advice please

[flowerpotgirl12]

hi all,

just wanted advice really on how people cope on maternity. once bills are paid me and dp are only going to have 246 a month to live on, which with his travel to work, food and petrol costs is going to last about 2 weeks. looks like I will have to return to work within 4 months of having baby which is really upsetting me but not sure if that's even viable asy wage will be sucked up by childcare costs, so financially won't be any better off.

any advice and please don't tell me that we should have thought of this before.

Thanks

Have you looked at the benefit checker websites like www.entitledto.com?

yer we're not entitled to help as together we earn to much and doesn't take into account the time off for maternity leave

I basically listed all my outgoings and put them in order of priority so fuel, food, house etc had to be paid then looked at the ones further down the list and chopped any I possibly could for the year I was off. I actually did this three times as the less money I had the less priorities I could afford if you see what I mean.

Also I contacted all the people I owed money and asked any if there was any help such as payment holidays they could offer. My car repayment for example let me miss 3 repayments. This did affect my credit rating until I paid it back but the company agreed to take no action and were really nice about it. That was black horse.

I found having more time on maternity meant I had more time to shop for bargains and more time to plan and stretch ingredients. Same with things like buying birthday presents I could shop around rather than grab something quickly on a lunch break.

Boot sales can also be really good for raising a bit of cash. Keeping boxes for thing like baby monitors etc is a good idea. Nearly new sales are very good for buying or selling.

My year of mat leave was the most skint I've ever been......but also the happiest

Even if you are not entitled to tax credits you may still get some help with childcare costs when you go back to work. Or would you consider looking for a job which fitd around your partners working hours? This is the only way we have managed to reduce childcare costs significantly with 4 kids.

When is mat leave due to start? Can you build up any savings meantime?