Saving / Preparing for Maternity Leave

[MyGoldenNotebook]

I was reading the no-spend January thread over in Chat, and among the good ideas there somebody mentioned how they had stocked up on washing powder and dry goods before their maternity leave. Now, I'm beginning to think about when I will start mine at the end of May, and I need to really plan as we don't earn lots of money and my husband's job is a little precarious so I want to be prepared! I have decided to take nine months off (would love more!) but this will be a stretch, particularly the last three months when I will receive SMP only. So ... I was wondering if any lovely MNetters in a similar position could share their ideas :) Up to now I have:

• Bulk buy washing up powder / other pricey cleaning products. *Start buying nappies and formula (only panninf to BF for 6 weeks ... managed 4 las time) each week in my weekly shop now. *Save family allowance in a seperate account for big items like pram (unfortunately the one I had for DS canno be reused)

Any others????

TIA

Boots card check

Need o get a new Tesco club card and actually use it. Do weekly shop at Aldi but always popping into Tesco Metro for 'bits'. Actually, maybe it's that that I need to stop!

Not sure if this applies to you but we decided to take a mortgage holiday for the first 6 months of my ML and put the money for the payments into a savings account for emergencies, as we had absolutely no savings previously. Our payments went up a little once the holiday was over, but not a significant amount, and it was a quick fix for gaining some money to cushion us. It amounted to nearly £6000 in the end. I actually also found that once I was on ML, a lot of money worries subsided and we realised we could live on a LOT less. The first 3 months I still received nearly full pay, but I hardly spent anything because it was winter, snowy and I was exhausted. Then the next 6 months were SMP only and we just tried to live off DH's salary (£28000pa). The last 3 months I got nothing, but we seemed to manage. However, we have now taken the drastic step of moving countries in order for me not to go back to work, as DH gets a better wage where we are now. It's only temporary though!

I got mountains of newborn size baby clothes as gifts. I would keep all the tags and labels on clothes you get given. I got bought lots of really impractical and tiny things for DD. It was very useful to be able to take them back to shops and swap them for bigger sizes later on.

I second naturalbaby regarding the cotton nappies too. Saved us loads of money. Bought the Mothercare own brand ones and they were fairly cheap and worked well.

Im buying nothing baby clothes wise as my friend had a baby at Xmas and was given LOADS. By the time im due in April, her son will just be moving into the next lot of clothes and I shall be having the cast offs. We dont know what we're having but neither did she so everythings neutral coloured.

I bought my pram on ebay when I was about 10wks. May seem early but it was an unbelievable bargain. Its £800 worth of as new, including an unused car seat for £100. The exact pram I wanted in the exact colourways, couldnt believe my luck - its definately worth keeping an eye on there.

After all my Christmas shopping I handed over the card for my CB account to my Mum with instructions not to return until my ML - I only ever use this cash for 'stuff' and shouldnt notice its loss. Will give me around £400 to use for my first 6 weeks of ML when I'm on the reduced 90% wage.

Be aware that stores like Mothercare and Babies R Us will price-match, so if you find the price of a bargain online, print it off and they will match it instore.

Have you signed your Boots advantage card up to their Parenting club? You get double points and a free changing bag.

Also Pampers 'New Baby Welcome Pack' has loads of good freebies in it.

Thats all I can think of, but am keeping a close eye on this thread - we're being very frugal with this baby, I think its very easy to get caught in the trap of thinking you need loads of things you actually dont!

i will be on Mat leave from Aug and i am getting xmas cards/paper/sale pressies and bits now in the sales for next year!

MyGoldenNotebook - you asked about keeping a journal. I do...well, a spreadsheet. My DH made it for me when we realised we had no idea where all our money went. I log EVERYTHING that goes through our account (one joint account so easy). We do almost everything by card. And then I allocate it to different sections: cars, clothes, gifts, going out, house stuff, bills, debts, etc. It was v interesting to see where the money goes.

We then decided to try and stop the £10 or £20 withdrawals that went down as "petty cash" and we could never remember where the money went. So we are given a cash allowance each month. We decided on £50 and this is for anything extra. So all lunches/coffees out, unnecessary things like another necklace or eyeshadow, etc. Really makes you think whether you need it.

Having said all that, haven't even given a thought to how we'll manage financially through ML! I'm the bigger wage earner too. Will make some notes and bear in mind the mortgage holiday....could be a get out of jail card!

Op I wouldn't buy lots of formula because there is no guarantee that your baby will settle with what you have chosen, and baby milk is non returnable so no chance of exchanging it. Nappies can normally be returned and exchanged so defo buy these as well as talc etc!

I also plan to pay off as many bills in advance so my outgoings will be reduced, ie council tax, water rates, car tax. Then strict budget as soon as off even if full pay so can spread it over the 12 months. Don't forget to account for child benefit and tax credits in your incomings, and another tip if you already claim tax credits, make sure you work out next yers salary on what you will earn whilst off instead of based on this years, it'll make a difference :(

therumoursaretrue Have you checked to see if you will be eligible for Maternity Allowance as you are self employed? There's info here

If you've worked for at least 26 weeks out of 66 in a set period, and you've earned more than an average of £30 a week for at least 13 of those 26 weeks, you should get something - either £128 a week or £27 a week if you have a small earnings exemption certificate for your NI payments (from what I can tell)

Worth looking into anyway :)

Hi Flisspaps, thank you so much for the link,will definitely check it out!

I knew there was some eligibility for self-employed women but wasn't sure if I would qualify as I only work a little between uni. My student loan plus what I earn working barely supports just me at the minute so have worried how we will do when I am not studying/working plus a baby! Even £27 a week would be better than nothing so I will definitely take a look into it and see what the criteria is. I have worked every week for about the past 2 years self-employed and although only a couple of hours each week, it would still be over the £30 threshold, so hopefully I will be fine for Maternity Allowance.

Always thought being self-employed was a gift but having an employer must have it's advantages when it comes to sorting things like this!

If you are entitled the there is only one form to fill in, you can download it with the info on how to fill it in and send off with your MATB1 which you get from the midwife :)

I'll put a link up later when I'm on the pc

The thing I am most worried about, more than the actual birth; more than being in charge of a real human non-cat thing is MONEY.

Or the lack of. We've been struggling financially for most of 2011 and found out I was pregnant beginning of decmeber. Despite being a wanted pregnancy, it was very much a shock.

Am also worried that I might have to go back to work earlier than I'd like because of finances.

Flisspaps that's great, thanks so much for the info.