Any financial advice that mums can give that you got/would give to someone before having a baby?

[1990shopefulftm]

In first month of ttc baby #1 and had already looked at the potential budget a while ago for mat leave which while i get smp should be doable. But i've have been doing some maths today to see what the situation will be afterwards as my job is minimum wage and full time childcare is about 1k where i live, me working would possibly leave us at a loss still.
Without me working and our current outgoings we'll have about a £30 a month shortfall before any baby related costs so just looking for advice on what we can do now to help in the future?

We do currently have a car which if DH stays in his current job we could manage without and we should have our CC's cleared this month, other debts we pay monthly and have about 4 years left on and can't shift them to lower interest or anything. We've got a small emergency fund if something happens and have started saving for all the things we'll need to buy for the baby beforehand.

universal credit on mat leave - claim it!

see what your entitledto.co.uk (childcare costs?)

put as much as you can away in baby fund (even a tenner)

stock up on nappies - aldi/lidl are brilliant. Stock up on wipes and things.
Work out if you are actually better off being part time when you return

read reviews on baby things, they dont need much but be clever with your spends

get a netflix subscription. cancel sky

second hand clothes off selling sites... beliveve me they are in them 2 mins and saves you a fortune. Only thing i insist on new is cot/matress and car seat. Anything else can be cleaned or put through the washer.
people will buy you clothes and gifts, use the new ones going out and about. The "2nds" are fine for daily/round the house, they shit and spew a lot (my washer is always on).

you do not need the £500000000 pram and travel system. Shop around. read reviews.
invest in the car seat. again, pram is outgrown when you blink

budget.

Good luck :)

Remember you'll get child benefit (£80 a month) and you will get some free childcare hours from 3 yrs (sometimes 2yrs depending).

Interested about the Universal Credit while on Mat Leave Carly, my work will give me 3 months pay then I'll be statutory for 6 months and then nothing. Am I entitled to universal credit even with this set up? I'm not usually entitled to anything. (household income (DP's income plus the above during Mat Leave would be about £20-25k)

I put away £100 a month when TTC, as I reasoned it was easier to do that when there was no baby around. Even when budget was tight as let’s be honest, there’s more to pay for when the baby arrives too. It took over 3 years for us, so the baby pot paid for everything around £900 (all second hand but good quality except the 2 x car seats and the mattress). Leaving a decent chunk of money for mat leave and nursery costs where I will be effectively negative income every month.
I did splurge on a nice cot bed, and a nicer pram than needed tbh and could have definitely saved money there but they are lovely and I think it was worth it. Oh we did ask for people to buy useful gifts rather than clothing, but equally it’s nice to receive anything.
Good luck!

Thank you for your replies :)
@carly2803
We don't have sky and will probably cancel Netflix soon . I ve checked and won't be eligible for UC until paid mat leave stops, don't seem to get much for childcare until the free hours at 2 years old (household income on mat leave is about 21k).
There's an Aldi supposed to be opening 5 minutes away in the next few months so I ll certainly get a few packs of wipes on top of food shop.
Generally all our clothes are second hand or high street in sales so very comfortable sticking to that with kids. I ll make sure to look at reviews ,seems to be so much marketing to sell parents stuff.

@Melonise I included child benefit in when I was figuring things out. I ve been trying to figure out how much using the marriage tax allowance will help on mat leave but can't figure out what on earth that would make DHs tax code.

@Elizabeth2019 we re managing to put the £100 away at the moment, my hours have gone down this month so getting used to having less income beforehand. Glad to hear you got everything for £900. I m hoping to get a nice pram off ebay, we won't be using the car much (considering that we ll probably have to sell it once we have the baby as the buses are pretty decent round here) so think a travel system isn't something we need. Thank you :)

UC entitlement will depend on rent, and net earnings each month. The child element is lower than it was but you do get the work allowance9 an amount that is disregarded from your wages before wages reduce your UC) if you have a child. People with kids do get a much better deal on UC but not everyone will be entitled it just depends on circumstances and savings etc.

yes depending on wages you can get UC even on mat leave

If you have a mortgage they disregard the first 502 pound i think (inc your mat pay)!, and then take 0.63p in the £1 off.
rent is something like 268 disregarded then 63p in the pound taken off - all very complicated so easier using the site below :)

if you go on entitledto.co.uk its pretty accurate.

@Babyroobs, we have a £670 mortgage a month but going off calculators online it only seems to ask about what we have left to pay off the full balance.
@carly2803 I tried turn2us and it came up with no uc on mat leave but will try another calculator.

Remember to factor in the 20% saving on childcare fees that you'd get from a Tax Free Childcare savings account.

We also swapped to shopping at Aldi and put money aside while I was working to save up a pot to help cover maternity leave.