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?

Our water bill has gone up by maybe £5/ month - some of which will be the cloth nappies (we wash every other day) but also we’re doing a lot more laundry generally - especially now weaning.
Also I put the nappies on a rinse cycle to get the worse off, then add clothes, towels etc to their main wash so try to be more efficient.
If you’re interested the council might give you a voucher or pack to try them, there might be a nappy library nearby and the nappy lady website / fb group has a lot of info. It’s a bit confusing at first as there’s loads of styles but makes sense once you start.
Also fb market is great for a bargain - we got a £180 Ikea cot plus bedding for £20!

If you have space, start to stock up on non perishable household items now - toilet rolls, washing power and so on. These can take up a significant amount of a weekly shopping budget so having a stash of them before you start the reduced pay can make a real difference to the overall household finances (as an example, if you have a Costco membership they often sell 40 toilet rolls for a tenner which is much much cheaper than supermarkets sell them for - but it heavily depends on you having the storage space)

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.

Don't forget bottles and teats, steriliser and all that gubbins. Which you don't need in breastfeeding (though many do choose to have if they're expressing). In breastfeeding's simplest form though, just add boobs.

Also, I loved our baby bath. Was free second-hand from a friend and are fairly easy to pick up cheap anyway even if you've not got a friend doing a clear-out. Saves money, time and the environment on filling up a whole bath to the right level to use a bath support (unless you want to invest in a bath divider).