To be scared of the cost of living and maternity leave?

[lemoncupcake1]

I know this isn't the first thread on the rising cost of living, but I've just read today's headlines about petrol prices and it just seems relentless at the moment :(. Petrol going up, food going up, energy going up... and on top of that I'm about to go on mat leave and have my salary drop 2k a month.

We've just wiped out our savings buying a house... I thought I'd budgeted everything really well and that my partner's salary would just about cover all our bills, but now I feel like I've severely under-estimated costs!

Any tips for what sounds like is going to have to be an extremely frugal year?!

Buy all second hand stuff for baby (except cot mattress and car seat)
But also- only get the basics until baby is here. There were a lot of things I had that I didn’t use and a lot of things I did need that I didn’t realise until a couple of weeks in, also you don’t know what you’ll get as presents
Batch cook as much as you can beforehand so that you’re not tempted to get a takeaway when you’ve had no sleep and no time
Where possible budget and meal plan, go for basics or supermarket branded. I find I spend less getting online supermarket deliveries as I only buy what I’ve planned for, and I pick the cheapest delivery slot
Walk everywhere that you can
Look into whether there are local free baby classes, we have some at our library
See what you’re entitled to, presumably child benefit at least

Remember you’ll accrue holidays during leave so you can use them to get full pay at the end. Also you can do KIT days if there’s someone who can watch the baby.

I did one or two kit days a month when my pay started to drop. You do get used to having less and 9 months isn't that long so don't panic too much!

You absolutely do not need to buy everything brand new. And agree with PP buy the stuff as you need it. Check out aldi and lidl for nappies.

Thanks everyone. Definitely utilising second hand baby bits - I'm addicted to FB marketplace at the moment!