Mat leave, mat pay- what’s yours like? How will you cope?

[Sleeplessem]

Hiya,

I’m pregnant with dc2 due late next month and the reality of mat pay with another child has just hit me like a tonne of bricks.

DD is in nursery 3 days a week, will want to keep her in nursery at least 2 days for normality and a bit of a break for me tbh. She’ll be 26/27 months when dc2 arrives. Dc2 was unplanned. I’ll need to take the full year due to childcare costs, the last 3 months and the smp is scaring me.

I’m lucky where I work does 6 months full pay and 3 smp and the last unpaid. Hopefully I’ll get a bonus too. But I’m barely saving as is. DC1 I got less mat pay 5 months, but obviously less expenses and lock down meant spending less.

How does everyone else cope? Hit me with your best budgeting tips? Xx

25th Nov here!

I only get smp which will be a shock as I'm a high earner. Have been saving since i got my bfp. Ds will go down to just morning's at nursery instead of full days until his free hours start in April and we will go to local playgroups instead (£2 including snack - win win). Baby 2 will have to use all DS's stored stuff.

I've done a spreadsheet which estimates all of our costs and income for the year of mat leave, then I know how much we can spend month to month, understand whether we can afford that takeaway this month and don't risk running out in months 10-12. As long as the car doesn't break down . . .

Am also thinking of signing up for some survey sites during those middle of the night feeds.

I signed up to prolific and Neevo which was quite good!

@T0rt0ise can I just ask about why you are doing it like that? My understanding was whatever you put in you only get the 20% up to a certain amount and so any additional funds you put in would not qualify for the top up?

6 months sounds like a better deal than I have 🙈 I’m a teacher. I have 3 months full pay then 6 months of smp then nothing for the last 3 months. I find it crazy that people who don’t want to work can sit at home getting free money and everything paid for them when I’ve worked all my life and just need a year to look after my baby but don’t get a penny the last 3 months 🤦🏼‍♀️ How is it okay for us to live off nothing?!

I'll be on the same type of package as you (due day before!), but my work has given me the option to take the full total for 9 months (6 mths full + 3 mths SMP) and spread it evenly over however many months. So I'll get less straight away but it's a lot more even and I'm hoping to manage it much better like that. I'll also tack a month of annual leave on the end, so 10 mths off in total.

Could this maybe be an option?

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend so that it's out of my account and doesn't get spent! I could put the extra in a savings account and then transfer it in later but as the interest of the savings accounts are basically zero anyway it's easier just to transfer it into the government account so there's a pot of money in there to be drained when I don't have money coming in.

@T0rt0ise

Yeh that makes sense I was just worried for you if they don't top up the extra money you've got sitting in there.
Good idea :)

I think whilst I’m on full pay dd can stay in nursery as is but when we got to smp will need to cut her days.

I disagree with this on the basis of you can actually SAVE the money you'd pay on nursery whilst you are on full pay, which will make your life much much easier when your SMP drops / money stops coming in. Forward planning and saving in advance is what helped us - saving when we had the money, and not planning to save and cut back when we didn't have it (if that make sense!)

You need to cut your cloth. You’re getting SIX MONTHS FULL PAY to be at home with your baby. Having your older child still in nursery is an absolute luxury and totally unnecessary if you genuinely think you’ll struggle financially. 3 days a week nursery must set you back at least £600 a month? That’s more than a lot of peoples mortgage payments..

@sarah13xx for goodness sake you’re a teacher. Surely you realise that those people “sitting at home doing nothing” aren’t living the life of Reilly? The benefit system as a joke! UC is dropping by £80 a month and fuel prices are basically doubling. I’d really like to see you get by on the bare minimum and perhaps show a bit of empathy.

Glad you’re not my children’s teacher, hate to think you were judging us while I “sat at home doing nothing” when my DC initially started school

@YerAWizardHarry

You need to cut your cloth. You’re getting SIX MONTHS FULL PAY to be at home with your baby. Having your older child still in nursery is an absolute luxury and totally unnecessary if you genuinely think you’ll struggle financially. 3 days a week nursery must set you back at least £600 a month? That’s more than a lot of peoples mortgage payments..

What's your point about comparison of mortgage payments? 🤔 Our mortgage payment is £1400 and childcare is £864 I still want to our Ds into nursery because that's his routine, we have seen a huge step up in his development and he likes it there. I wouldn't want to take him out fully. :/

Check your partners policy at work. A lot of places have changed shared parental leave for men in the last couple years. My partner checked his and gets 4.5 months full pay - we were really pleasantly surprised

Alas no, the Midlands! But I do have family Sterling way! XX

Sorry if I'm being dim here. You mentioned your daughter is a September baby so assuming she's just turned two? You mentioned her free hours starting in the new year but I thought it was the term after they're 3?

My DS is 27 months and his free hours won't start until September 2022.

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7

Check your partners policy at work. A lot of places have changed shared parental leave for men in the last couple years. My partner checked his and gets 4.5 months full pay - we were really pleasantly surprised

DH gets 2 weeks pat leave which sucks. But he’s wfh and will use some hols. He’s the higher earner so it wouldn’t make sense for us to take a hit on his pay pack.

Everyone who has mentioned nursery they are right it’s £600 at least. I think I’ve gotta keep her in at least the beginning then maybe drop a day. I can’t take her out all together as she loves it and has come on leaps and bounds, i mentioned higher up I really struggled with the newborn stage so it’s a little worry I’ll struggle again. Honestly that feeling was just so horrendous I do want to limit that as much as possible xx

@BlueberrySugar

Sorry if I'm being dim here. You mentioned your daughter is a September baby so assuming she's just turned two? You mentioned her free hours starting in the new year but I thought it was the term after they're 3?

My DS is 27 months and his free hours won't start until September 2022.

It’s probably me, assuming people just get what’s going through me head lol.

Yeah the little love just turned 2. I meant she can get free hours in the new year (but 2023) after ive done a full year mat leave. Im taking hols to tide me over from nov 2022-jan 2023 and then I’ll go back to work. Does that make sense now?

Oh! Yes, I get it now.

For a second I thought my DS was going in too late for his free hours 🤣

@sarah13xx

6 months sounds like a better deal than I have 🙈 I’m a teacher. I have 3 months full pay then 6 months of smp then nothing for the last 3 months. I find it crazy that people who don’t want to work can sit at home getting free money and everything paid for them when I’ve worked all my life and just need a year to look after my baby but don’t get a penny the last 3 months 🤦🏼‍♀️ How is it okay for us to live off nothing?!

Are you sure? I'm a teacher and got 4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90% and then 12 weeks 50% then SMP. It sucks. I remortgaged my house to afford to stay off for 8 months

I'm just finishing mat leave and agree with @Hunkydory99. We reviewed our spending,m and made a budget for the last few months when I stopped getting paid so that I could take the full 12 months. Wish we'd done it sooner instead of frittering money! I wouldn't wait for your pay to drop OP, maybe work out what you'll earn over the 9 months, divide it by 12 and then try to figure out a budget from there. Wishing you and all the other manas all the best as you try to figure things out x

@freshFortunes where are you? I’m in scotland, primary teacher. Seems to be 90% I think they say rather than full pay for the first 12 weeks but I’ve just had my first month of it and I got £400 more than usual. Just trying to save every penny I can just now to see how bad it gets later on

For any of you with an older child who will be two or older, have a look at school nurseries. Some take from two years old. They usually are term time only and for both self fund & funded hours work out much, much cheaper.
I moved my eldest (who was three so I got fully funded 30 hours) when I was pregnant and cost just £15 for lunches a week, doing school length days. It meant I got to see my eldest more during mat leave as we had late afternoons and holidays together, saved money and meant he had friends he went up to the reception class with.

Also check your OHs shared parental leave pay. In my DH current job he gets full pay for 6months which is waaaaay better than my organisation’s maternity pay. So would make sense for him to take some of the baby care if we had another baby.

@VavavoomHenry

For any of you with an older child who will be two or older, have a look at school nurseries. Some take from two years old. They usually are term time only and for both self fund & funded hours work out much, much cheaper. I moved my eldest (who was three so I got fully funded 30 hours) when I was pregnant and cost just £15 for lunches a week, doing school length days. It meant I got to see my eldest more during mat leave as we had late afternoons and holidays together, saved money and meant he had friends he went up to the reception class with.

Yes that's what we have done. Applied for DS to go to the school nursery. It's much much cheaper than nurseries and can do his funded hours without having to pay extra on top like other nurseries 🤦🏻‍♀️.

So impressed with/jealous of all these mat leave packages. I get six weeks full pay then statutory. I'm pregnant with my second, have a four year old and a co-parent, I live alone and get some contribution but not a lot. So I am currently attempting to save 1k a month and will also claim universal credit to top up the statutory mat leave pay once it drops to 150 a week. It's gonna be shaky! If I have to go back to work early I will but hoping to take 10 months then all my annual leave in one go.

Shorter maternity leave was the only way for me. 3 months with each.
Statuary maternity allowance, so the worst package going.