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?

Start a side hustle, both of you. You can make £1000 a year without having to pay tax.

Ask friends/colleagues/family if they have any used baby things they could lend you... clothes, buggies etc have been round 4-5 children in our family.

Set up an ebay account /get to know fb marketplace as you can sell any items you buy yourself on there when no longer needed.

And consider cloth nappies, you can hire them - google cloth nappy library, saves loads apparently.

We got a crib (from DSIL, we just bought the mattress and sheets), ds was in it for about a week before we moved him to his cot. He kept banging his arms off the sides and getting upset. We never used a bassinet, we got a sleep mattress for the pram and he napped in there during the day and in his cot at night.

Fancy baby monitor was a waste of time, our house isn't huge and we could hear him fine without it. We could also tell easily if room too hot/cold without a room temperature gauge. Definitely get a cheap duck temperature gauge fit the bath, I needed that!

A friends grandchilds mum has just been advised by hv to stop using the perfect prep as it was giving the baby too much wind, she stopped and baby is much less windy and more settled (but she now has to make up bottles)

Buy adult size furniture for their room, kids stuff looks lovely but is only useful for so long.

Don't buy loads of nappies, 9lb ds was out of the first size within a week and subsequent sizes which we bulk bought at macro we always had lots of nappies left over which negated some of the savings.

Look for the baby events in some supermarkets they have really good deals,
Also try precious little one.com they do some fab bundles. I got a 3 in 1 pram which lasts so much longer a car seat a rocking Moses basket and this cradle that also turned into a rocking seat as the baby got bigger for £300

I paid for everything I could in advance.
Full 12 months health insurance, council rates, car insurance etc so there was less monthly drain on finances.

Sometimes your local NCT group might have a “nearly new” sale which can be a great way to pick up bargains.

We bought buggy second hand and also a jungle gym second hand - the only stuff we really bought new was car seat and mattress etc - stuff which needs to be new safety wise.

Do you have private health insurance? If so, sometimes these give you a pay out on birth of baby (you have to apply) but it can be a handy little bonus.

Books second hand too as they will trash them (from 12 months i mean) and toys second hand too - mine (17 months) just chucks his toys and they break! 😩

We’re trying for number 2 now and I want to take a year off this time if we’re lucky enough. So am currently trying to cut down on food bill (we are also looking to move house - nothing like doing it all at once!) as we spend a fortune on food - so not sure if you can try and do this and save the difference?

I would say cut down on meals out together now but I thibk you should enjoy going out as a couple for as long as you can as it is more difficult when you have a little one.

And def find out how much you’ll get in child benefit and factor that in. Your main ongoing expense will be formula, nappies and wipes (unless BF but the your food bill might be more) and when you wean, don’t buy the pouches if you have the time/energy(!) to prep your own as they really add up. You can make own with a blender/nutribullet really easily - parsnips, carrots, sweet pot, mango etc - so cheap to do and just make a big batch and freeze

We earn the same so had to prepare well when pregnant as no we could half ear earnings overnight.

We cut back early on in pregnancy to get used to spending less
We put money in savings as soon as pay day came so we weren’t tempted to spend it
We cancelled any direct debits that weren’t Necessary
We reduced insurance, and other bills as much as possible
Made do wherever possible with what we had and didn’t buy anything new unless we had to
Didn’t buy baby stuff at all, was given gifts, and then only picked up what we needed as and when
Sold about 90 items on eBay and put the proceeds in savings (about £400)

I won’t be on maternity leave for another month but it now means that with reduced outgoings and just a few thousand in savings we will afford for me to take the full leave.

Money saving tips 1. Breastfeed, saves a fortune 2. Second hand cot, but get a new mattress 3. Don't bother with a changing table, just put a mat on a chest of drawers 4. Cloth nappies (apart from new born as they need to be so small and only fit for 2 months) 5. Cheap pushchair/second hand 6. Find the free/charity baby groups rather than the fancy ones

Use reusable wipes - bulk buy thin flannels/wash cloths off eBay

Get as much baby gear as you can from nearly-new fairs and Ebay.

But the big one for me was I'd gone back to work 3 days a week after dc1. Once I got pregnant I upped back to 4 days a week. Which meant 3 grim months before being signed off sick, but getting paid 4 days a week maternity pay (full pay). So dc1 could still have 3 days in nursery.

Maternity leave gives you flexibility in timing - no commute at peak hours and being able to pick up meat etc when yellow-stickered, not to mention not having to have smart clothes for work, saved me a fortune.

But then most of my mat leaves were paid, so much easier than for some.

@WinterCat

I had 2 nursing bras (£30 each) and wore normal clothes, i fed for over 3 years in total for my 2, saved thousands! I never bothered pumping, they had cows milk in a cup in the daytime from 1

Also people get hung up on weaning food. At six months you can simply use a fork for soft stuff and kitchen scissors to mince tougher stuff. Greek yoghurt makes any meal stick together for spoon-feeding.

Key tip-- don't hang round with the types of yummy mummies who make you feel inferior for not spending a fortune (though many will be lovely and admit its how they are dealing with insecurity or PND).

Cloth nappies are a very environmentally friendly way to save money! We used disposables for the first couple of weeks until DD was big enough to fit into ‘birth to potty’ nappies which should fit her until she is potty trained.
Even cheaper and better for the environment if you buy second hand which unsurprisingly is very common, and you can keep for another child or sell on when not needed. The nappy lady website / Facebook group has advice about different styles. Reusable wipes are also much better than disposables in my experience.
Also the HCPs will listen to you about your concerns around breastfeeding - but they probably will try and see if there’s anything they can do to support you (depending on the nature of your concerns) to try - including making sure you’re aware of the the heal ty benefits for you and baby.

@WinterCat overtime is pretty rare but I'm taking what's offered.

@Brown76 i've tried ebay as a side hussle before which didn't work out, i just do surveys when I can which is a £10 a month if that really, going to try and put more effort in. I m doing a distance learning degree whilst working full time so a bit of overtime i can commit to but i d struggle to time a proper side hussle i think. we won't get uc but can get child benefit i think.

@WeAllHaveWings DH always complains he's cold when i m mostly fine so i m not sure i can tell whether i would know if a room is too cold. Will make sure just to stick to a couple of packs of a couple of nappy sizes to begin with.

@Jellybeans2224
I'd been wondering if 3 in 1 prams were a good buy because they looked great to me so that answers that for me.

@Weenurse I m not sure that some of our bills allow a year in one go but i ll see what we can do with them.

@burntpinky I have a cheap health plan, got it because i needed physio and couldn't wait but it does have a small child benefit to it.
I thought we were doing well on our food bill but I looked last night and realised it's pretty bad so definitely something we can cut down a bit.

we've had to focus on clearing credit cards whilst ttc so we barely have meals out and we just take turns in cooking something nice at the weekend at home so I can go without them and takeways without being too sad about it.

@NemophilistRebel what sort of things did you cancel? I've cancelled netflix and will cancel the tv licence soon, i m out of ideas as to what else I can get rid of as we're both in contracts for our phones and the broadband doesn't run out for a while.

@okiedokieme I'll see what groups I can find, i dont wear anything fancy really so baby won't be either.

@jackparlabane unfortunately my work switched to a very casual dress code so not much savings to be had there. I'll happily get a decent blender rather than buy baby food. I don't hang around with anyone that makes me feel low so i ll stick to it with mum groups.

@PinkDaffodil2 did you find you had a high water bill with the washing needed to use reusable nappies or is it not too bad?

My biggest wastes of money were:

Changing table - £120 - never used
Breast pump - £100 - used a couple of times and hated pumping
Baby bath - didn't use

@1990shopefulftm
We cancelled any magazine subscriptions that were still running, Amazon prime, sky.

Mphomr contracts were still in place but once out of contract reduced the tarrif

@coffeeforone, I m not sure I can convince DH that baby can have baths in the sink otherwise would definitely go without the baby bath.

@NemophillistRebel I've already cancelled Amazon a while ago, will check our contract renewal dates but I think they are when I m on mat leave.

I’d agree with baby bath - waste of time
First stage clothing - everyone gifts these so 6 baby grows was all I purchased in white
Grandparents purchased pram & cot

Stock up on store cupboard food & freezer food
I reckon the first 3 months we just brought bread & milk, eat out of the freezer & cupboards

Which meant the cost was low, but also many meals were easy to jyst bung in the oven to heat, cottage pie, curries, lasagna, fish pie etc. Even if you don’t want to cook them yourself, you can buy a couple frozen each week and add to the freezer - 30 week in you’d have a couple of months of dinners (do this with nappies & you’ll be way ahead) one packet of nappies usually lasts a week

1990shopefulftm

Get your dh to bend over the bath for 10 minutes and then stand by the sink and ask him which is more comfortable 🙃

ASDA do a Moses basket for £30, IIRC, that's absolutely huge and will last most babies until they're sitting up.

Join a local baby buy and sell group on facebook. I have got loads of lovely stuff some of it barely used - next to me cot, steriliser, clothes etc. Its saved us a lot of money. Our girls rooms just have cheap ikea furniture and they look lovely. I'm on mat leave just now and I've cancelled my amazon prime and spotify and I'm not upgrading my phone when my contract runs out.

Op, sorry I wasn't clear, I didn't bath baby in sink. I just used a bath support in the normal bath

direct.asda.com/george/baby/baths-bath-toys/solution-bath-chair/002603114,default,pd.html?cgid=D5M17G1C1

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If you are bottle feeding, the the perfect prep is something you definitely DO want to spend your money on! And formula isn't that expensive...approx £10 a week you would probably spend at least that on extra calories for yourself if you were breastfeeding.