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

To reduce your food bull definitely forget about Waitrose whilst you’re in maternity, batch cooking is a great idea, and buying reduced meat/bread and freezing it till you need it. Bulk buying also.

£110 is a lot! If you have a steamer (just because it tastes mushy otherwise) i would recommend bags of frozen veg to save money, Iceland did have 5 for £4, and they taste great and last ages with no wastage. I would maybe keep spending what you are on meat if you're happy with it, but look to shop around for everything else, I like Asda as well, and find their basic stuff is actually okay. There are always costs that creep up that you don't expect, we bought a lot of stuff second hand but have used Amazon prime so many times when things have cropped up that baby needs; I would be looking to halve the food bill and put the money aside for that.

You'll get child benefit on that o come so £80 a month

We use it for nappies and baby stuff

Helps a lot!

You may have paid up the house insurance, but it will need paying in 12 month time - about the time your earnings drop to 0. Its worth putting aside 1/12 of that cost to alliw you to pay next years bill.

You'll need to factor in nappies, probably higher energy costs whilst you're at home, possibly offset by reduced petrol.

I know this isnt the point of the thread but you need life insurance.

I second the need for life insurance...when there’s a child involved imo it’s essential!!

Yes DH is very frugal otherwise.

Forgot about child benefit, that will help.

Will be able to shop in Lidl and Aldi.
I have a Morrison’s a short drive away - are they meant to be cheap?

how much should life insurance cost?

What about after? Child care will set you back £1000 per month if full time.

If you ditch meat for 3 meals per week
Change to Lidl or Aldi for shopping you could easily reduce your weekly shopping, to £55
Which would half your shopping bill from £5720 to £2860

I would advice you to start buying nappies from boots and get the points, boots points are really worthwhile. Or look at Aldi nappies as they did well in tests I believe.

Tesco points for days out

Sainsbury points all worth collecting

I stock up on washing powder, washing up liquid, loo roll, dryer pasta tinned tomatoes etc then have a few store cupboard meals each week which saves money.

Saving money is being organised and prepared

Have you added in your holiday to that? I got 5 weeks paid holiday at the end of my maternity leave so I used a bit of my savings to top up my money then added it back in when I got my holiday pay. You may also get paid bank holidays and you can often top up with KIT days.
We agreed with family and friends that we wouldn’t do birthday presents while I was on maternity leave and would do token presents at Christmas to reduce that cost.

Your food bill is £££, just avoid Waitrose. I shop in Sainsbury's, M&S (their offers are good) & Aldi. When I first went to Aldi I was shocked how cheap a shop was! We moved from Pampers to Aldi nappies & wipes, no issue.

You should definitely try Morrisons. I think switching from Waitrose to Lidl will be a massive culture shock but Morrisons is good. I worked in a butchers in a past life and Morrisons meat is as good as Waitrose meat comparing it to when I used Ocado. I do 1 shop a fortnight at Morrisons and 1 shop a fortnight at Aldi. Works well for us and I probably spend about £100 a week for 4 of us including toiletries and cleaning stuff. And we eat really well. Fish usually once or twice a week, loads of fruit and veg, veggie dd, full roast on a sunday.

My dh is veggie so we use quorn mince a lot for lasagne, chilli and cottage pie. I batch cook these and have one meal when freshly cooked, then freeze the rest in portions. I can make enough lasagne for 6 good sized portions for about £5. Chilli and cottage pie £3 for 6 portions, so that's 18 meals for £11. I've also started to make my own garlic bread that works out at 75p per meal and is much better than shop bought as I use real butter, fresh garlic and parsley.
I buy quorn in bulk when it's on offer at any of the supermarkets, Sainsbury's often do 3 for 2.
I also buy steak from Lidl, it's really good quality. As is their bread.
I've just bought Jack Monroes Vegan(ish) book which has some great cheap and healthy recipes in it. If I shopped in Waitrose, I'd be broke! I draw out £75 in cash on a Saturday and that has to last the week for food and sundries. (2 of us) and any left over on Friday goes on a take away. Which is most weeks!
I buy staples such as loo roll in bulk when it's on offer.
I suggest you and your DH do some batch cooking now to stock up the freezer with home made ready meals for when baby arrives, as that's the time you'll be most tempted to impulse shop at Waitrose.

For contingency plan, would work consider a phased return ie part time for a few months?
Also what will you have left of your salary after paying childcare when you do return? As lots of people find their mat leave budget is really the new normal once they have to find childcare costs.

As you're going to be on ML and not working you'll have time to shop more carefully. I used to time my supermarket visits to when they reduced stuff, and visit the market or farm shop (out of my way when working) to pick up cheap veg. It's surprising how much you can save that way.

Make sure you agree regular, paid keep in touch days, you can do up to ten during your mat leave so aim for two a month once you're on statutory pay and that will help top up your income.

I appreciate that you're trying to reduce your outgoings, but I would recommend looking for some critical illness / life insurance. If you can only afford one or the other, go for critical illness cover.

Pre children our food bill for two was around the same as yours, there's four of us now and I spend around £70 a week. Shop in Aldi, plan your meals, batch cook. The savings will add up, a Waitrose fresh pizza is usually around a fiver, you can pick up frozen pizza in Aldi for 69p!!

Do you not have internet or council tax to pay?

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

Interestingly I am a nerd and tested this theory. I did an online ASDA order and an online Waitrose order with the same items. That week the ASDA order was £20 more including delivery (which is free with Waitrose). I find I get things cheaper in Lidl but the meat packs are smaller and the veg is poorer (went off before I'd used it. £110 for 2 adults is on the high side but I don't believe £65 for a family of 4 is possible unless dc are tiny. My 3dc are 12 and 8 and I rarely get a weekly shop under £110.

Sorry, didn't read the whole thread! I think you will be ok if you reduce the amount you spend on food, petrol, car insurance and mobile phones. I know you can't change the mobile phones or car insurance right now but do so as soon as you can.

We are a family of 3. Me, DH and DS 3 years old. We still have to buy pull ups and wipes (currently potty training but DS doesn't talk so it's taking a while). We also have a cat but he goes outdoors so no litter tray. We shop in asda and do top ups of milk, fruit, bread etc at co-op. Including cleaning items, pull ups, cat food etc, I have a budget of £300 a month and we usually stick to that so roughly £75 a week. Taking a cat out of your situation, I think you easily do your food and household shopping on £70 a week which would save you around £160 a month. Cut the phone contracts in half and that's another £40. Stop going to see family twice a month and ask them to come and see you sometimes and save yourself maybe £60 a month in fuel. Then the car insurance, you could probably save £20 on each car if you really shopped about so that's another £40. This would give you an extra £300 a month. That's a lot when you'll only have about that at the moment so doubling it would help you live more comfortably.