Did you cope financially on maternity leave?

[HforHavana]

Currently pregnant with DC1. My biggest worry at the minute is finances and how we will cope when I go on maternity. At the minute we are both on decent salaries, but I don't know how much/if we will struggle once I go on maternity.
We are still at home currently and looking to move out before baby is here, so new house with all bills plus maternity pay, is this a recipe for disaster?
My rough estimate shows that after all bills are paid, we will be left with approx £400 per month but in reality, it will probably be less than this.
It's hard to get a figure as we don't have a house yet so hard to do the sums.
We won't have much savings as we currently have some debt we would like to pay off before baby is here.
Is £400 (maybe less) enough to live off after bills and shopping with a new born in a new house? Or will we need more? If it helps, we are in the north west so not London prices!

Will you be entitled to anything benefits wise?

I think the baby bit will be fine but will be the childcare costs that isn't unless family will help?

Interested to hear the replies as me and DP are planning to start ttc soon although we own our house and have quite a bit left over, but unsure how much we need to realistically save

Surely the starting point is what your maternity leave package is from work?? The statutory minimum is 6 weeks at 90% pay then it's up to your company whether they pay you an enhanced package? (I get 12 weeks at 50% pay which is actually pretty rubbish) or it's the SMP of £150 per week

Then there is how long you want to take off on maternity- I'm the main earner so have to go back at 20 weeks (I had twins)

I've had to draw on about £1k of savings whilst I've been on reduced pay but to be honest could have cut back further

Only you will know if £400 a month is enough - lots of people could live on that

You won't get Any additional benefits - child benefit only and you don't get that if either you or your partner earn over £50k

£400 after bills and shopping? So literally £100 a week to spend on fun stuff? Yes, you will be fine...!

I can’t comment on your specific finances, but one thing I thought worth mentioning is check if your employer offer any benefits, for instance my employer paid my pension contribution whilst I was on MAT leave, so I ended up being better off than I thought I would be, and my tax/NI payments were lower because of less income coming in. I also had my tax recalculated halfway through the year to take into account my new “income” and received some back, that’s hard to predict but timing of when you go on MAT leave could affect that.

We worked it all out on a spreadsheet (maternity package, savings, costs) and had to wait until we could afford the baby which was a good few years later than ideal but we knew we had no family help

You can claim child benefit if neither of you earn over £50k, that's a bit over £20 a week for a 1st child and can help.

Tbh you'll manage because you have to, tighten your belts where needed dropping some luxuries and try to bulk buy now to get you through maternity if you can. We were on a low income when I was on maternity with our 1st (we were only 19 & 21), we had debt too which made it harder but we survived and baby thrived. We're a 1 income family now with number 6 due and a dog but financially a lot more comfortable than back then.

If you have not found a rental yet, you can just make sure you rent according to your means, by which I mean your maternity pay.
We have a tiny house which I bought by myself when we were first dating, so I know I can run the house on a single salary.
So no I am not worried about finances even though DH and I both earn below average, as we are not consciously not allowing spending to expand to meet our current income!
We’ll have a bit less than you ‘spare’ a month, averaged over a year off on basic/SMP, but I anticipate saving a wedge of that tbh.
Plenty of time for a bigger, fancier house once future DC are in free childcare hours.

I only get SMP, so since we were TTC I’ve been saving to top up my income during mat leave. Unfortunately DH lost his job during covid and has had to take a minimum wage job so we can’t afford for him to make up my difference to the joint account. After I’ve paid my half to monthly bills I’ll be left with approx £200/month for myself which is more than enough.
Obviously it will be more difficult for you to budget as you don’t know what your outgoings will be. As others have said, it’s just a case of omitting some luxuries (meals out etc). Once you’ve got the big baby things (ie pram) babies aren’t that expensive. It’s definitely a good idea to get your debts out of the way first though. Don’t panic, you will manage no matter what.

I’ve hardly spent anything on mat leave. I calculated how much my pay would be & saved enough to give me my “normal” salary each month, but haven’t had to touch my savings yet five months in.

In my experience, you just make it work. We had v little spare cash when I was on maternity, but we got through it. A few things helped:

• we stopped spending money on going out/pub/cinema because y'know newborn!
• child benefit (every little helps!)
• giving direction on gifts so we didn't have to buy much
• reusable nappies and wipes (with free voucher from the council)
• going to free baby groups/activities
• secondhand Moses basket and cot (we bought new mattresses)

You need to work out:

1. Exactly what your income will be on maternity pay.
2. Whether you will receive child benefit.
3. Where your money is going at the moment. It doesn't matter if the new house will change it or not, because you want to differentiate between essential spending and optional spending - as well as get a rough idea of how much you might spend in a new house (e.g. you must know your budget for rent from the houses you're considering). Go through your bank statements from the last 6-12 months to work this out.

Then, do the following:

1. Cut back on optional spending NOW and put the extra money in a separate account. Use this money to buy baby things that you NEED and as a float while you're on maternity leave. We found we spent a fair bit on convenience food - the baby wasn't expensive but we were!
2. Immediately get over the idea that baby needs new everything and the best of everything. The baby will not notice . Get everything you can second hand, and don't buy brand name nappies or baby food or whatever.
3. Rejoice in your newfound frugality and keep going with it when you go back to work! Save up an emergency fund to give yourself options in the future.

Thanks everyone! My contract is just standard maternity pay but I may try strike a deal with my boss (fingers crossed). Some really helpful tips here which I will take into consideration. Everybody always says 'you just do it' but I am a organiser who likes everything in place waaaay before the actual event 🤣

Organising and planning ahead is a great skill, I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Personally I am quite motivated by a budget and making do. For example, getting out with baby every day, I know I will not be motivated by fresh air and exercise so much as checking local shops for the daily reductions to keep the grocery bill down!
I think it’s easier to live cheaply when you have time, as PP have said it’s the convenience items that really add up.