How to cope on Mat pay? savings vs paying off debts

[essexanon]

hey guys

im having my first baby- due July. Not planned for those that will say "well you should of planned better", I was told getting pregnant naturally was going to be extremely difficult but hey ho, here I am 9+6 after DTD once :-)

im panicking over maternity pay and how we are going to survive.
DH earns a decent wage- but not enough to cover all bills.

I earn a decent wage, but maternity pay will cut my earnings by nearly 75%.

Due to decent wages, we are entitled to no help, but unfortunately our mortgage and bills are high.

My question is, in the upcoming months, do I Pay as much off as possible on my credit cards, around £7000 or do I save as much as possible so that we can survive when im on maternity leave?

if I pay the debt, DH still cant afford all the bills but it will help.

If I pay the Debt, the shortfall on bills is still around £50 a month, this doesn't include food.

@Ariela He is currently looking for weekend work as he wants to start driving lessons, him driving would help me too when I cant get out for a food shop etc, at least he can do It for me.

@Caspianberg ive looked it up, You won’t need to pay back statutory maternity pay or Maternity Allowance, if you don’t return to work.

I only get statutory maternity pay.

Oh op remember you'll be able to claim child maintenance which is £80 a month

Have you looked into shared parental leave? We did it because my wage was higher than DH's and we could live off my wage & savings, but couldn't live of his wage & savings. I took 6 months (luckily first 20 weeks were paid by my company) but DH had 4 months off too. Might be an option?

Can your nephew not take 2 sandwhiches and other stuff from home? I don't think he would need to re-heat food to have lunch at college.

Just a thought if you were looking to reduce your outgoings. Looking at the range of debt you have I think you are more comfortable with credit than me! You may have to reconsider though if finances do get really tight.

@giveherhellfromus not everyone is entitled to that sadly, depends on your wage. You can claim it but then you have to give a portion back at the end of the year if you earn over a certain amount. We were only just over the threshold at the time and had to give 98% back so it's pretty worthless claiming it in the first place, we don't bother now.

@Constantlurker I know that because we're not entitled but based on OPs incomings it looks like they should be

@giveherhellfromus ohhhh sorry I didn't realise that. Gotcha!

@Constantlurker to be fair if her DHs earnings are much higher than hers they might not be entitled actually, because they'd surely be claiming for her nephew

I don't know why I assumed their earnings were fairly balanced

@Constantlurker we earn the same so sort of pointless sharing leave.
@GiveHerHellFromUs I will look into that thanks
@73Sunglasslover yes he could, but he would get bored really easily of eating 3 sandwiches a day, and for me to do different fillings and more snacks would still be circa £20 a week anyway.

@GiveHerHellFromUs we don't claim for nephew, we get no help towards him at all. but I haven't looked into child benefit so maybe were missing out on something already.

I really think you can do sandwiches for less than £20 a week. Besides which you say he already takes 1 so you'd only have to fund 2 out of the £20 a week. My kids get bored of sandwiches too but I'm not putting their school lunches on credit. Living on a budget can be boring! It's your choice though. Eating out is usually more expensive and that's then money you can't spend on other things. We all set our own priorities.

I think you might be able to claim child benefit for your nephew

And obviously you will be able to claim child benefit once your baby is born

@73sunglasslover agreed, I think its a bit more difficult when they are at this age, hes 17 and all his friends go out every lunchtime to eat, this would isolate him in a way and as a kid that really struggles to make friends, I don't really want to take this away from him too. I give him no pocket money etc and he doesn't ask for much, if hes desperate and needs clothes, he literally is happy with primark. most 17 year olds get a lot more than £4 a day lunch, if he every gets bday or xmas money, he uses that which I don't feel like he should but he says its ok. I take lunches into work daily, so does DH so that we can give him £4 a day, he is our priority too.

@NeverTwerkNaked im definitely going to look into this tonight. thank you!!

#essexanon I think what you are spending on your nephews lunches is reasonable and not really the problem. You aren't particularly frivolous based on those bills (save for an astonishing amount on Sky) but you have a very out of control level of debt. Make sure you are claiming all the benefit you can but then please look into how to tackle the debt.

thanks @NeverTwerkNaked yes the debt is higher than we would like, I think im going to pay off the £7k before mat leave, at least then that's a good chunk paid off so when I go back to work, im not working just to pay debt and childcare. whilst on mat leave, DH is going to do as much overtime as poss whilst im on mat leave to help. Family I know will send food weekly too so hopefully we wont starve lol.

DH's debt Is 1 credit card which is interest free for 3 years, he only pays £400 a month now because we can. he will reduce that when I go on mat leave.

If he's still in FT education and neither of you earns more than (I think) 60k individually you're definitely entitled. It's something like £20 a week for the first child then £13 (I think) for the second.

thank you @GiveHerHellFromUs this is something I think we have missed out on until now, so will get on it tonight x

Have you looked into the snowballing method for clearing debts? If you and DP saved £1000 for emergency's to try and avoid more debt. Then pay minimum amount on all debts except the smallest amount (ignore interest) until it's gone then you can use the money towards the next smallest etc. May be trickier when you have a baby on the way but should reduce your joint monthly out goings. The other debts that are left once you have baby could be combined onto 0 interest and just pay the minimum amount while on leave? This is something I constantly worry about. Currently TTC and desperately trying to clear our debts as I earn more than DP and want to go on maternity.

@tootiredtoclean yes actually this is what we are doing. The £7k over 2 cards is the smallest of the debts which I should clear by July. Then it’s just minimum payments on the others whilst on mat leave.
Some with interest and some are interest
free.
It’s so hard isn’t it, DH has said he will do as much overtime as poss from now on, so hopefully we can put away £1500 for emergencies on mat leave. Xx

@essexanon I prefer the snowball method over doing the highest interest first as I feel like I'm slowly getting there. Although, every time I think we've almost got the first one cleared (the credit card) I end up needing to put something else on it so I feel like I'm not getting very far where we have limited savings. I'm getting rid of my sky in March when the contract is up to help things out!
I think I'm going to have to use the keeping in touch days to increase the maternity (once I get that far).
£7K by July will be amazing.

Op I consolidated my debts on 1 loan over 2 years at 209 a month. This meant monthly outgoings were less and in less than 18 months will be debt free now. This has helped me save for Maternity

Glad I could help :) even if there's not further cut backs to be made that extra bit will balance out the money that you're missing to cover your bills by the time mat leave comes around!x