Will this be extremely tight or AIBU?

[monaaay]

Name changed to be honest about our financial situation!

DH brings home around 2100-2400 after tax a month and I bring home about 2k ish.

Combined income is about 65-67k per annum before tax - depending again on overtime.

New mortgage rate means we will be paying £1000 a month on our 2 bed house.
Essential utility bills will be £400.
Car insurance is £150 a month for both cars. Car payment of £300 a month.
Food shop currently about £400 a month (including toiletries, cleaning products). We can’t do it any cheaper than this no matter where we shop as we have to rely on the free from section which is always unfairly inflated.
Building and contents insurance and life insurance combined are about £70.
Car tax £30 between us.
Fuel for both of us again £200-300 a month.
Phone bills = £50 a month.

= overall £2500-2600 of essential outgoings a month, slightly more than DHs wage

I’m going on maternity leave soon and we haven’t had much opportunity to save due to needing to do house repairs. We probably have £1000 disposable savings to use to top up my maternity pay, everything else earmarked for emergencies. My works package is fairly generous (NHS) so works out overall that the first two months I’ll have 90% of my full wage, then the next 5 months I’ll have about 70% of my wage. Another 2 months of SMP (worried about this) and then I’ll probably need to go back to work when baby is 9 or 10 months, can’t afford unpaid leave. We’ll be just over the threshold for being eligible for any kind of UC even in my unpaid leave

I don’t think there are any costs we could make cheaper other than not having the car payment and having a cheaper car in many ways would just be false economy as would cost more in the long run. We live in a supposedly cheap part of the north but public transport is crap and we’re in the suburbs so do need to drive. I do shop on Vinted and try to find yellow sticker deals when I can

We should be fine when I return to work, I’m not worried about that. Childcare will only cost £150 a month for 3 days thanks to the 30 funded hours. We are fortunate enough that we will only need 3 days. One day we have family help and the other day will be my day off, as I am going back 0.9FTE over 4 days.

It’s maternity leave I’m worried about financially… does the situation above that I’ve described just sound normal and will we make it work? I’m really worried about being skint. Please be nice, sorry if I’ve been ignorant anywhere as I know there will be folk far worse off than us but I am just panicking a bit that what would’ve been a very decent wage 10 years ago now doesn’t go very far at all

Yes I was going to suggest a credit card with a 0% offer on purchases. The offer is usually only for 6 months or so - so apply near the time if you need it. You could use it for food and petrol if needs be and repay the minimum until you are back at work. If you can’t pay it off before the offer ends transfer it to a card with a 0% transfer offer.

You also might be able to go interest only on your mortgage for 6 months under the new mortgage help from your bank. Your mortgage will be more expensive afterwards though.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/struggling-to-pay-your-mortgage/

Can you do any keeping in touch days when on unpaid maternity leave and claim pay for them? https://www.gov.uk/employee-rights-when-on-leave

Try to save as much now as possible. As soon as DC is born register for tax fee child care voucher scheme. You won’t spend as much on fuel as you are now.

skis you are entitled to annual leave, my last month maternity was annual leave, so back up to full salary, really enjoyed some fun activities that last month.

I don’t think you can - you can only start paying in three months before you start childcare, I believe.

Ours had to all be returned to us and have the top up removed, because nursery didn’t have a place until 5 months after we started.

@monaaay I think you’ll be fine.

I did personally value some baby classes. We didn’t do as many as most of my mum friends, but we did baby sensory every week, a couple of months of baby swimming, and quite a few coffee shop meets etc. in my experience, that’s how mums meet and make friends. There’s more parks involved once they become toddlers; but even then there’s usually ice cream/coffee involved. I’d have a bit of a budget for socialising. We had some nice free classes too, but in my experience; the people at those weren’t as interested in making friends, they tended to get in, do the activity with their baby and leave, which is also fine but I’d have missed the friends I’ve made! We’re all back at work now and still meet weekly.

but I think you’ll be fine, you’ve got a lot more money than a lot of people, and if you need to have a smaller Christmas or buy less presents, people will understand!

£400 for all of that is v cheap. Ours more like £700

Also worth if you are nhs looking at the work you do now...if you do any on call or overtime shifts for the period around week 25 of pregnancy.....certainly used to be that's the period they base your maternity pay on. Definitely know people who did overtime at this period, or even just through pregnancy, to bump up either their pay or savings

Some great advice here already. I wanted to say I got some tax paid back in my payslip when I was on the statutory maternity pay so that was £100 ish extra. I saved money by:

1. Using all my kit days and annual leave.
2. In my area there’s a baby swap scheme for free baby clothes and equipment.
3. Found a free antenatal group and made friends their instead of expensive ones.
4. Went to cheap or free baby groups. I went to NCT bumps and babies which is just for babies up to crawling age. The group was mainly for the mothers to chat so made lots of friends and only £2 a session. My library also did ‘under 1 fun’ twice a week and a rhyme time class.

You’ll be fine but I would just start saving a little bit every month now 😊

Also, my local council did pram walks too which is good to chat to other mothers

What car do you have, OP? That insurance is insane! I pay £40 a month to insure a 2024 XC40. I can’t imagine what on earth could cost £150 a month…even at two cars!

Lenders are usually really flexible about giving payment deferrals for maternity leave. Contact them to find out your choices. Many don't have an impact on your credit rating

😂😂 you’re a peach!

Your car insurance seems quite high, £75 per month per car. It's not a quick fix, I realise but when it comes for renewal there might be better deals to be had. Mine is between £200-300 for the year.

I have plenty of friends thank you. Just didn't feel the need to make friends with people merely as they gave birth around the same time as me. I didn't want to spend my time discussing kids and singing daft songs.

Between now and November, I would try to save £500 per month which should be doable from the amount you have left over each month. Then you might also be able to save for the first couple of months after birth as well.

Do you have any regular outgoings that are work related? Eg travel costs, food, snacks, drinks, socialising etc? They will stop when you go onto maternity leave and can quickly give you some extra disposable income.

Claiming Child Benefit and also using childcare that allows you to use vouchers or HMRC tax free will give you further savings when you return to work. Don’t forget that you will also accrue annual leave so you should be able to have another month or so of full pay tagged on the end of your maternity leave.

There are also plenty of Facebook sites for free/cheap toys and things for the baby that you can then pass on in the same way.

I wouldn’t necessarily discount baby groups because of the additional cost as having some other friends to spend time with during maternity leave can be really beneficial for you mentally and that’s how you usually meet them.

Two fords. No idea why it’s as high but all providers coming back the same. We aren’t new drivers and passed as teenagers. I’m yet to be 25 so maybe that’s it, but DH is, and between us we have no points/no claims and advanced driving quals!

It's easy to spend little on mat leave. I have 2 DC and tbh it was easier to shun the baby classes on the second mat leave as I couldn't really be arsed and didn't need any new mum friends. With baby 1 I found them to be a great way to get out the house but don't get sucked into the whole 'your baby needs these classes' narrative - they don't - they can get the same stimulation from free classes that the likes of your local library might do. But it is nice to talk to new mums for your own mental health.

I had a very basic maternity wardrobe on repeat, made coffees to take on my buggy walks, didn't holiday (hassle with a baby anyway) and just kept life simple.

Just seen your update that baby is due in November (me too!). From your OP I assumed you were going on mat leave imminently- are you able to put some money aside each month? As I mentioned in my earlier post you will have to get used to spending a bit less anyway so could 'practice' now by putting a chunk aside now.
My partner is also working overtime every Sunday until baby is born (my job doesn't have overtime and I am childcare for our toddler) which is allowing us to put an additional chunk of money aside each month. Could you or your partner work some overtime until baby is born?
With my first, we managed to save £1000 a month between us during pregnancy by working LOADS (my partner did 7 days a week every other week, 6 days every other week) which was really hard work but it took so much pressure off during mat leave. I should add that we only spent £500 of it during the 12 months I was off so ended up spending the remaining £8000 on house reno 😊

Depends on where you live also. Some places are much higher r than others. My DD is 29 and her renewal went up to £600 a year on a 1.0 Eco sport. No claims and 10 years NCD

I’m NHS too, do ask for your mat pay spread over 9 or 10 payments. It meant we could budget knowing exactly what was coming each month.
Don’t forget child benefit thats £102 every 4 weeks.
i think you might be in your qualifying weeks now, so book as many shift enhanced shifts as you can as they base your income from the average of these weeks. I did 2 weeks of nights it nearly killed me but worked out at £80 per month more than if I’d done days in my qualifying weeks.

It might be tight but totally doable. I found all my mum friends at the free sessions the Hv put on from 6 weeks. I did free baby classes. It was a great way to meet people.

I went to a baby group more or less every week day on my first maternity leave, I had PND and it really helped to get out and about. I found cheap ones, if you have a Sure Start type children's centre they can be really good value also groups in church halls etc. you don't need to pay out for the expensive ones.

I didn't do NCT either to save money and made a few good friends via the groups I went to instead.

Honestly, you'll be fine.

People understand that gifts may be curtailed a bit when you've got a new baby.

Bundles of clothes from Vinted cost maybe about £20 per age range for the baby. And you can spend gift money on clothes too.

My husband's pay covers our bills with£700 left over and I only get Maternity Allowance - £700/month. Our income is £4200 instead of £6300. You'll be receiving plenty more than that with your maternity pay.

Frankly, your lifestyle costs go way down the first year of baby anyway.

Lots of free baby clubs at sure start centres

Plus M&T at churches for £1/2