Mat leave help!

[Namechanger355]

hi all

Due our 2nd in mid December and doing our budget.

will be really tight once my full pay ends after six weeks - goes to half pay for a few months and then stat. Definitely poorer this time around overall because although I’m earning a good (better) wage we have a higher mortgage now as we moved to a family home - and we have nursery fees for DD1(3).

so I’d be grateful for some advice please:

• I have a few small debts - do I try and pay some of those off whilst I can - or should I save a pot? If so how much did you save?
• DD1 is 3 so will have 15 hours finding. she is currently in nursery FT 5 days a week but am considering reducing her days to 4 days or even lower - is that easy to do when you also have a newborn? Sounds silly but I recall sitting on the sofa for hours with DD when she was born trying to breastfeed - just wondering how easy it is to do that an occupy a pre schooler for a day or two each week? If it works out it would be lovely having both at home with me.
• are there any any other frugal tips to help me save for children’s stuff and on maternity leave. New baby is also a girl so we will be reusing a lot of stuff and not planning to get anything new that’s too pricey - just a little wardrobe for the nursery really and a proper breast pump.

thanks

@Namechanger355 my first was 2.5 when second was born. I was on the equivalents of smp and coincidentally my childminder broke her hip so I had both baby and toddler at home. 3 is a good enough age to have with you but I would still send her to maybe twice a week to give you a break and give her some external stimuli.

Regarding the debts are they fixed like bank loan or credit card. If bank loan I will keep payment as normal no need to pay it early as same interest. Credit card loan is different.
I would cut down on non essential stuff and no buying baby stuff that you don't need. Have a weekly food budget and try to stick to it. Make sure your partner does his share, try to cook extra portions to freeze for another meal.
Your 3 year old can be colouring beside you while you're feeding baby. Get snacks for both of you, water, turn on tv, watch and chat. Get her involved with baby. My toddler used to pretend to read cards and letters sent to the baby.

I just returned to work after a year off and once I started my unpaid leave I stopped any mortgage overpayment. That saved about €350 monthly. Congratulations on your new baby.

This is probably controversial, but I got through mine with a £9k credit card from Virgin which was 18 months interest free. I then spent on that for everything like food shopping and let my wages build up in my current account to cover bills and mortage only. Then I started paying down the credit card once I was back at work and currently have only £800 left to pay off before the interest kicks in next month. It worked well for me as a way to push some of the payments until after maternity, but you'd need to be comfortable you could budget to clear it.

I cleared my existing credit cards before maternity started to get rid of the interest I was spending on that.

In terms of saving money whilst you were off I found I didn't need to pay for any baby classes, between the council and libraries local to me I ended up with three free classes a week we would go to.

I also bought a lot second hand baby things from ebay (pushchair etc) and I joined local community groups on facebook and got some great quality items that were being given away free nearby.

@Barleysugar86 18 months interest free is wonderful. Not controversial at all.