£12k saved, 6 months to go!

[toadabode]

I'm brand new to mumsnet so I'm sure this question has been answered countless times before, but I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how much money you saved for your maternity leave? Since finding out I'm pregnant I've been thinking about this a lot - I want my partner and I to both be able to really enjoy my maternity leave.

I'm being paid 90% of my salary for 6 weeks, then half pay+statutory for 12 weeks, then statutory for the remaining weeks.

Any of your insights/ experiences would be much appreciated, thanks

Why don't you save enough to cover the loss in your wages, then a little extra for "just in case"

Well I'm being paid the same as you while I'm off and I've saved bugger all because of sorting out things for the house, so I wouldn't worry. 12k is loads.

I've also got the same amount to go as you, so I really wouldn't worry yourself.

I just made sure I had enough to cover the gap in my salary for the months I was on mat leave.

Then I got pregnant again before I had chance to save any more so I'm going back to work early!

I'm sure there's a moral in there somewhere- save as much as you possibly can I guess cos you never really know how much you might need.

Surely the savings needed are very personal and relate to your outgoings, your partner's salary (and whether you have one), and your paid leave?

Depends what your non-changing outgoings are, i.e. mortgage/rent/bills. Also can you continue to save for the first 6 weeks you get 90%? Also are you saving for childcare once you return to work?

I took 8 months leave, work paid full pay for 3 months, then statutory for the remaining time, spent c. 5k of my savings. I spent less being at home than i did being at work...i.e. no travel saved me hundreds per month and lunches from home, no takeaway coffees etc. Also breastfed so aside from nappies and wipes my baby didnt cost a lot when so small.
My friend though said she spent more money being at home....she might have gravitated towards the shopping centres in the day.

It’s impossible to say because we don’t know your monthly outgoings, but that sounds like a lot already. I only get MA because I’m self employed so I’m saving enough to cover my half of the bills for the time I’m off. Simple enough to work out but don’t forget to allow for big bills like car insurance or similar.

We are ttc but havnt saved anything -I figure it depends on your situation other half's income ext

Wow that’s loads. I think I saved about £200 😂. I spent all my savings on a car the week before we conceived, I did need it though.

Literally had nothing saved - this was not particularly planned! I’m having my maternity pay averaged out over the 9 months I’m off so get pretty much the same amount every month which makes life easier. I get about £1200 per month. £8-900 goes in the joint account for mortgage, bills, food etc. Leaves me with £300ish plus the child benefit (£80) for baby groups, coffee, clothes etc. More than doable. DH pays more into the joint account (£1200ish) and is left with a similar amount as he’s usually the lower earner. We get by just fine. We can’t afford to splash out much but we have everything we need, aren’t in any debt and can occasionally treat ourselves.

I saved enough to contribute my normal amount into the joint account (for the 6 months out of 12 months that my pay was impacted) and also saved £4K to have as 'my' money - disposable money for the 6 months of impacted pay. At any stage I could take out of the joint / take from my partners wage but I've always been independent with money and with social life / clothing needs dwindling when pregnant / with newborn I found saving easy

Ours was planned and we saved £0! We did finish paying off some of our outstanding debt the month DS was born, which we were paying £1000 per month towards previously (to clear it quickly) and we had run the numbers to make sure we could afford the drop in pay. We also cut our cloth accordingly.
DC2 is due in April, we will have a fair amount saved this time, though not enough to make up my full wages. Again we have run the numbers and will be cutting our cloth again.
It's not as rosy as we would like but then we're not getting any younger, we don't want a huge gap between children and we can afford it, just no holidays or days out for the next 12 months!

We haven't saved anything - we do have savings but they are not for covering short falls in wages. We have though cut a lot of unnecessary spending out of our monthly outgoings (cleaner, car finance etc) so we are hoping that will more or less cover loss of earnings while I'm off 12k is plenty

I’ll have about £5k but our outgoings are very small and I also rent out another property so not concerned.

We didn't save any as spent loads of IVF but we managed, I got 6 weeks at 90% then went into statutory but I started working the odd KIT day from 3 months which topped up my mat pay

We have a 7k shortfall, so have saved that and some more. I won't be able to save once on mat leave, but DH will still save the same amount, so we'll have that too. Hoping to come out with a little left over once I go back to work, but I'm taking a full year off, same pay structure as you and last 13 weeks unpaid.

I'm 27 weeks and we have about 1.5k saved up. To be fair the shortfall won't be massive as DH was promoted a few months ago which came with a pay rise, and our outgoings are pretty small (we don't own a car, not in any debt). Baby was planned.

12k sounds like a LOT to me, though I suppose it depends on what your income was previously and your outgoings.

Entirely depends what your outgoings are, surely?
We didn’t save anything specifically for maternity leave as DH’s income was more than enough to cover everything.

We've saved nothing and have no intention to save for shortfalls in wages, only for baby things.

Given the maternity pay package in place at work, I'll see a drop of £300. Before DP moved in, I paid bills fully, and now I transfer all of his payments towards bills in to my savings, so I will have that as a back fall if I need it.

I haven't saved anything? Surely it is very much down to personal circumstances? Only you know what you and your partner can afford to live off of, so no one here can tell you what's enough (or not). 12k sounds like it would be more than enough to me, but that's based on my personal circumstances, which are irrelevant to you.

I got six months full pay before it went to SMP.

I only saved scout £1.5k, as when I went down to SMP I did ten KIT days which bumped it back up, then used holiday on the end. I went back after eight months though as I didn't want to take the full year.

£12k is loads though, obviously depends on what you normally earn though and how much you need to pay for your outgoings each month.

I think you'll be fine with 12k....

We "got by" on statutory mat pay, then needed the savings for childcare when I returned.

It depends on your budget each month. I worked out how much we need each month to cover bills and then add on 'fun money'. You'd be surprised at how much you don't spend on mat leave. Ive been on SMP since May and have only just started dipping into savings because my car broke down and the heating went.

We didn’t save anything beforehand but as it turned out we didn’t really need to. We have fairly low outgoings and i got full pay for 6 months before dropping to statutory. My husband wanted to make sure he was able to cover mortgage, bills etc in advance of my pay dropping so he did it from day one. Instead of contributing to the joint account like I usually would we decided my wages would cover any extras that cropped up and non essentials.