Maternity Pay & Savings

[LittleLamb93]

How much did you save before going on maternity leave? Was it sufficient? Do you think I’ve saved enough?

I am the higher earner in our household and when I go on maternity leave, I’ll lose a significant amount of money. I plan on taking the entire year so I have saved the difference between my current salary and the amount I will receive in maternity pay.

My outgoings are significantly less than my earnings but there will be all sorts of costs to account for such as the pram, cot and I’m sure I’ll want to get out and about over that year too.

I appreciate this is a “how long is a piece of string” type question but your educated guess will be more accurate than my uneducated one!

Pram etc is joint expense
You know your income and outgoings
What about your pension contributions?

Pension will be paid for the first 9 months but not in the last 3 months (is my understanding).

I would cut the mat leave to 9 months or less. As the higher earner in the household, you need to split the parental leave with the other parent to protect household earnings, surely.

What do you mean protect household earnings?

Maternity leave can be really cheap if you want it to be. Depends what you want to do with your time really

Saved £4k, didn't touch a penny!! Just spent loads less, bought second hand, and enjoyed free church playgroups, free coffees via apps/rewards, shopped on Vinted... I did have a very nice mat pay package though (high NHS band)

I didn’t use savings. My husband had to cover what I couldn’t. If this isn’t possible then you need to work out how much you will be ‘down’ and work out an amount you need to save together. It’s a joint responsibility! I found that coffee/ classes/ baby accessories did add up to quite a lot (for instance formula is expensive, nappies, endless different bum cream -spoiler Sudocream is the best- trying out differ bottles, different tog sleeping bags etc…) it wasn’t as cheap as I’d expected but I could easily have cut down.

I think that’s the bit that feels unknown. I’ve never had a baby before so can’t predict what I’ll want to do with my time.

I’m also NHS but was under the impression it’s SMP only for majority of the mat leave!

saved about 20k used maybe 10.
i took the year off, last 3 months was unpaid.

I get 6 months full pay, 3 months statutory. I saved the extra so those 3 months statutory were equivalent to my salary (less joint expenses which my wife covered). I then last minute took an extra 2 months unpaid, funded by my remaining savings (it was tight but actually really fine) and my wife once again covered our joint expenses. Finally I took 1 month of annual leave which was a nice paid month at the end! My quality of life didn’t change but I appreciate that I have the luxury of good MAT pay & the opportunity to save. I had just had 3 rounds of self funded fertility though so swings and roundabouts!

We can easily afford bills on the one income plus SMP but it’s the other bits which you mention that I’m not as certain on! I can see how easily it is to get carried away with bits here and there!

Was that £10k spent on things for baby/ trips out etc or did it go towards bills too?

That is fantastic!! Lovely that you were able to spend so much time with baby.

Oh, also. To save some money maybe book some classes or something as you’re breaking up from work/still on full pay? I booked baby sensory for 6 weeks PP and was glad I did. The instructors are franchise so you can always message and ask them to move you to the next term if your dates are a bit off by the time baby is actually born. You can spend as much or as little as you want when you’re off really, including on the additional items you mention. Second hand saves loads, especially for the trial and error items.

Have you thought about shared parental leave? You can take it in chunks and even have it off together. In my experience it makes so much difference to your future dynamic. The father has time to bond solely, experience having to do everything for the child, and see how it feels for your spouse to go to work whilst you stay at home. Everyone I know who has done this says it’s the best thing they ever did. It was great for us, we are equal parents, take equal responsibility for household stuff and childcare, and both of us respect what the other does.

I will be honest, no I haven’t because I think I’d like the whole year off! Selfish I know. DH would absolutely love this opportunity though so I probably do need to look into this more.

We are both reducing hours to 4 days after the year and he’s also using a larger chunk of his leave for the first few weeks. I’ll definitely look into parental leave. Had no idea you could be off together!

Everything we needed for my eldest first year cost us £1000 in 2020. We bought nearly everything second hand and I have just had my second and it is still all in good condition and would do more children after we have finished.

This time around I'm on maternity allowance and haven't worked since I was 8 weeks pregnant. There's minimal extra spending. Heating bill is up as is electricity as we are cloth nappying and given the weather the tumble dryer is on more. I do a baby music class which is £5 a week. I'm looking at a baby and mum pilates class, and a baby massage class.

We generally are a low spend household, so this hasn't changed with having children. We buy second hand because of waste and environmental impacts. I have a friend with a baby 6 months older than mine so we get his clothes each time he out grows them. My son is a similar size to my daughter and 1 month apart in terms of birth month so clothes are for similar seasons.

The budget you need in part comes down to what sort of spender and socialise you are

8 weeks full pay, followed by 18 weeks half pay if you meet the nhs threshold plus SMP. Then SMP alone up until 39 weeks (there or there abouts, I forget now) Then it’s unpaid. But lots go back at 10/11 months and use accrued annual leave to still be off.

I didn’t save anything either time (both times 8a but second time was 0.8WTE). Husband made up short fall after SMP/unpaid as needed for activities etc.

I think my biggest expense was going to Costa for a walk a couple of times a week!

Your employer contributions should continue at their normal value during all of your leave.

Check that you won't be entitled to UC in the last few months if your partner is on a low income. I was and that was £300 for 2 months.

I’m also 8a so this is reassuring! Thank you for sharing.

Coffee shops are already my weakness 😂

Thank you! I assume the 9 months/ 3 months information I read was my own contributions. Thats also reassuring!

I am not sure how UC works but I don’t think we would be entitled to anything. We are not high earners by any stretch but not low either 😊

Don’t forget you can arrange KIT days which are paid as well if you can be bothered - bit of top up. And don’t forget you carry unused leave over from this year and use what you want next year.