Things you did when pregnant to make things financially easier on mat leave?

[1990shopefulftm]

I've only recently discovered i m pregnant so have plenty of time but want things to be as low stress as possible when the time comes, we've cleared our credit cards and have a couple of loans but should still be able to afford the minimum payments when I'm on mat pay and we do have a £1k emergency fund and about 1k saved for the actual things we'll need to buy before hand for baby.

Just wondering if anyone had any tips of things to do now to make things easier financially when baby arrives?

You can spend a fortune buying for a new baby, there is so many ads convincing you you need so many things, all the little spends really add up, it is only later you realise most of it really wasn't needed, the baby didn't care about most of it, or could be bought quickly if it was. Keep an eye on Gumtree for second hand, but again dont buy things that are clearly not needed.

Start saving now.

@WeAllHaveWings anything imparticular you'd say they try to market as a must-have but you don't actually need?

I'm planning on getting second-hand clothes for the baby and second hand or at least the cheapest maternity clothes possible I can find, probably ikea furniture if its any good.

It's difficult to know how much to save, we could overpay our loans but I suppose it's better to have as much in cash as possible before mat leave.

I worked out how much I was going to make over the whole of Mat leave - I got full pay for three months, then 3 months 50%, then 3 months stat, then nothing. I then divided it by 12 and paid us an "allowance" every month.

So say the first 3 months, I got £2000 a month, we only spent £400 of that (can't remember exact figures). This meant we had less money every month than when I was working, but could plan on a stable income for each of the 12 months.

Save save save!

Also don’t stash things like wipes and nappies...it’s pointless as there’s always offers on and everyone has different brand preferences.

Don’t need-
A changing table- you will end up changing nappies everywhere BUT the changing table believe me.
A baby bath!! TOTALLY UNNECESSARY! Just use a basin and then the bath.
Kids sized furniture- biggest con out there!!
Cot bumpers- not necessary and they are also only for show as they are dangerous!
LOADS of clothes- nope just buy the essentials and leave the rest for when you NEED to buy them!

Nearly everything that is marketed for a baby you don't need (some of it is good to have but there is very little you actually NEED).
Look on Facebook marketplace etc for stuff and remember you can always buy stuff after baby is born (and that people might buy you presents!).
I would get some clothes in various sizes (accept offers of hand-me-downs) and a bassinet or similar to put the baby down in (we bought an expensive next to me but it turned out the baby slept in our bed...). We liked our pram too but you could get by with just a sling. It's really as expensive or cheap as you want it to be. I found IKEA stuff good.

@sar302 I know I ll only get statutory throughout and DH gets full pay for paternity pay.
@Lipperfromchipper
So just a few packs of wipes and a couple of different sizes of nappies then buy more when they arrive.
@Lalapurple do the bassinets last a while or is it worth a second hand one?

Work out how much less you will be receiving in pay during maternity leave (take any mat pay/ statutory pay into account) and try your best to save the difference now.

We calculated my earnings would be around £1000 less/ month when on statutory pay- we saved £4K, which meant we could afford 4 additional months of Mat leave, after my full-paid leave ended (I get 18weeks full pay in my job) It's not easy, but really worth it if you can do it- it means you don't have to change your lifestyle at all when you're on maternity leave or stress about how the bills will be paid or be forced into going back to work sooner than you'd like

Several years back I bought this book from ebay for about £1.50. Full of useful tips on must haves and what you should buy new as opposed to 2nd hand. Its 9yrs old now, and there might be an updated version, but still very handy tips:

Babynomics: Moneysaving tips for smart parents Paperback – 17 May 2010

Breastfeeding saves a lot of money !!

@you0401, it ll be about £800 a month difference I think, so if i take the full year, i 've accepted there'll be some lifestyle changes but there's only so much left we can cancel/give up to free up money as we got rid of a lot when we bought our house a couple of years ago to clear debt. I suppose I won't fancy going out to places much for a while.

@Elouera i ll see if i can find it somewhere:)

@LovingLola i've got plenty of time to think about it but i m leaning towards not doing so, won't be buying more bottles or feeding gadgets than neccesary though.

@OP yes, just buy as you need and look at offers at that time.

I would echo that there’s so much good quality baby stuff that you can buy second hand. I bought a lovely rocking crib, mothercare, got it for £30 from Facebook marketplace and think cost about £100 new. Nursery furniture same, got a mamas and papas set from eBay about a fifth of the price (eg maybe £200 for cotbed, wardrobe, drawers), and again pram system from eBay for a fifth of the price. Facebook marketplace I think is fab as you have to go and collect so can see quality when you collect and you don’t have to buy it! Honestly so much stuff on there so you can save your money for what you really need to buy new (eg car seat, mattress). Also see if there is a specialist children’s charity shop near you, they can also be great (we’ve recently given a load of stuff there that’s been grown out of). Good luck! :)

If bottle feeding, lots of people have perfect prep machine which is much better than making up bottles with boiling water then waiting ages for them to cool... but the alternative is to do your own version - all the perfect prep does is put some boiling water onto the powder first, then when you’ve mixed that up, add cool (already boiled) water. So if you can work out what proportion of hot to cold water you need, you can just do it yourself! (I think I remember with 7oz bottles it was 1oz hot water then 6oz cold). Imagine you could google, or start a thread in baby section asking someone to check for you?

@Happyelfjokeday
there are a lot of local charity shops, not sure any are specialists for children but i can certainly look in them often. I have wondered if a perfect prep machine is worth it or not but i would certainly consider sorting myself.

Don't bother with the perfect prep. Can you make a brew? If so, you can make formula!

We got a lot second hand Like Moses basket, crib etc. Most of the time when I pick them up, ppl say their baby hardly used it as they outgrew it by 3-4 months etc. Same goes for prams

Only thing worth buying new is car seats and cot mattress

And honestly breastfeeding really does save a fortune. And no bottles to wash

Don't buy stupidly expensive furniture sets for the babies room. Cheap IKEA furniture is absolutely fine.

I do disagree about not using a changing table though, I had a CS and the changing table was an absolute life saver as the bed was too low and I couldn't get down on the floor to change nappies and couldn't sit comfortably on the sofa to do it. I only got the cheap £25 Snigler IKEA one and ended up using it until he was out of nappies. I still have it for DC2 too. They do a cheap cot in the same range but I don't know how good it is as we were given a cot bed. You can get a Moses basket for relatively cheap - we got lent one but barely used it at all.

Don't buy loads of clothes and cute outfits. Your baby will probably live in sleep suits for the first few weeks/months and as soon as you put them in a cute expensive outfit they will shit/sick on it.

The most expensive thing I purchased was the pushchair and car seat but I went for good brands and still have both for DC2.

We got a lot of stuff from Aldi in the baby events so keep an eye out if you have a local store. We also used their nappys, wipes and baby food and snacks.

@managedmis that answer's that, I won't bother with them :)

@babychange12 I'll see if what I can find 2nd hand certainly don't want to waste money on something that only lasts's 3 months.

I'm going to talk to my midwife about it nearer the time but my mum had an awful time of it with my half-sister and my step dad didn't help with feeding her milk whatsoever for the 2 years she had breast milk which is really putting me off (14 years age difference between us so i can remember her experience)
I was ff and my sister has autism and a couple of other health conditions so i don't know how much benefit she got from it. I've got dyslexia and dyspraxia so i do know learning difficulties could be in my genes anyway.

You've plenty of time, so start looking for discounts/bargains on the expensive stuff like prams, car seats, child gates, changing bags/mats, nappies, wipes, clothes, etc. It's worth buying stuff months sooner if it's on offer rather than paying full price when the time comes you need it.

Can you do overtime or get an evening/weekend job to earn and save a bit more while you can before later stages of pregnancy?

@1990shopefulftm sorry, not to make this about bf because it’s absolutely your choice, but breastfeeding lowers the risk that your child will get various infections like ear infections, and also any sickness bug that goes around (as they get your antibodies), and possibly also childhood leukaemia, but it has absolutely nothing to do with autism or learning difficulties so the fact your sister has those and was bf is completely irrelevant.

@user1497207191 i m a bit concerned if i buy a lot of wipes or nappies and the baby ends up being sensitive to them but will get the rest earlier in the 2nd trimester if theres a good deal.

@HarrietM87, i have a lot of other reasons I m not comfortable with it which I will discuss with a midwife or a health professional but i m anxious they ll refuse to listen to me anyway.

Like a PP, I calculated how much I was going to lose in salary on my mat leave. I worked out how much I would save in fuel/parking while on leave, and took this off the total. I also took off the monthly amount that we usually save for holiday / rainy day savings (so no holiday that year), and also what I’d get in child benefits once DD was here. What was left was the amount I aimed to save prior to mat leave. This meant that once actually on mat leave we were in exactly the same position financially as during my pregnancy and there was no stress. I could enjoy my leave and we still had the same disposable income as normal - though we spent less anyway as our previous meals out and leisurely afternoons in the beer garden were few and far between! To save up what I needed to save we worked out how much childcare was going to cost once I was back to work and we put that away every month from as soon as we started TTC.

Go to your nearest ‘posh’ town and go to a car boot sale. Get everything you want for buttons.

Breastfeeding saves a lot of money

I spent a fortune on bras, suitable clothes, extra calories, pumps etc. I’ve always suspected it was far more than £8/£10 or so a week on formula.

OP, can you do any overtime now?