To worry about money on mat leave?

[Morewotsits]

Prefacing this: I knew what my maternity leave and pay would be before TTC.

I’m coming up to 5 weeks pregnant and we are really so excited, but I worry daily about how we will afford maternity leave. We can pay all our bills including food shopping on DHs wage but that leaves nothing left over for clothes, days out or savings. Obviously DC (and me and DH) will need things in that time - there will be Christmas to afford while I’m on mat leave. My workplace policy is ok as I get half pay and SMP for most of it, but it does drop to SMP at the end before the last 3 months of unpaid. I can’t return to work before baby is 11 months as we have already enquired and childcare don’t have space until then.

I am an avid Vinted user so I suppose we can sell grown-out-of clothes on there and grab some new bargains in the next sizes up. We also want to move house but with current rates I don’t think adding on another expense is a wise move at this time!

Is anyone else in this situation and a bit nervous about it?

If you can cover all your bills etc with your DH salary then you'll be fine. You've got 9 months to save as much as you can to ease it, you'll get child benefit which helps a bit. Things might be a bit tighter, but that's to be expected. Babies don't actually need loads of stuff, and they grow out of things very quickly so you can get loads second hand if need be.

We couldn't survive on my husbands wage when I was off so we saved saved saved while I was pregnant to cover the shortfall. Not really sure what else you expect to do/happen?

You go back when baby is 11 months old, keep in touch with the nursery in case a place comes up earlier.

Use your paid annual leave to return earlier or part time for a while if nursery can offer you that and work agree.

Have you been saving up until now? If not start saving and stop spending most of your salary and get used to the reduced income.

If you can live off DH's salary, can't you just save as much of your salary as you can in the next nine months?

We can pay all our bills including food shopping on DHs wage but that leaves nothing left over for clothes, days out or savings

So, spend the next 8 months just living off DH’s salary and cull spending on going out completely. Save your salary.

I would ask nursery if there’s any scope for you to go back earlier-ask them to let you know if there’s any changes-there’s a lot of time between now and your baby being 11 months for things to change.

You're not being unreasonable to worry, but there's lots you can do before you go on mat leave.

The most obvious one is save as much as you can between now and then. Anything is better than nothing.

Save as much annual leave as you can and add on at the end to save taking as much unpaid mat leave.

Get a few extra cupboard bits each week when you shop to stock up - soups/pasta/tinned veg etc., things with good long dates on.

Get a jar and start saving all your change. The months you thing you might struggle, save it for the coin exchange in the supermarket to put towards a weekly or monthly shop.

With gas/electric, overpay some months if you can to get yourself into a bit of credit. I did this and was able to decrease our bill by £10 a month. Doesn't sound much but my phone contract is £12 for example, so it pretty much covered that.

Any apps/subscriptions you can live without can always be cancelled too.

And don't stress about Xmas, just cut right back for one year 😊.