Did you get into debt on maternity leave?

[HelloFrogs]

I follow Nugget on Instagram, it’s a self described page dedicated to money when on maternity leave. A video today said 26% of mums get into debt when on maternity leave. Tbh I can see how, not that I think we personally would. We would just go without as we are fortunate enough to afford the absolute essentials and bills on one wage. I’m taking 10 months off (and even that will be a stretch) but SMP just does not go very far. Cost of living crisis is horrendous and mortgage rates are sky high - we just fixed a new one and I could cry at how much our mortgage will soon be!

Before anyone criticises those who get into debt on maternity leave- don’t, you don’t know the circumstances: cost of living crisis, made redundant, unexpected twins, unplanned pregnancy, the list goes on!

Did you get into debt on maternity leave? Is it actually that common?

Yes I got into debt, I don’t see debt as something to be ashamed of and I wouldn’t go without if I can borrow money which I can afford to pay back when I’m back at work, it’s not a big deal.

indeed. Have seen many threads on mumsnet when expenses are still spilt 50/50- just ridiculous.

No, I didn’t (and I’ve had four maternity leaves) but it was because I had children when I was older, once financially secure, and I had been working long enough to be able to take the time off work without the risk to my career.

I can easily see how younger mothers get into debt and how that debt then builds up.

No, because I had a year's salary saved. I actually spent a lot less (no evenings out, eating out for lunch, no silly non expenses paying for lesser paid staff for meals out drinks in bar etc), when shopping I bought less (no magazines or books, no time), didn't waste money on non essentials and baby had all hand-me-downs from family so not expensive at all.

No I didn’t. DH covered everything; also I’m a planner so had the funds aside in case I had to cover

Technically yes but not a lot. We did save but obviously just not quite enough, I've only got a couple of months of mat leave left and will probably have to start putting some stuff on my credit card this month. I will be able to pay it all off within a month or two of returning to work though so not too worried.

I don’t intend to for the following

1. We’ve just gone through a redundancy process at work and even if I hadn’t been protected, I had confirmation from three different teams that I would have a role with them in the future
2. I’ve been trying to conceive for two years so it hasn’t come as a surprise
3. I am fairly well paid and have savings
4. I get full pay for 6 months
5. If it turned out my husband was a total monster and left me, I am far better placed to cope than him due to not being freelance (he is) and having a family who’d take me in instantly

I am far more worried by the nursery years!

I'm on Mat leave now and no we won't. DH's salary + statutory will just cover everything and once statutory ends we'll use our savings.

Of course she does she's not thick

Not loads but yes

No. We actually saved a fortune. All money combined.
Went from spending a fortune on "quick dinners" and "popping into M & S at lunch" to spending £1 for a church playgroup. We had done NCT so there was a lot of socialising at each others houses. We would take the babies swimming as a group - things like baby sensory we also did as an NCT group. Just used to put the babies on one of those 29p foil blankets from Amazon and drink wine and eat cheese #thosewerethedays

Nope. I had a decent maternity package. I breastfed and bought everything second hand really so barely spent anything. Plenty of free baby groups locally and whatever too.

No, DH's salary makes up most of the household income and we have one pot as a married couple, so I managed fine with SMP.

I spent a fair bit on mat leave on baby classes as they tended to be better quality, but there were plenty of free activities locally if we couldn't have afforded those.

No I didn’t. I lost my job when I was pregnant and split up with DP and I was much better off on benefits than I was in my part time NMW job living hand to mouth with DP.

We saved 4k for first maternity leave and that topped up SMP to help cover bills, we also did shared parental leave as my husband earned quite a bit less than I did at that time. I calculated the mat leave cost us 20k in lost earnings and that 4k savings pot!

This time we've had to save more as all bills have gone up so much :(

Savings were a sharesave scheme at work that vested around the time leave started so we'd been saving for 3 years in the hope that we'd need it for mat leave but would have a nice pot of savings if weren't lucky

Yes a bit, it was mainly the last month and a big part of it was on going back to work expenses, the last month was really expensive because it included:

• nursery deposit
• first couple of weeks nursery fees before first full month wages was paid
• bus pass for getting to work
• new clothes for work because pre-pregnancy didn't fit and nothing I'd work during maternity leave leave was suitable

I ended up with about £300 on a credit card with DD1, currently off with DD2 and we'll probably end up in debt to £1.5k, but only for the very short term (will be rectified maybe 2 months back into being at work) because of circumstances completely out of our control.

No we didn't but as I am the highest earner and my mat pay wasn't good it was tough. We'd also just got married (paid off no debt) and we're half way through full house renovations. I'd been told I wouldn't fall pregnant without assistance due to diagnosed fertility issues, but did within weeks of being married. We just saved most of my salary for the whole pregnancy and were quite frugal, this plus mat pay was enough for me to take the full year, but we worked out I lost more than 30k in salary even with the'enhanced' package, plus the savings we'd made while I was pregnant.
Luckily we live by the sea and there are lots of cheap/free things to do locally so it was ok. Then within six months of going back covid lockdowns started. We both had to work but couldn't go anywhere so managed to save up again.

This is so true! Nursery presented me with a list of things DS would need and most of them a) weren't cheap and b) I had to buy twice for nursery and home - such as waterproof suit, wellies, set of hat/scarf/gloves and swimwear.

I didn't get into debt. I stopped paying my half of mortgage but then basically had not far off my normal disposable. I also used annual leave the last 3 months which helped. Dh earned more than me at the time.

No we saved each time, cut mortgage payments to interest only and lived very cheaply.

Not on maternity leave. We did build up a credit card debt when I went back to work with 2 in nursery. Finally paid it all off when dd2 started school!

To be fair this was because we didn't really adjust our lifestyle, we went on term time holidays while we could etc. We knew we would be "rich" once nursery fees were finished.

The real mystery is why women procreate with these men. Do they not find out until they are already pregnant or is something else going on?

No
All income and expenditure is joint in our house
We cut back a bit (mainly because we stopped going out so much !) and it was fine

Oh how lucky you are. I swear the people on mums net are like a different world. You wouldn't have a baby if one salary couldn't cover bills?! For most people that would mean no baby ever. Do we not have a right to have children just because you judge us poor.