Surviving on maternity pay

[mayse10]

Hello mumma! How has everyone managed to live on their maternity leave ? How long did you take and how did you handle bills! ❤️💗💕

Well me and my husband planned beforehand. We worked out that all bills could be paid from his salary. We didn’t need to cut anything. We invested sone of my maternity into pension to ensure o didn’t lose out. We also planned for the following 5 years in terms of knowing we could afford to pay for childcare when I went back to work

unfocussed question

We saved as much as possible before leave to help survive when on SMP. I took 7 months all in.

Took 10 months maternity leave, full pay for 18 weeks, and we saved like mad people during my pregnancy to cover the shortfall between my salary and SMP for the remainder. Spoke to HMRC and got my tax code adjusted as I’m a high rate tax payer and the way my mat leave fell, I was earning under the basic rate threshold for the year which helped with the savings.

Not much else you can do really, either one salary can cover the necessities or you save in advance.

We saved for a year before our eldest and 9 months before our youngest. It's amazing how much you can stop spending and saving when you have a definite date you need the money by.

We looked over all expenses and cancelled anything not needed or a luxury. Created a budget for each month on what maternity pay was coming in as well as savings and then DH added the short fall from any 'extra leisure' money he would usually have otherwise.

I took 10 months first time and 12 months second time. I got 3 months full pay then down to SMP.

I still managed a few baby groups and a bit of spending money each month (we made sure to budget that)

Used some savings and bills were paid by DH

Saved a lot, bought inexpensive baby equipment, didn't spend a lot and went back after 17 weeks with my first!

I had longer off with my second but it wasn't a year like lots of people have now.

Took 6.5 months with my first and 9 months with my second
only got statutory pay both times and absolutely couldn’t afford to take a year with either of them
we had no holidays, reduced outgoings and took a mortgage holiday or two
DH was working FT and we got by

op - you may be eligible for child benefit so do check

I didn’t come off LARC (long acting reversible contraception) until I knew I would be able to support a child alone, including maternity leave and childcare so I could go back to work.

Luckily (?!) my partner is a decent guy and combined with reasonable maternity pay, it’s looking like it won’t have a huge impact on our finances.

We were married so obviously we shared everything. We were lucky we could manage on DH's salary, but if we couldn't we'd have saved beforehand and cut back expenses where necessary.

If you aren't married it's more complicated.

We saved beforehand and set up a joint account to pay all bills as soon as there was a discrepancy in earned income as a result of childcare. All of earned income was treated as both of ours.

We adjusted what me and my partner put into our joint account for bills according to the amount I was getting on maternity pay. I was getting a bit better than statutory but below full pay.

I was made redundant in Feb and my partner is currently paying the majority of our costs. I'm pregnant and will only qualify for maternity allowance in which case all of that will go into the joint account and my partner will pay the rest.

The cost of having my daughter for the pregnancy and the first year - pram, car seat, clothes, cloth nappies, classes, my maternity clothes, breast pads and pumps etc only cost us ~£1000. The energy bill possibly went up a bit as I was home all-day and we were keeping the house warmer than usual. She had allergies so I was on a special diet that probably cost us a little but more but I saved £100 a month as I was no longer commuting, socialising costs reduced from a few drinks maybe a meal in the pub for both of us to a coffee and a cake for me. This meant we broadly knew what costs we had to cover and were able to ensure we had it covered.

When you have a baby you can spend £1000s and £1000s or more modest amounts.

Universal credit on top of SMP, savings for the 3 unpaid months.