Disposable income on Maternity leave

[Ser2024]

I'm just about to start maternity leave meaning my salary is going to decrease by a substantial amount. We have calculated that while I'm off we will have a disposable income of around £500 per week (after mortgage bills etc are paid off) the £500 will need to cover all other expenses such as food, baby supplies, any activities for the week and will be split between the three of us. What did you have as a family while you were on maternity leave per week/month? Will this be enough? Ideally I'd like to do a few activities/outings during the week so I'm not cooped up all day!

I mean, some people have less than that a month, you’ll be fine!

Get a spread sheet;

Food budget & make a meal plan (family of 3 and we’re around £150 a week on our food shop).

Budget for classes, there’s loads of free or cheap classes around. Bookbug - free and in twice a week at my local library, then a wee stay and play once a week for £2. Church hall baby and me class was £2/3 a week, baby sensory £10, swimming £15. Baby massage - £10.

Set a limit for coffee/ lunch out, I’d coffee maybe twice a week with other mums, then hubby and I would go for lunch at the weekend. Cafes are pretty reasonable & you can bring snacks for baby when they’re older.

Supermarket nappies are grand for during the day, but I’d always recommend pampers once little one starts sleeping longer stretches at night.

Jack & Jill sales/ market place/ aldi/ lild do fab baby toys (and they don’t need much anyway). Don’t feel obligated to buy loads of toys/ feeding accessories for little one, there’s so much unnecessary crap!

Thank you! That's so helpful, especially trying to understand the cost of food per week for a family of 3. Free classes sounds ideal and think that's the way I'll try and go, I didn't realise there were so many!

You’re food bill shouldn’t change much initially anyway, and once baby is weaning if you feel them roughly what you eat it’s not a huge difference- just add in an extra £20 a week for berries, butter, oils, etc. My little one is 3.5 now and eats as much as my husband most days so we do spend more on actual food too.

You could ask on local Facebook pages for class recommendation and see what you fancy.

Oh amazing, that makes sense - I guess the extra expense would be nappies in the general shop.

Thank you! I'll have a look online for classes too and see what I can find!

I think it'll be fine, just scary going into the unknown without a salary!

Definitely try to stick to free groups/meet ups/classes as much as you can. There really are LOADS once you know where to look. Local to me there are parent/child walking groups (multiple different ones! NCT buggy walks, Blazetrails if you have any local to you www.blazetrails.org.uk/walkinggroups ), loads of church playgroups which are free (some of these charge a nominal amount like £1-3 a session - but one even gives parents a bacon butty! And they usually at least offer tea and biscuits), community centre stay and plays/baby groups (all free), rhyme time at the libaries (don't just look at your most local library).

How much is your food shop now? And how often do you like to eat out etc now? I was starting to think that £500 sounds really tight if you need to include food and still expecting to be out and about a lot... but then I remembered I'm feeding 2 kids who eat more than I do in a day sometimes so I can't really use my experience on what food costs! I think it does sound tight if you plan to or end up formula feeding, though as I know that can get expensive alongside buying bottles/new teats/steriliser/etc and also disposable nappies.

Even if you aren't open to the idea of cloth nappies (I still won't do it full time even now I'm pregnant with my third), the best thing I EVER bought when I had my first baby was a set of reusable baby wipes. They're the best and save so much money if you keep using them for hands and faces etc after the baby stage (I personally stopped using them for poo after starting solids). My set is starting to get threadbare now but has been in CONSTANT use for 5 years and I've probably only bought 10 packets of disposable wipes during that time over two children. I bought mine from Cheeky wipes but I know lots of places sell them now