Affording maternity leave. How are you planning on affording it?

[OurNextAdventure]

For all that are TTC or those who have already got your BFPs.....

How are you all planning on funding maternity leave? Is everyone saving now and if so how much is everyone trying to save?

When I'm lucky enough to get a BFP (one day soon I hope), my employers maternity package is pretty shocking so (6 weeks full, 6 weeks half, 27wks SMP....then nothing).

We are trying to save what we can but I am nervous about the cost of having a baby (mortgage and bill payments I mean as I'm sure you can actually get by with minimal "stuff")

Just curios about what everyone else is doing when we know that if all goes well we will be taking an extended time off work.

Sorry if I'm being nosy....hope you all won't mind me asking; maybe lots of others are wondering too?!? Xx

I added up what I would receive in total and split it across the 12 months so that we didn't end up completely broke at the end. It worked really well as we've cut back across the year. We didn't save anything before I went on maternity leave as we'd just got married and bought a house so there were lots of outgoings and we couldn't afford to save as well.

I think those who are waiting for your first bfp or who are pregnant for the first time and saying you need to go back after 3 months...take heed. I was no way physically or mentally ready to go back to work after 12 weeks. Not saying this is the case for everybody but for some, birth and having a baby really is a huge physical and mental feat that needs time to recover from. Save save and save as much as you can in case you need some extra time, you might find you are very poorly if you push it too soon. You don’t need to spend £800 on a pram, get a £200 one and save the rest.

Such great advice from everyone! Thanks so much for all sharing how you are going to fund your ML (or are already doing so).
I think it's really useful advice so keep it coming, not just for me but for us all; I'll certainly be looking back at this thread when we do get our BFP.

I'm currently putting away £300pcm but want to increase this if possible. DH is saving too and I know it's a shared responsibility but I just want to save as much as possible myself. I know it will be DH's baby too but I just feel so bad knowing he will have to cover most of our outgoings while I'm off work. Some will think that's irrational, it is in a way; I just do feel bad about the financial pressure that will be placed on DH. Put it this way, if humans were like seahorses and males had babies I couldn't afford for him to take a year off!

That said I would probably a to take 11 months off and 1 months holiday bringing it to 12 months in total. In an ideal world. I appreciate though that many reading this won't be based on the Uk as I am. For example people in America take very little time off (I'm very glad I'm in England!)

Thanks again for everyone's input!

I am not total agreement with Sandysmam I was completely physically unable to go back to work at 3 months. Not just the sleep deprivation but actually physically and mentally unwell. I'd have been fired.

Lalalalalaland I also did the splitting across 12 months thing. It actually meant I had money left at the end of may leave, and bought a new work wardrobe with it.

SMP only here (15 years with the company!) though I do get my car allowance also. Got pregnant first month of trying so only had 9 months to save, but got plenty put to one side (less wine and holidays while pregnant!). What you can save for anyone will completely depend on how much disposable income you normally have; I will have enough to cover everything but won't have made any mortgage overpayments or saved anything towards my next car. If I run out of money towards the end DH will need to cover more, at the expense of mortgage overpayments.
Sounds ridiculous but at 3 months I'd have needed to pay for new work clothes before I could go back! Determined that won't be the case after a year (or even 6 months!).

Sandysmam sadly I have no choice. I have my own business and it wouldn’t sustain me having longer than 3 months off. I would lose everything I’ve spent the last 10 years building up.
Support for self employed woman having babies is absolutely rubbish so unfortunately, it’s something I have to just get on with.

I saved for a year before bfp to cover 1 year off - DS is 4 months old. but its still not easy as theres always the unpredictables - DHs car broke last month which cost £400 to repair. I am also worried about childcare costs shudders at mere mention

That’s quite a good deal. I get the legal minimum, 6 weeks. My sister works at a university and gets 6 months full pay!

Started saving now as we would like to keep our other child in Nursery to keep her place but to also give me a break. Only having 8 months this time rather than 12 due to costs. 15 ‘free’ hours kicks in in April thank goodness just in time for when I go back to work. My husband gets 6 months full so I would like to do shared leave but husband thinks it will wreak promotion chances. Have you considered shared leave?

Jellibabie - might be worth looking into if your employer does childcare vouchers now? The cut off is April and then the scheme is shut.

My leave will be basic parental leave (so our version of SMP) which is $695 a week before tax (it is taxed)
My income is $850 before tax a week so we'll be fine with the parental leave plus DH's income (main earner) The parental leave runs for 18 weeks only which is on the generous side but I'll be taking 6 months. Dh can support us though, but we are saving. We've been saving for a year so have quite a bit already but we just need a sticky bean now.

@Tobebythesea thanks. I assumed I would flip to the tax child care option though? May need to look!

You have to start mat leave the week the baby is due/born. I saved holiday and took that first so I had 3 weeks holiday before he was born. I also took holiday after mat pay ran out as you still accumulate it whilst off.
I did a PPI claim and ended up with a few thousand. I also saved my mileage payments from expenses as I travelled a lot.
Now I'm part time, don't travel, have no more PPI to reclaim so no hope of saving for another. We're TTC for the last year and all I can do is put £100pm away and try not to spend a lot. Tbh another child isn't looking likely so it probably won't matter

Worth having a quick look now as then you will have 2 options instead of just one. It might be better financially for you.

I'm due in July and only entitled to maternity allowance because I'm self employed. It will be a pittance too because I've barely earned anything in the last year due to a major family crisis.

We're only going to be able to afford it because a) We have a tiny mortgage and have delayed moving up the property ladder to keep it this way b) We got rid of the car c) We saved like mad for a year, gave up alcohol, going out, all other luxuries etc d) My parents are in a position to help us out.

We were lucky and were given a lot of baby stuff. We didn't bother with redecorating a whole room for baby - needless expense. We saved and I returned to work when DS was 8 weeks

Males seahorses just care for babies they don't have them - this is also a possibility for humans due to shared parental leave - that's how we managed

@Aki23 male seahorses give birth.

And shared parental leave only works if the mother is able to give up some or part of her leave (and pay, if the father is going to claim shared parental pay)

With DC1 I got my then-employer's maternity package, which was the legal minimum. With DC2 I was self employed so I got something like £50 a week IIRC for 6 months. Because I wanted to stay home for a year with each of them, I ended up using up all my savings, which was about 4 grand with each child.

I am a senior level staff member in a technical role but because we're an SME with an all male board we only get SMP.

I saved and saved and saved to have my first baby - took 6 months off but had to return to work to pay the mortgage.

My second child was more challenging because I was already working part-time and paying nursery fees so saving up was particularly difficult. However because I was able to plan my maternity leave so far in advance I was able to save £5k to take 10 months off.

However I've been back at work a year and still paying off a credit card bill from that time - I hadn't accounted for birthday or christmas presents when i was saving.

I’m living abroad and get 45 calendar days fully paid, which works out at about 5 working weeks! Nothing thereafter, unless you have a doctors line that allows you to take a further 100 days unpaid for medical reasons. Haven’t told my employers yet, will be interesting to see what happens when I tell them I want to take 6 months off (although beyond the first 45 days I don’t expect to be paid, and am lucky enough to be in the situation where I can afford to ask for the rest as unpaid leave). For most, there is no option but to go back after the 45 days paid leave.

With my first, the council I worked for offered 12 weeks half pay which could be spread across your leave up to week 39 which was a great way of spreading the money.

My current council offer the same money but it must be taken between weeks 7 and 18 so more management on our part. I'm starting mat leave on 31st but have been off 2 weeks already. We've saved as much as we could and I will have 12 months off with my last month covered by leave so I'll only have no pay what's so ever for 2 months. Unfortunately we haven't timed this pregnancy well and I'll have no pay in December when it's Christmas and DD1 birthday but we'll manage.

I’m actually better off on ML, even though I only get SMP, than we will be when I go back to work and have to pay 2 lots of nursery fees and extortionate train fares for my commute. Something else to think about.

Doesn’t seem that bad to me

Mine was 6 weeks full
Then 4 months 50%
Then SMP
I also got my bonuses in that time.

How we afforded it though was my husband (divorced now) was a very high earner and my salary (decent, £50k 8 years ago) was not meaningful to the household income

Your maternity package sounds really good to me. I got SMP which is worse.

During your leave you won't have commuting costs (assuming you normally do) and you won't be buying lunch and coffees at work (again, I'm making the assumption you normally do).

You also won't be able to go out lots during the evening with a small baby. We saved on cinema, meals out etc because we couldn't go out of an evening anyway while was ebf.

I didn't buy new clothes for myself for a long time (even after went back to work, as went back part time). We've had a lot of hand-me-down and charity shop baby and toddler stuff. We've not been abroad since we started a family. My DP takes pack lunches to work instead of using the staff canteen.

Write down everything you currently spend money on then work out what you can cut out.