Savings for Baby

[Wowthisisreal]

Hi MNers!

Recently found out I am pregnant. We've been thinking about TTC for a while and been putting money away for approx 7 months.

We've got just over 6K at the moment in the 'baby fund' and in my head I want to get to 10K. In my mind this should cover all the things we need to buy and maybe household costs such as food shopping, social activities etc while I am on maternity leave? Obviously topped up with my maternity pay! My hope is DH will be able to cover mortgage and bills.

Just looking for some personal experiences really on how much baby cost in first year, how much people saved, how much it cost to buy everything?

It doesn't have to cost much to buy things, you can shop secondhand, nearly new sales, eBay, borrow things from friends if you have ones who already have clothes (we passed around most of our baby clothes between a few of us). I spent about £300 on cloth nappies (with £70 cashback from council), breastfed and didn't get much equipment bar a pram and sling. I did do quite a few paid for activities with my first DC, less so with my second (my choice to get out of house) but there were free things like rhymetime at local library, stay and plays at local churches etc that were free or low cost.

It sounds like you're talking about all costs incurred from being on mat leave though and plugging the gap between your usual pay and mat pay, not just actual baby equipment. So I think it depends on what your mat pay is (is it enhanced at all by your employer?) and do you have a good local support network for playdates/coffee at each others houses, rather than coffee/cake out somewhere (probably my main expense when on mat leave!).

I basically tried to have savings/mat pay that would equate to roughly half my usual pay every month, but that included me continuing to pay some of it into the joint account throughout. Being on mat leave was cheaper in some ways as I didn't spend on travel/commuting, lunches out or work clothes. It really depends on your expectations of mat leave - babies in themselves don't have to cost loads of money and don't really need that much, and getting things secondhand or borrowing is a good way to save. It's when the childcare costs hit that it starts to ramp up.

Gosh, my DD is 7 months and we haven’t spent more than £1000 on her, including absolutely everything, and as we have a second home we have two of everything including prams. You should save to have a safety net, but I would try and keep it more for the nursery years when you will either have more childcare costs or be working less.

@Rosti1981 I think I am thinking of both - the cost of buying things and also trying to bridge the gap of incoming money when on mat leave.

It's our first pregnancy so I really have no idea and DH is stressing about how to pay for everything. I think my employer does do an enhanced maternity package - I think it is something like 8 weeks full, 8 weeks half and then statutory??

@DameSylvieKrin honestly the thought of childcare costs stresses me out! It's tough thinking that now is the most money we will have as a household for a while!

trying to bridge the gap of incoming money when on mat leave - you will most likely find that you spend a lot less while you are on maternity leave if you currently have a moderately busy social life. You'll likely do a lot less of things like eating out, popping into shops and buying stuff for yourself etc.

I'm single and somehow managed the drop to statutory maternity pay with barely a second thought!

As NewShoes says, we saved tonnes by not going out, no cinema tickets, etc. Slight increase in takeaways and convenience food though.

I used a spreadsheet so I know exactly what I spent on baby stuff and it was £2000 but that was for absolutely everything, including nursery furniture and maternity clothes/ pads/ breast pads & nursing bras. We mainly bought second hand as baby's use stuff for so short a time they were virtually new.

I allowed myself £150 per month in 'spends' whilst on mat leave, plus £30 in petrol and it was plenty. My mat pay didn't cover my half of the bills (DH had a career change whilst I was pregnant so couldn't cover all the bills himself) so I'd saved almost 7k to cover that. When I went back to work I still had £1.5k left, as mat leave was pretty cheap, especially the first few months as I didn't really feel up to going out much.

@Wellthisunexpected that's really helpful thank you!

I talked it through with DH and my thought is that I will try and cover all household expenses - Food, birthdays, petrol etc etc and he will try and cover mortgage, council tax and utilities insurances etc. That means I'll need about £750 per month to go towards household, plus some for myself. Statutory won't cover that but my enhanced should have then what I save should bridge the gap when I drop to statutory.

I've got 10K in my head as an aim to get to. If I have some leftover from that then happy days! But it sounds like it should cover me - if only just.

I think this is a very individual thing and really depends on your current wage, how much it will drop once you go on maternity, how long you plan take off and your lifestyle/ outgoings.

We aren't yet TTC but have already started saving so that I will eventually be able to take a year off. Unfortunately the company I work for only offer SMP so it works out to be quite a drop in our household income. All our money goes into 'one pot' so we sat down at worked out everything that would need to be paid for each month, including our personal spending money so that we know how much we'll need to be able to top up our joint account from savings each month while I' m on SMP, and then again for the last 3 months where we wont get anything.

We're also saving so that we can afford for DH to take two weeks paternity leave without having to use annual leave in order to get full pay. Plus a pot for the big baby purchases (we had a little look online at the essentials to budget a rough amount) .

I could be wrong but once all the day to day stuff is covered I cant really see that it will cost that much extra in the first year, maybe a few baby/toddler groups here and there, but they could even be covered by savings in other areas.

I think the key thing is to sit down with DH and look at everything together so you both know exactly where you need to be and who needs to be paying for what while you are off. I'm a bit of a planner when it comes to things like this and like to know how things are going to work, that way its just one less thing to worry about.

It depends how you do your finances, but we found it much easier to look at all of the money coming in as household money - dh's wages plus my mat pay, we'd manage as a household off that as long as we could each month, then top up from savings at the end of the month if we needed to.

This is a really interesting thread and I think I need to start a new spreadsheet (love a good spreadsheet). As we've been TTC for 5 years I've managed to save enough now to plug the shortfall in income to take 12 months mat leave (helped by employer generously paying enhanced at 6 months full before 3 months at SMP and then 3 months nil). I am wondering however how much we will need to spend on all the essential baby stuff like cot, travel system, car seat etc. I'm clueless as it's our first but think time is on our side as if all goes well bean will join us in January. So bit more time to do more saving and shop around for best deals on stuff.

Reckon we will get some hand me downs as SIL has little ones growing up fast so think we may be able to borrow few bits if after 3 kids they're still in good order. Have to admit though as it's our first I would love to get new stuff.

Great advice from everyone about spending generally drops during mat leave as that's the bit I was worrid about, we eat out a lot and probably accounts for an eighth of our combined income. Then I do also like to shop

I would like on top of our current savings to have a safety net in case something happens to DH and his income is cut too or say we need a new fridge or something like that.

Think I'm definitely going to take the advice on here and do some proper sums.

I am saving enough to cover what I will lose in earnings while on mat leave. I am fortunate that my work pays 14 weeks full then 14 weeks half then statutory for the rest.

Also with baby stuff my parents are buying the travel system, my sister moses basket and stand and other family members bits and bobs thus able to cut my costs.

We have done things as cheaply as we possibly could... All eBay, free from friends and getting hopefully only the bare minimum. Only things we bought new were the car seat and cot mattress as advised by NHS etc. Also spent £200 on NCT which is not essential. We've probably still spent about £1600 (I know some people do it for less than this but I don't know how!). Sounds like you've saved lots to me!

If the 10k is to cover living expenses while on SMP or unpaid maternity leave that is sensible.

If it's just to buy baby things it is wayyy more than you need. They are cheaper than you think. When they get older however.....