How much would you save for Maternity Leave?

[SweetBabe]

We’re hoping to start TTC soon but want to be as financially secure as possible (within reason). I’m 25 and my husband is 24 but I am concerned about it taking a while/ potentially needing assistance. I’ve had some tests in the past to indicate that may be the case.

Our take home pay is £4K combined and all outgoings including mortgage, council tax, food, toiletries, pet insurance, tv licence etc is £2.5k. We currently try to save the extra but do occasionally spend some of it e.g. since we just bought a house we needed a few bits of furniture.

We currently have £12k set aside but this is the total amount of savings we have. I would ideally like to have a buffer that we don’t dip into.

I get 6 months full pay, 3 months SMP and 3 months unpaid. At this point I think I would like to take the full year. I get a pay rise in September which will increase my take home by around £200 which I will definitely be saving the whole of and I’ll just pretend never happened.

In May we managed £700, June £1000 and July we’ve put away £950

Would you crack on with these finances or wait? Should I wait until I have the funds saved for IVF incase I do need it so there’s no delay? My BMI is currently 28 so doubt I’d be eligible on the NHS so I’m working on getting that down also. But then why wait as it may happen without assistance?

Also I do appreciate we are fortunate to be in this position but we have worked hard and we’re trying our best to be sensible. We do not drink alcohol, we don’t eat meat, we don’t gamble etc. I know there are others that work just as hard and also abstain from drinking etc but are struggling at the minute.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I'd crack on. Remember while you're on full pay, you can continue saving as you are now (might have some baby expenses, but won't have commuting/ work expenses).
= your financial maternity leave is 6 months (3 months SMP and 3 months unpaid).

Depends how much your husband contributes to that £4k. If it's split evenly (for sake of argument) & he is £2k, you only need another say £1,000/ month (£3k total per month to live off) to keep you going (you don't need to contribute to savings while you're on mat leave!) . SMP + child benefit is around £800 I think. = £200/ month x 3 months = £600

Then 3 months unpaid, you'll need say £1,000/ month = £3,000

= total you'll need to save = £3,600 (and you'll have the first 6 months of ML to be saving this as well. At a rate of saving £600/ month, you wouldn't actually need to save anything before baby comes...)

So if you're fairly disciplined/ keep living how you're living, I think you're in a great position!!

Of course, you might like to save a bit extra so you can have more than £3k/ month to live on, or to buy more baby bits, but I think you're in a great position. Work out how much you want per month & do the maths there <3

Good luck with TTC!

In all honesty you have a brilliant maternity package and that side of things will likely be fine. I found that during mat leave my costs went right down. The issue really is when you return to work and childcare. I’d run the numbers on those costs and understand how you’ll manage childcare as well as the manner leave period.

@anonhop So I earn more and have the more secure job but also the more difficult job (think health care). I take home £2.2k, he takes home £1.8k but he’s in the final interview stages for a job that pays £2.3k so fingers crossed he gets that. He’s other got interviews lined up for a role that offers 15 weeks full paternity pay and take home would be £2k and another role that pays £2.7k but he’s only at the first interview for that.

I spend £30 approx a month on petrol, he spends £150 a month alone to park at work. So his fuel and parking would reduce by approx £200 also. Some of the roles are also WFH/hybrid and we currently spend £350 on a dog walker which we wouldn’t need if WFH. Obviously I appreciate I might need it if he’s in the office and I’m at home with a baby so won’t count on being able to drop that.

I’d also say crack on.

My maternity leave package is identical to yours and I’m currently in my third month of full pay. I work full time but will be going back 3 days per week so we’ve saved enough to top up my SMP/unpaid months to the salary I’ll be on when I go back 3 days, this will be our test run for when I go back to see how we manage on that salary. (We’ve also got some extra as a buffer) I’m still saving every month right now and did during my pregnancy too which adds up. We didn’t really start properly saving for maternity leave until we started TTC so you’re in a great position.

Don't forget to save your pension contributions to keep paying in during mat leave. That's a joint expense.

I had the same maternity package as you and didn’t save anything.
If you’re in the NHS you also have to opportunity to split the payments equally over a year.
You won’t need to pay for a dog walker when you’re on maternity leave which will save £4200

We shouldn’t need it every day but if my husband still works where he currently does he only gets the minimum paternity. I appreciate if I need a section I might not be up to walking a young large breed dog straight away with the baby @ChickpeaPie I don’t want to be relying on it and would rather have at least some of it available still incase we send him to dog walker/daycare etc

But yes, if I was on maternity and my husband changed jobs we could hopefully save £500 straight away which is huge.

I think you're fine to TTC! If from now, you put away £550/ month into a dedicated maternity pot, you have at least 15 months of that (9 months pregnant + 6 months full pay) = £8,250 even if you got pregnant straight away.

If you take home £2.2k/ month but are saving £550, you'd need £1,650/ month to maintain same lifestyle during ML. 3 months SMP say is £700/ month. You'd need £950/ month for this to top up your income.
This would deplete your mat leave savings to £5,400.

Then 3 months unpaid, where you pay yourself £1,650 from savings = £4,950

Leaving you with £450.

That's assuming your husband doesn't increase his income, you only save £550 a month (seems you could save more), your costs don't go down on mat leave (they likely will) and you get pregnant straight away (you likely won't, which only increases amount of time you can save for).

I know that's a lot to follow, but just a worked example to show you're absolutely fine! Things change + if you waited until you felt 100% financially secure, you'd never do it. Important to be responsible, but you're in a great place so if you both feel ready, go for it xx

Would you mind explaining this to me like I'm 5 please. Humanities teacher FYI not Maths 😂

@Teacherprebaby I think when you are on unpaid maternity leave you don’t get any pension contributions

That definitely makes sense @anonhop
I just didn’t know if I should save to account for maybe not going back full time/ if we wanted a little break away. Or for items like travel systems etc. We own a 2400 sq foot house but current have one sofa, one bed etc the place is bare (hoped to fill it by increasing family size). We have a large dining table with 10 chairs and some armchairs/ desks / wardrobes but would I want a specific chair for nursing in for example? I’m a bit worried about risk of falling asleep so may go for making the bed a safe space and feeding there according to lullaby trust recommendations… but then do we need a separate for my husband to make sure we’re definitely safe?

I’m worried there will be big spends I haven’t thought of. We both desperately want to start a family but we also don’t want to have a family and realise we can’t support them sufficiently. For example; a family member just had a baby and baby groups and swimming come to £100 a month. I had not considered that at all. I understand that’s completely optional and you can cut these costs but if we have the opportunity and we enjoy these activities I’d like to have the option to do them without worrying

Yes - we have paid the same amount into my account as I would have received in salary contributions.

So if you get £200/£400/£600/whatever per month, save that to add to your pension in the months you're not receiving any.

I suppose if we save £1000 a month (definitely doable with my pay rise) then we will have at least £12k. If my husband changes jobs, even to the same pay but one with free parking then that’s £150 a month extra, no dog walker makes another £500 a month extra. If we decide I’ll drop hours it needs to work long term not just because we have a small buffer of savings. Then the savings we already have can be back up for major house things we need instantly, other less urgent items can be budgeted for and bought when we have the funds.

Thanks everyone, this has really helped!

*no dog walker AND no parking makes the £500

@SweetBabe I completely understand, but most of those things are optional/ non urgent. Eg, you find you want a nursing chair but you didn't factor it in. You can get one cheaply on marketplace or save for a month or two. It wouldn't at all ruin having a child.
I think you're right that managing on PT wages needs to be sustainable & not funded by savings (unless for example you're hoping to pay a chunk off mortgage to reduce monthly payments etc, but doesn't seem like you need to do this from your post).
You'll be absolutely fine!! X

Sounds like you’re in a great position.
Also, don’t forget you might be about to do Keep In Touch (KIT) days- with such a great maternity package it makes more sense to do these in the unpaid part of Mat leave which will boost income.
For most places you also accrue annual leave whilst on maternity- often you can use as a block to add on to mat leave (so basically extra time off on full pay) or use to split to go back part time but full time money. Just some extra things to consider, but will only improve your (already very well thought out) position :)