Coping on maternity leave

[Dolwar]

Hi guys I wanted to ask how got all copies financially on maternity leave if YOU are the main earner?
Dh is a trainee teacher so will be on basic salary of around 21k as of September. I literally earn double that. We have a joint account for all direct debits and mortgage etc and I pay 2/3 of it as I earn more, my contribution is approx £1100 pcm. Then we split the credit card bill which is food and petrol fairly equally after I have paid in my petrol allowance money from work. I work for the NHS so have a decent maternity package but tbh I'm struggling to see how I can afford to take any more than 6 months off work. Obviously when it comes to it we'll switch to free sat etc etc. I know people survive on a lot less but we have a big mortgage and a house we are renovating too.

We put together a monthly budget of every single expense for both of us. Once we totalled it up we worked out how much joint income we would have during mat leave. We worked out the shortfall and multiplied it by the number of months off i wanted to take. Then we saved that amount of money plus some extra for unknown expenses. We did this for my first mat leave and it worked well. I'm currently half way through my second mat leave and have done the same and it's been fine.

Don't forget child benefit and council tax free months.

I'm the wrong side of 30 and we're ttc #1 so can't really delay tbh.
I had a chat with dh at lunchtime and told him to stop buying cr*p on the credit card, that's just for food and fuel. I think I'm judging on the past few months which have been tight as we moved house and then had emergency work to do here, needed to buy a new car after dh crashed it, and then it was Christmas and e had the final holiday instalment to pay off (is only a cheap week away). I'm no clothes horse and we don't eat out a lot. Dh gave up the fags this month too.
I think February we'll aim to spend as little as possible & see how much we have left.

maverick that's a really good idea thanks. Also I had forgotten about council tax. Need to work out what child benefit we would get if any.

You'd get £82.80 per month child benefit providing you don't earn over £50,000 and it doesn't sound as if you do.

If you get full pay for 6 months, then decide how much time you'd like to have off and save the shortfall between what you'll get paid and how much you need to top up to normal salary or bare minimum. So if you have 9 months then 3 x salary less SMP that way it doesn't look so daunting. And bear in mind annual leave and bank holidays are usually fully paid in lieu. I will have been off for 13 months with dc2 but only 2 months unpaid as 2 weeks paid Holliday at the beginning of leave and 5 weeks at end (3 weeks leave + accrued bank holidays etc 2 weeks)

I get 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay (? Plus smp?) Then 13 weeks smp only then allowed 13 weeks unpaid. It's calculated on my last 3 months average earning which is complicated as my salary goes up in September as I'm getting a promotion, but if I stop doing night shifts then my pay will go down. But then dh will be qualified from September so extra up to £6k. It's just hard to predict income when mine is shift based and unsociable hours allowance will drop if I give up night shifts.

The 18 weeks pay is very unlikely to be with SMP in addition.

I would do the budgeting exercise others have suggested and look at all your outgoings on a spreadsheet. Work out what you will need to pay out each month (including regular baby expenses like nappies, wipes etc) and then work out what will be covered by the 1/2 pay and the SMP pay and where you'll be with no pay. Then work out how much you'll need to save based on that.

Do a version for now, without the extra baby costs, to work out what you could save.

I doubt very much that your half pay will have SMP on top - it is usually included. Have a look at your policies at work for some more clarity and the gov.uk website is helpful for information too. Bear in mind that the qualifying period for calculating your pay is based on specific weeks into your pregnancy/before your EWC so if you can, make sure night shifts and overtime fall in this period, which is assuming that you are feeling well enough to be working nights and presumably rotating on days too.

No it does include smp because I quality for both occupational and smp. I've been with the NHS for over 2 years and in this job for almost 6 months already and should be here for another 18 months minimum.

I had a small chat with dh tonight....trying to impress on him how we'll be relying on his salary. I think it went in. With him I have to drip feed the concept

Very generous for it to be on top - that is much better than most!

Same situation really. I saved up during pregnancy and 'paid' myself the same as my regular salary by topping up my mat pay.

We were able to reduce our mortgage slightly for the 2nd half of maternity leave as it was interest only so very flexible. But I agree with pp saying
Save, save, save
Buy baby stuff 2nd hand
Get DP to take 2nd 6 months

That is very generous, SMP is not normally added on like that.

I work for the NHS and am just coming to the end of my second maternity leave. The biggest thing is to make sure you have been in your current job/hospital long enough to qualify, which can be tricky to time with TTC if you rotate regularly! Professional fees can all be reduced/paused while on a reduced income. KIT days and A/L payments come in handy when the money runs out at the end. But mainly start saving as much as possible now, and cut out all the expenses you won't be able to afford on mat leave anyway (or even when you go back LTFT but pay childcare costs). If you can do extra shifts now do it and save all the money, as trust me you won't want to do any extra work when you're pregnant! Finally spend as little as possible on buying 'stuff' for the new baby- get hand me downs, buy nearly new etc. You can easily get sucked into the marketing and waste thousands kitting out a nursery!

I was going to suggest shared parental leave. It makes a lot of sense in your case.