Money worries- Maternity Pay

[Dolly89]

Hi Everyone.
I’m currently 4 weeks pregnant and it’s just dawned on me about how we will cope money wise! My partner and I were due to get married in October but due to COVID we postponed to next October. We decided to use most of what we’d saved to do up our house as we figured it could be postponed again and we have waited a long time! However ow I’m pregnant I’m starting g to worry how we will afford everything! I’ve worked out I can put £400-500 away for maternity savings but my partner would need to his own money away for the wedding! Just feel a bit overwhelmed. Anyone have any words of wisdom?!

I'm sorry, it's not quite clear from your post what you actually have - you've got money saved for a wedding, and money saved for renovations? And you can save money for Mat Leave?

If i were you i would...

1. Get the renovations done ASAP. Massively regret not doing the house up before we had a baby. Building site & toddler don't mix.

1. Get married, even if it's just a registry office quickie. You may need to shelve the big wedding for a few years.

1. Save as much as you can of both of your paychecks while you're still working.

1. Consider parental rather than maternity leave, so that you both get time with the baby and you can get back earning sooner.

1. Register for a nursery now if you intend to go back to work. Places fill up bonkers fast, my first choice was booked up 2 years in advance, and it's expensive, so you'll need to save for that too.

How much do you need to save for the wedding now? Can you downgrade some of it if you need to, or are you in contracts?

I worried about this same situation, so we cancelled when our May wedding couldn't go ahead, and got married last Monday instead. It was very different to the original day, but very fun and I wouldn't change a thing. We might do a party next year for the people who couldn't come, but the way prices seem to be going, I think we'll leave it a bit and we want kids 🤞

That doesn't really help if you're keen to get married next year though. In that case, I'd sit down and work out how much you are bringing in, how much you need to save for maternity and how much for the wedding. Then talk to your partner. It might be possible to still achieve everything if you go back to work earlier, maybe, or if you can make some parts of the wedding cheaper, or if you push the wedding out another year... And make sure that you're aware of any benefits that you'd get, I don't think there's much but it's worth knowing.

Congratulations on the pregnancy!

Thank you both for your reply! Sorry I wasn’t clear. We used the money that we had saved for the Wedding to do jobs for the house- which I’ve waited a loooong time for! I guess I’m just worrying about money in general as now we need to start from scratch essentially but we’ve got until October next year so?!?

Hi... I have some money worries aswell, Iv just started a new job so don't qualify for any maternity pay... even statutory.... however I am entitled to £27 a week from the government as maternity allowance! No Ideal and so frustrating considering I've worked since I was 15 (now 30)! Family and friend have been helping to buy big bits for the baby but we are just saving as much as we can from wages... any other ideas let me know... help from government isn't exactly anything to live off! How to people on the dole get more money?

You need to work out how much maternity leave you want to take and what pay you will get during that time, plus any benefits you will get e.g. child benefit. Then you can work out what your income will be during that time and compare it to your current spending to see how much you need to save.

You will also need to budget for expenses such as travel system, cot/crib, baby bath, changing mats, clothes etc but a lot of this can be bought quite cheaply second hand or might be gifted to you by family e.g. my parents very kindly bought our travel system for us.

You’ll also need to think about childcare costs if you are planning to go back to work, and whether you are going back full time or not.

Once you have worked this out you will know roughly how much in total you need to save up, you can then put any savings above this amount away for the wedding.