Shoulder be able to manage with these earnings during maternity leave?

[NemophilistRebel]

DH earns around £2000 a month. (After student loan and pension deductions)

I whilst on maternity leave only get the 90% for 6 weeks and then 33 weeks at SMP
If I average this over 12 months it’s £750 a month.
If I only took 9 months this would average out to £1000 a month

So based on me trying to be off for 12 months this time could we manage on £2750 a month based on having the following outgoings :

£1100 mortgage
£65 garage rental
£120 gas/electric
£30 water
£80 mobile contracts
£100 car insurance
£15 tv
£15 pet insurance
£25 car tax

So about £1600 fixed outgoings

We normally spend £110 a week on food
Another £60 a week on petrol
Then house repairs/ car maintenance/ clothes or shoes when needed and gifts would have to be factored in somewhere too.

Could you manage on this ?

I’m worried that we might struggle as it’s such a drop from my earnings and I’ve been as prepared as I can by cutting back before hand and I just can’t seem to get our monthly spend in that bracket

You could definitely reduce that food bill OP!! I feed a family of 4 on 65 a week! And we eat very well! But yes it looks manageable.
Do you have savings aside for emergencies?

Yes we have an emergency savings fund of just £2000 but I am trying to use that only in an emergency and would like to manage if at all possible but it’s there should we need it

I struggle to bring down the food bill.
We eat in the house every meal so we don’t buy lunches out and I try and keep to good quality meat and vegetables although we have massively cut back on meat recently.

Our food bill always includes any top ups of cleaning items or toothpaste.

I make my own bread but not too sure how to reduce it further. We don’t drink much and maybe buy a bottle of wine a week at the moment.

We get through a lot of fresh fruit

Do you have an emergency fund?

What are you spending money on?

Can you switch car insurance? Seems excessive

Sorry cross post slow phone

I do all the same OP, lots of fresh veg and fruit, eat at home mostly, I meal
Plan and I can do it for a lot less!! Where do you shop? Do you buy things like biscuits and cordial etc they are the kind of things I don’t buy. I literally only plan and buy for 3 meals a day. Give it a try, you never know even bringing it to 80 would be plenty!!

Good that you have the savings for real emergencies! Are you a on mat leave yet?? If not I would try to save another chunk if possible!

That looks really tight to me with that level of mortgage and fixed outgoings

What about your council tax? Buildings & contents insurance, life assurance?

Also dentist, haircuts, window cleaner (if you can't do them yourself), tv package etc.

I go through budgets for a living, you need to allocate money into little pots for everything!

You’ve averaged out your earnings, do you may run into cash flow issues if you assume £1000/month.

Wow your car insurance is high! £1200 a year? Have you deffo shopped around for a better deal?

Also £80 for mobiles is a lot, you could reduce that to £20, saving £700 a year, maybe not just now but worth looking at in the future.

Agree re food, I feed a family of five on about that or a bit less. Do you buy ready meals? Branded items? We eat loads of fruit and veg but I buy in bulk from Costco (worth the fee for cheap petrol) and then do my main shop in Aldi and Morrisons.

You probs won't spend as much on petrol when you aren't at work - £60 a week is a lot so I assume you both have a long commute (two cars I take it from the car tax). Can you sell one car and get a cheaper runabout, tax would be less too.

I’m not on maternity leave yet and will have 3 more months to save. Hoping to put another £600 at least away

Shop currently in Waitrose I know! But.... it’s because we currently work long hours and they are the best around here for deliveries. Hoping to have more time to shop around when on maternity leave, although when I’ve tried Asda and Tesco’s their meat hasn’t been as good

Car insurance has come down from what it was, unfortunately an accident a few years ago and moving house put it up quite a bit

Dentist - it’s free for me and children’s nd DH refuses to go

No tv package

Broadband is another £20 a month just moved to cheapest deal

Council tax is £155, forgot that one

We cut our own hair so no hairdressers

I pay building and contents insurance up front each January so that’s just been done for the year

We don’t have other insurances

We have a £15 window cleaner every 2 months but I will stop that

I have amazon prime but I will stop that too

I can reduce my mobile contract down in August when my contract is up, so can DH so that will save another £40

We have short commutes but family lives far away and we try to seem them twice a month.

My car is main family car and is tax free but DH’s is a vehicle for his work and hefty on tax as it’s old, but it’s all paid up front so don’t want to lose it as he needs it and would cost more to replace for anything half decent

What about life/home insurance? Council tax? Internet? Those things for us add another £250 per month, so are significant to budgeting.

We would have a similar income if I go on maternity with second child so watching with interest.

Home insurance has just been paid up front for the year

No other insurances

Council tax I had forgotten and is £155 a month

£385 per month on a car for petrol, insurance & tax. It’s getting on 20% of your household expenditure without our any Maintenance or MOT

Look seriously at how you can reduce this cost as it’s £4600 a year out of your wages, out another way it’s over half of your SMP per month

Looks tight to me, but probably just about doable, You'll also get child benefit, just under £21 per week which will help a bit.

Definitely switch from shopping at Waitrose to a cheaper supermarket, will save a fair bit that way.

Babies themselves don't need to cost much, charity shops and eBay is full of cheap things, supermarket own brand nappies are really cheap and if you breastfeed then their main food is free and even after that babies eat so little solids that it won't impact your food bill.

You will be absolutely fine with that. Your food is astronomical I spend 100 a week for six of us and we eat loads of fresh food, have nice toiletries and includes lunch boxes for 4 kids and wine and beer for me and dh.

Regardless of whether or not you pay your b&c insurance in a lump sum or not (although admittedly it is slightly cheaper doing it that way), you still need to save an amount per month for the next time the bill comes round?

Although Waitrose for food etc. and reluctance to try and reduce (halve) that bill at Aldi/Lidl/Asda...? I don't love a lot of the food in Asda and would rather eat fancy Waitrose food every night, but when you have a family and a related reduced income, you need to make compromises.

Where does everyone shop that is getting such bargain weekly shops?

Lidl 👍

Ah yes a Lidl has opened in the next town so could try that soon

We spend about £50 a week on groceries for 3 people, you will definitely save a lot by shopping anywhere other than waitrose!

So...

Income = £2,840 (Averaged salaries + CB)

Outgoings:-
£1100 mortgage
£155 council tax
£65 garage rental
£120 gas/electric
£30 water
£80 mobile contracts
£100 car insurance
£15 tv
£15 pet insurance
£25 car tax
£476 food (£110 x 52 ÷ 12)
£260 petrol (£60 x 52 ÷ 12)
= £2,441

You have around £400 left for clothes x 3, gifts, holidays, DIY, appliance repair/replacement, car maintenance x 2 cars, b&c insurance savings+ pocket money for you and DH. I think its tight but do-able if you can bring the food, car insurance and mobiles down.

What is your childcare plan for when (if) you go back to work? Is this just for one tight year or will this be an oncoming reduced income/income after childcare once you return to work?

And is DH on board & happy to watch the pennies?

After everything you’d have £350pm disposable income, is this your 1st DC?
£110pw on good is ridiculous if it’s for 2ppl, Waitrose is overpriced and if you both drive stop getting deliveries, go shopping; Lidl is excellent especially for the basic cupboard items, good for fruit/veg, fresh bakery.