 20:02

£0

Everynow · 23/05/2020 20:31

@BumpBundle your post is almost unbelievable. It sounds like your in a very fortunate position financially (not so much on the no maternity leave though). Are you in the UK? I just can't get my head around how only paying 15% of nursery fees is a kicker when looking at what you've written objectively your in a position only most can dream of.

OP I saved around £5k to pay for baby items and to support a full 12 months leave.

YahBasic · 23/05/2020 20:43

We’ve got separate pools of money - one for education/childcare and pension, one for the house and now saving for maternity.

I’ve got about 3.5k currently and probably likely to save another 5-6k more during pregnancy. My maternity package is good, so I get 12 weeks full pay and 26 weeks half.

Curiosity101 · 23/05/2020 20:53

We had around £30k in joint savings when DS arrived and I had around £10k in my own savings. Neither of those pots was specifically for the baby but it gave me confidence that we were financially secure for anything that could come up.

We didn't spend a huge amount of it in advance because we bought most things second hand. The plan was that our savings would allow me to take the full 12 months of maternity. I expect we'll be down to around £18k joint savings by the time I start back at work but my savings haven't been needed.