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?!

Cutting your cloth accordingly. Expecting not to have it all. Mortgage free very quickly due to basing it on one income not two so it was paid off very fast (DH got lots of overtime offered to him years ago which helped clear it quickly). Had a large family due to this. Only one family car. I have always stayed at home. DH goes out to work.

The problem with a lot of this is couples wanting to maintain a wealthy lifestyle when they have to change their outlook if they want to enjoy raising a family without added financial stress. Accepting you have to make a lot of sacrifices is the only way IMO.

It's the childcare once your back working I found a killer. The amount I was earning wasn't much more than childcare so had to make sure we could afford to live on 1 salary already.

Took only 8months off with dc1 and managed alright with dps income and a little help from parents and in-laws. Dc2 I decided to take dc1 out of nursery to be able to not only accommodate them both but with no nursery fees to pay it worked quite well tbh. Fortunately I was in a position when I returned back to work it was Covid and we was able to get free childcare in the sector I worked in and because I’d worked the pandemic we then got reduced childcare afterwards which worked quite well until dc1 started school. Then we relocated and actually lost our jobs due to this and had to start from scratch again

Your partner contributes more.

Pooled all our money.
Lived very frugally.
Mortgage holiday - interest only for 6 months.
No other holidays!
DC1 only went to nursery for funded hours when I was in mat leave with DC2.

Family planning. Only doing it when you can afford to.
And not faffing about and actually going back when paid leave ends.

You save up beforehand.

We had kids before we bought a home and lived in subsidised housing so it was very cheap. I had enhanced maternity pay but if I hadn’t we’d have been fine because of the housing. We only saved for the bits we needed to buy baby, not for loss of wages.

It's no use telling OP to save up if she's on maternity leave now!

OP, As your household income has dropped, have you checked if you're entitled to any benefits? You can use an online calculator like this one: Benefits Calculator - entitledto - independent | accurate | reliable

Can you get an interest free credit card and pay it off when you go back to work?

Could you talk to your bank about a mortgage holiday?

And, yes, as PP have said- Have you had a proper chat with your DH about fair distribution of money within the relationship?

One that I can see hasn’t been mentioned is Shared Parental Leave. It’s a separate bit of the employment contract/handbook to paternity leave, and we didn’t realise until someone told us (just looked at the paternity leave section, which wasn’t very generous) Eg in my company men get six months full pay if they do shared leave, same for my previous company. My partner had five months full pay with our first child, and almost three months full pay with our second at a different company. A lot of our friends have done it and there’s some element of full pay, be it eight weeks to six months. So it’s worth looking into it. A lot of companies have equalised their shared parental leave across men and and women for equality reasons

My oldest is a teenager and I things were less expensive then, so mat leave was more manageable. We saved up, bought most baby items second hand and had handmedowns, etc.

DH picked up some extra work, KIT days were good for some income, and getting your accrued holiday pay towards the end of mat leave. I'd be selling things on Vinted now.

Savings and an employer with a decent maternity package.

Realistically, the day before you go on maternity leave is the day you have the most disposable income you are going to have for a good few more years to come.

So, if you aren't in a position to have savings, you probably can't afford to have a baby.

Who looked after the baby though? For me at 7 months earnings less nursery fees was less than SMP so really no point going back to work.

We managed because all our money is joint, when we had our first we were still splitting everything in 2 which just wasn’t feasible or fair anymore. If you want to continue that way I’d at least ask for the equivalent your partner will be contributing towards in childcare when you do go back to work as how is it fair you’re supposedly providing that for free while you’re on leave and still splitting bills in 2????

in the 1970s/80s paid maternity leave was 6 weeks after birth. I saved up enough money so I could have 3 months off (this was the NHS) I was nursing,ex h worked nights I worked days, and visa versa.. ended up loosing everything on divorce including the house. The mortgage rate in 1988,was 16%. Already knew second h,he didn't have any children,my last chance.. he was made redundant 5 times in 8 years. I went back to nursing. I didn't intend to, but it meant there was no childcare bills.. when my 2 DSS were young, the hospital had a crèche,probably rata to your salary. They went there in the school holidays and loved it. We didn't have holidays or car. I had a bicycle with a seat for my ds from a toddler.

Yes it is a bit of a juggle depending on your situation. My first was looked after by my mum sometimes or my DH as I often worked nights.

Second started nursery at 7 months old 2 days a week as my DM got diagnosed with terminal cancer.