HELP!!!!!

[Newmum395]

how does everyone that is self employed do it?
I’ve been working long enough I will (hopefully) get maternity allowance. But I used all my savings to put into the first year or so of business so I have next to nothing!
DP has a decent paying job but I wouldn’t like to expect him to pay for everything!!
business will need to stop all together when baby is here for as long as it takes to get child care!
Panic Stations!!!!!!!!

What does your business do?
I’ve been self-employed through two maternity leaves. First time I just had SMP and took six months off. Second time I had work I didn’t want to lose so got cover for eight weeks then went back to work very part-time.

My work is from home on a laptop though, so it was doable with a baby in a sling. They sleep loads when they are little and both of them were at nursery/childminder from about six months old.

For me, being self-employed has been massively useful over the years of having small kids since I (and DH who is also self-employed) could always take and pick up from school, work less in the school holidays and go in for the very many primary school events/special days. But it really depends what your business does.

Use a benefits calculator to see if you could get Universal Credit.

You may not but since they increased the work allowances and reduced the taper it's surprising how many people do and/or are better off than they were on legacy tax credits.

I’m not entitled to much if anything sadly

Why should your partner not cover the cost of things?

If it's in the short term? Say 8/9 months, you can either save up the maternity allowance to plug your savings hole, or just use it as income for the baby.

He's equally a part of creating the baby, so has he been equally saving? Putting money aside each month to cover the cost of time off?

Plus, presumably if you were working you would need childcare, and you will be saving a fortune on fees for childcare by being on maternity leave so you can just redirect that money into bills.

I do understand some people dislike the sentiment of partners paying for everything, or feel it should be equal or split in some way based on income, but given all you will be doing for baby I don't think it's unreasonable for greater financial contribution from your partner.

In my house my partner covered all bills, and then I used maternity allowance to pay for baby classes, lunches out, new baby bits and bobs and monthly food shops. When I'm back at work this will change back to contributing towards bills, based on my income and also how much childcare I do.

Well without stating the obvious, you either save more before having a baby, go back to work sooner than you'd planned, or DH picks up the slack.

There's no big secret unfortunately. The same would be true if you were employed.

You and your DP are a team now. You need to budget as a team.