How much did you save before going on maternity leave?

[Penguinnnn]

(This might not be the right place for my question)

Starting to think about finances and wondering what people have saved for their maternity leave? I.e. if you take home £2000pcm but bills are £1000pcm, have you saved £2k, £1k or something different?

We didn't save anything extra. We had our usual buffer of 3 months expenses in a savings account but we just made cutbacks to budget for living off dh's wage plus my maternity pay. It was for the best anyway because nursery is such a huge expense that we were no better off once I went back to work, so it was a permanent readjustment rather than a gap that savings could bridge if that makes sense?

Do you and your DP assuming you have one have joint finances? You shouldn't be covering the whole cost of mat leave yourself would be my first thing.

Bills are not the only necessary expenses so you collectively need to be sure you save enough to cover all of those.

That definitely does make sense. I am the higher earner so have felt the need to save something but bills could be covered on DH’s salary alone so maybe I’m overthinking it.

Yes, married and have joint finances but I’m the higher earner so my salary drop during maternity leave is dreadful!

We worked out what DH would be able to afford to pay on his salary, then our outgoing would be. We then saved the short fall between what was left and mat pay. It was joint saving so DH also contributed to the saving plan too. I also added a bit extra for baby activities (swimming, sensory etc) . I think it worked out about £3-4K in total.

Could you share parental leave? If he's the lower earner maybe it makes sense for you to go back sooner and him to take some time off?

I think it depends what you're including as bills. What about stuff like food shops, presents, transport etc?

What is your plan for returning to work? I had savings but I didn't plough through them to continue contributing the same amount as finances changed when we became parents. I returned to work part time after mat leave and on the days I worked baby was in nursery so our funds changed as a family.

This is the plan 😊

Everything (meals out included). I have a spreadsheet - I know where every penny goes 😂.

The plan is to go back full time as we plan on having another baby fairly soon after 🤞🏻will re-asses before any decisions made by I’m not exactly a young mum!

,,, nothing. just adjusted to our means and ensured our COL was manageable on one salary if needed

You can use the mortgage charter to reduce mortgage payments for six months this really helped me!

We didn’t have the money to save anything, was basically on full pay for 6 months then SMP which equivalent to about 2/3 my net pay, then nothing for 3 months then 7 weeks back to full pay (accumulated annual leave). It did leave us with some debt but was worth it to not have to go back to work until DD over a year old. With our older DD I’d gone back to regular KIT days at 6 months and then back properly at 9 months but ended up leaving work completely by the time she was 12 months as just too overwhelmed so ended up worse off for years!!

Sounds like most people just get on with it and live a bit more frugally - I am clearly overthinking it!

It depends on your situation and how income is split in your family / what your maternity pay is like. I’m the main earner, and I get very low maternity pay, to take 9 months maternity leave we’ve saved 10k.

It just depends what your situation is, will
your maternity pay and husbands income cover the essentials anyway? If only just about and can afford to save the it makes sense to save a bit now so can have a bit more comfort later or less debt.
we couldn’t afford to save so didn’t