How do parents manage financially during maternity leave on statutory pay

[Namesnamesnames13]

I’m in a good job, well paid ish, better than average, and I’m on maternity leave and now in statutory pay. I have savings, but if I didn’t have that (not that I wanted to spend that) how does everyone survive! I got £985 this month and my mortgage split in 2 is £1650 plus bills, car, a toddler, nursery fees, and now a baby too. How do you all cope?!

I meant my mortgage is £1650 split in 2 basically all the money I got this month!

The short answer is savings & in our case all of our money is family money so we are lucky that my husband earns enough that his income covers all bills etc. I’m onto the unpaid part of my second maternity leave now so £0😂

I know most of my friends who have had babies have saved up with their partners basically 6 months ish to top up if they knew they couldn’t cover their bills on one salary plus SMP but obviously that 1) takes awhile and 2) relies on pregnancy being planned in advance.

Saving, we adopted, but the same pay, we put me on adoption leave wages as soon as we started the process and saved the excess. It was tough, but it was nice having more funds for baby classes etc when actual adoption leave started.

I saved a sum equivalent to six months salary and used that both times. Then went back to work.

Also you can consider shorter mat leave? I know it’s not ideal but needs must.

If you have a partner, they pay. Otherwise, either savings or you go back to work.

Save and if thats not possible go back to work asap.

Me and DH has a pot of money as we share everything
he was working FT
we cut back massively
some savings
a mortgage holiday for a month
short mag leaves - 6 months with DC1 and 8 months with DC 2

Saved up a bit in advance and returned to work when my daughter was five months old

Savings…everyone gets at least 8 months notice that this situation will arise

The father takes over all bills whilst the mother looks after the baby.

Go back as soon as main pay stops, PT if possible, or see if there's any possibility family can help out if there isn't.

So will childcare costs only be your responsibility OP
you and your partner have a child
time to share expenses
how can your DH let you pay half when you’re not earning 🤯

save and don’t pay half? My dh wouldn’t have dreamed of charging me 50% either time I was recovering from having humans cut out of me and looking after them. Plus you have time to save.

Do you need the child care costs? I know there's a lot of reasons it isn't great to remove them from their settings but if finances are tight with his could be a easy cut.
I knew at 4 weeks I was pregnant I wasn't entitled to anything but statutory so I saved like crazy during mat leave I had enough to make it up to my full time standard wage. I struggled like mad on mat leave it I couldn't have just gone for a coffee whenever or done X Y Z club it would have been impossible.

Savings. Start saving from the minute you think about trying to get pregnant.

Saving up obviously! I wouldn’t have had children if I hadn’t been able to save enough to cover my maternity leaves! Basic common sense surely?

I didn't specifically save for mat leave although I always have a surplus of wages and put it into savings each month. DH and I have one pot and I didn't contribute to bills on mat leave, his salary covered everything and I paid for classes and activities from the joint account.

DH covered everything from the start of my leave.I was looking after our child. He covered everything and more - I was lucky enough to take 13 months off and put our DD in nursery at 11 months (we were moving house hence it was best she went in early!)

We planned it all that way though, if we couldn’t have then I guess we would have just saved to cover my shortfall or allowed my bonus to cover it that year.

Other people just took the 9months leave around us too! Its hard and I do feel for people now, especially with the cost of everything rising

As soon as I find out I was pregnant ea h time I put the amount I would be spending on childcare into a saving account (about £1k a month). I was lucky to get full paid for the first four months of maternity leave leave so did this until then. While on statutory I took out of this pot. Then once I was back at work the cost of childcare didn’t feel such a hit as we were used to it coming out. And all money is family money in our house.

I got 6 months full pay and DH got 3 months full pay 3 months half. We saved in advance but also our mortgage is only £1100 and bills are pretty low.

Same as you would if one of you got ill and couldn’t work anymore. What would be your plan for that? I say this as someone with 2 dc and a serious chronic illness.

We waited til baby 1 was in school so no childcare costs. We rented back then, so paid less than our current mortgage. Dh paid for nearly everything and that used up most of his disposable income. We lived very frugally for a year.

I got 5 months full pay, then we used savings (DH sold some shares) to cover a further 5 months. Went back 4 days a week for 6 months, then back to full time. Only did it once.

Our money is joint and thankfully DP earns much more than I ever did so basically his wages covered it all while I was off. I never went back full time just very part time (DD is 4) so his wages still cover our outgoings but it’s joint money so it’s our money covering our outgoings.

But childcare is expensive and no 30 free hours until 1 so this often doesn’t work.