To think SMP isn’t enough?

[Yuda]

Regular user, name changed.

I’m expecting my first baby and wondering how we will manage maternity leave financially. I have an enhanced package through work for a few months and then it goes to SMP and later unpaid. I wondered if the solution could be to return to work earlier but it comes with its own issues: I want to breastfeed for as long as possible and avoid weaning onto formula if I can, plus childcare is so expensive. On childcare - I’m only in first trimester & having enquired many nurseries round here are full until our child will be 2. Unless, of course, you want to send them to a nursery a couple of towns away or with a poor rating. Many moons ago I worked in early years myself and I’m not willing to make the compromise of picking a nursery I’m unsure about.

My husband’s wage covers all our essential outgoings but leaves nothing left at all for fun, emergencies or savings so it won’t be sustainable for us to just live on his wage for more than a couple of months.

We’re saving as much as we can for the rest of pregnancy but I just don’t think SMP is enough. How do families do it? Especially multiple times? Unless there is something I am missing!

Not at all helpful - but welcome to parenthood! It gets better when they're 3+

We managed because I deemed 6 months a relatively short period in my earning lifetime and just spent as little as we could. We had savings to fall back on if necessary.

They go back to work. Most people would like to stay home with their baby, and to be honest, it sounds like you can actually live on DH salary.

Your problem is you say there will be nothing left at all for fun, emergencies or savings. Well no, of course not. Very few people have money left for fun or savings if there's only one salary coming in.

You either suck it up and just live with the basics or you find childcare and go back to work, unfortunately. Did you not think about this before planning a family?

You save as much as possible before baby comes. Some people get great maternity packages- I thought my teacher 12 weeks half pay was good until I spoke to friends in the NHS etc (6 months full pay if I remember correctly, much more than mine anyway)

I went back at 9 months and she breastfed until beyond 2. Going back to work doesn't mean you can't breastfeed for as long as you want.

Savings.

You save- you also accept you will have less money for fun/ to save once the baby is here, temporarily.

The fact is that having children is a luxury and a lifestyle choice. It is not the responsibility of the government, tax payers or your employer to facilitate that. If you are lucky with your employer, they will pay you for a certain period of time above and beyond SMP. Other than that though - you want kids, they cost money. After the mat leave has cost you money, then there’s child care. Then a quiet spell where they can get themselves home from school and wait for you to get home without needing a responsible adult present. That happy bit coincides with them having more hobbies and needing taking everywhere though. Then you get uni and that costs money. Kids are just great big money pits. Get used to it now.

Don't forget you get child benefit aswell which add £96 to your monthly income

Save as much as you can and then spread that out over your SMP months or no pay months

Saving, budgeting and, being realistic, having a child with someone with a well paid job. We also decided to stick at one, partly for financial reasons.

It is not supposed to cover more than essentials. Cut back now so you can see what it will cover and save the difference. You might get child benefit too.

NHS etc (6 months full pay if I remember correctly, much more than mine anyway)

The NHS is pretty good compared to a lot of employers but it’s not that good! It’s 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay, 13 week SMP and 13 weeks unpaid if you take the full year.

You will most likely find you current outgoings reduce, no petrol or commuting costs. No buying lunches at work, more time for cooking proper food, meal planning and learning when the supermarkets, reduce their stuff. It's not easy but families do it all the time

Thanks, I actually never thought of this so this is really helpful. Definitely a couple of hundred saved in commuting costs.

Congratulations. I planned carefully, and saved up before my maternity leave.

Just as well, as I was 'made redundant' first day back after maternity leave and spent 11 months fighting an unfair dismissal case, so that money had to last until my ex-employer decided to pay me off, to shut me up.

I found there was no money for 'savings, treats or emergencies' until ds was 4, at school and I was no longer paying childcare.

Best get used to it. 🙂 And make sure you tick the box for family legal insurance when you do your house insurance renewal. My £21 saved my £60,000.

Also don’t forget your KIT days which you will be paid for, also will you accrue annual leave while on maternity leave and companies usually pay you out for this so you could go back on to payroll a month before you go back if you had a months worth of holiday.

Your life and expenses will change, no travel to work and associated costs plus less nights out etc.

I didn’t go back to work childcare in London was far too expensive, we moved to the other end of the country bought a lot less expensive house. I got made redundant (so we have redundancy for a bit) and we lived very frugally. No holidays abroad, one car etc. Most of the other parents I know around here use family as childcare, a few use nursery or a childminder a few days a week. A lot of women in particular go part/time whilst their children are young to save money. Some even work nights/weekends, people do what they need to.

there will be nothing left at all for fun, emergencies or savings.

But should the taxpayer be contributing towards your 'fun' and 'savings'?

I admittedly take a pretty hard line in that I think people who want to add to the already massive levels of overpopulation should fund it themselves.

Yes, we're told we need ever more people to look after the elderly but at some point we need to address this issue rather than just perpetuating it - the carers will then need more people to care for them and it goes round and round. Resources are finite and don't care about arguments like "oh, but we need more people to cope with the overwhelming amount of people".

Well I bet these comments are cheering OP right up! So full of empathy!

It is hard but it doesn't last forever - our second and last child will get their 30 hours in April and I am basically counting down the days... Also, it's hard but somehow not as hard as it looked on paper before we had them. I really, honestly don't know how DH and I spent so much money before we had kids, but it seemed that £1k a month on childcare just wouldn't be possible - we certainly didn't have £1k a month left over pre kids - but somehow it is, if tight.

On not being able to find a decent nursery place - have you looked at childminders?

Buy as much as you can from Vinted baby wise and maternity stuff too.
Baby clothes hardly get worn as they grow so fast and people sell loads of nearly new or new stuff on there. I didn’t discover it till DC was 2 but I would have used it from pregnancy if I’d known!!!

You can resell stuff too, and use the money to buy the next size.

For me it meant a lot of saving and cutting back. We saved enough so that my side of the bills were covered each month. DH then took responsibility of anything else/luxuries which we both limited.

It's what you are prepared to give up and how you can save costs. We stretched out our mortgage to make the repayment less, we have one car, I boxed dyed my hair for the year, stopped any beauty treatments, switched to cheaper brands for alot of things, saved a fortune not travelling to work and buying lunches, no/less holidays, limited eating out, sold stuff on eBay/vinted.

It was tight at times but we managed it twice. I went back to work part time due to childcare cost so I still have a lot less money than I did pre kids. Some of the above things I'm still doing to keep cost down.

Thank you for your realistic and genuine comment! We are on a couple of lists for CMs. They do seem more homely for a baby :)

This is great, I love Vinted

I’m only in first trimester & having enquired many nurseries round here are full until our child will be 2.

Well obviously if you have a very long time off with your baby, you may find it tough. I went back at 4 months with my first when the money ran out :(

I had 14 weeks full pay with my first and managed to put off going back to work until she was 5 months old by saving up my annual leave for the year before. These days you accrue annual leave while on maternity leave, which should help further.

I echo what someone else said about breastfeeding. No need to give up just because you go back to work. Mine never had formula because while I was on maternity leave I pumped and froze lots of milk. Once back at work I continued to pump until she was 12 months and I continued to feed her myself until she 18 months.