Mat Leave Savings

[nervoussam]

Hi everyone. About to start mat leave and whilst we've planned as best we can, I can't help but think about those months where I won't be earning. We have some savings to keep us going, it's hard to know what we'll be spending during those months though.

Did you have savings specifically for mat leave? If so how much (if you don't have to say the amount if you don't want to, perhaps just as a proportion of your usual wage?)

Hoping to put my mind at rest a bit! Oh and btw, I would never ask anyone in RL about this! I'm not one to talk about money but hoping the anonymity of MN makes it easier!

Thanks everyone.

I had 15k saved but only spent about £500 of it. I lived on my stat maternity pay, only got the minimum amount. I was extra careful as do was made redundant when I was 6 months pg and didn't get a perm job till ds was 6 months old.

Wow you did amazingly!

To spend so little I mean (not to get made redundant of course! )

It was very important to me that DH and I took the hit equally. I personally wouldn't feel happy living off SMP while my DH carried on with his full salary.

We put aside money for the big expenses which we knew would be coming up while I was on mat leave. Then we also had separate savings for emergencies. We fortunately haven't had to dip into those, and have managed to live within our means just by being extra careful with the budget.

You might find mat leave a bit cheaper than going out to work. For example I haven't to spend anywhere near as much on public transport, am able to make lunch at home rather than buying it, don't need to buy work clothes/shoes etc etc.

I have £15k, hoping not to need it, I'll be in 50% pay, going back after 6 months. Doesn't cover loss in earnings but covers my half of our fixed outgoings.

I was off for a year with both mine and saved about 5K for each which in addition to stay maternity pay covered my share of bills and left a little for coffees out etc but it was tight, no holidays, new clothes, date nights etc. If I was doing it again i would save more to leave a bit more breathing room.

So gin and cheeky, you continued to pay the same share of bills as your OH even though your earnings had reduced drastically and his had stayed the same?

Yes because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford our mortgage/ bills. Dh saved up the 5K with me before/ whilst I was pregnant, paying a set amount into a 'mat leave' pot.

My Mat leave is next year. It's 'joint' savings although I think that specific cash came from one of my bonuses. We share finances, all goes in one pot and we each have save amount of spends- more just plugging of household gap

I've saved just over 5k for a year off which with my mat pay (I get two lots of SMP as work two jobs) gives me about 22k for the year after tax.

A big hit as my basic (not counting my second job) is around 46k before tax usually but I've been used to budgeting in the last year in order to save (and pay off my credit card before mat leave started!)

Like others DH is stepping up and taking on a bigger proportion of the bills so I still have a bit of disposable income but it will be a tight year.

I've taken the approach of dividing everything I have for the year (mat pay and savings) by the number of weeks I am off so I know exactly how much I can spend each week. I'm then tracking this using a budgeting app to make sure I know exactly where I am with money. I have a huge fear of accidentally overspending and being left with nothing at the end of the year so I am a bit OCD with my budgeting app!

I saved the difference between maternity pay and my usual salary plus extra as I spent more on maternity going out and about as never spent much at work.

Being off when all your friends are at work for me was hard so I needed to be able to do things.

Thanks everyone, we're also a one pot household so it's not been a case of who's saving what.

I like the idea of working out a weekly budget will have a look at working that out after our bills.

I also seem to think I'd spend more rather than less on mat leave, i often wfh so little in commuting costs, don't go out much in the week as work is so busy. I do have a bit of a clothes spending habit though which I'm sure I can hold back on for a while!