Whats happens when you become pregnant

emma_nottingham

Hi to all you DFW,

Have been doing really well. An endowment policy just matured allowing me to pay off my two overdrafts £900, essentail repairs to my car £600 and my university fees for this year and next. Leaving the major problem personal loan £24,000 at 6.9 %. Starting saving towards repaying this £350 so far and been overpaying £60.00 per month on my mortgage.

However I can kiss all this good bye as I have just found out that im pregnant. This is of course great news and we are delighted but how on earth do we cope with me being off work followed by even more nursey fees.

My husband is a great with money in that he doesnt spend it, but still we have no savings.

Any idears on how to solve this one

Emma

Wonder_Girl

Isn’t that what child benefits are for? Also don’t you get a lump sum for baby? Have you checked what your going to be entitled to? http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1047513100,1583,

And congratulations :beer: :j :T

Mrs_Sparkle

Firstly, congratulations Emma!

I am 19 weeks into an unexpected but welcome pregnancy and can only give you my actions so far:

-buy maternity clothes from eBay in bundles. I've got nice stuff without spending a fortune
-get cloth nappies- my council gives a grant of £50 towards them and they will save me a fortune
-use cheap damp flannels for wipes when at home rather than expensive baby wipes
-not for everyone but I'm limiting my maternity leave to 15 weeks. I just can't afford to live on £108 a week...
-join the Boots parenting club- you get lots of freebies and 500 advantage points. The freebies include a booklet of free vouchers for pampering and make-up for you, not baby
-have a look at the National Childbirth Trust's website where parents sell used clothes, equipment and toys
-I've heard that Primark is great for cheap packs of muslin squares- I've yet to buy these myself
-accept all offers of stuff you haven't got. You will be amazed at what people will offer you- people are very kind with old baby stuff. It's all worth having as baby stuff doesn't get heavy use- except you should buy a new car seat and a new mattres for any cots/moses baskets
-start buying as soon as you reach 12 weeks. I've been buying things when I see them on sale and on eBay and now have a drawer full of clothes and almost enough newborn stuff

Hope that helps! C x

emma_nottingham

Thanks for your reply. Im full time employed so all im only entltled to child benefit which will be about £40.00 pm and I can have child care vouchers from my employer (NI exempt ) which will save around £14 pw. My maternity pay will be statutory which will be about £105.00 pw. This is around £250 pw less than my earnings so really we are stuck during my maternity leave and dont have any savings to cover it.

chevalier

First of all don't panic! If we all waited until we could afford a child there would be no human race:D

Have a look on https://www.freecycle.org. I regularly see baby items on offer on there, and they are free! You just have to go and collect them (and join the local groups in your area which is free too)

Secondly have a look at Ebay for clothes. Do some research. If you are not a label freak, then you can get some really large bundles of clothes for a few 10's of £'s rather than 100's.

Start looking at nursery/childminder provision now! Some areas have very little child care provision and good nurseries therefore have waiting lists. I gather that child minders can be cheaper than nurseries, so that maybe something to consider. Or perhaps you could ask parents/aunties to help out with childcare (ie doing it not paying for it).

Also ask about nursery voucher schemes at both your places of work. You can both apply and this would be a big help. And if they don't have the scheme in place yet, then you have some time to 'help' them get it organised, so that you can then benefit from it.

If you are on low incomes, then you can apply for additional benefits.

Best of luck
chev

emma_nottingham

thats great thanks. luckily I have all my maternity clothes from last time and most of the expensive items but will certainly look at clothe nappies and ditching the wipes. These cost me a fortune with my first baby.

southernscouser

Your tummy and boobs get bigger and you crave things like roast dinner and pickle sandwiches!

Mrs_Sparkle

Wonder_Girl wrote:

Isn’t that what child benefits are for? Also don’t you get a lump sum for baby? Have you checked what your going to be entitled to? http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1047513100,1583,

And congratulations :beer: :j :T

Child benefit is only £17 a week so doesn't go a long way towards childcare costs. You do get a lump sum of £250 (I think) but that's for a trust fund and you have to invest it. SMP is not generous in this country either- I really do sympathise!

emma_nottingham

Wow, never heard of freecycle before just had a sneeky look, sounds too good to be true. Think ill be spending a lot of time on that site

Thanks

all_hours

emma_nottingham wrote:

Thanks for your reply. Im full time employed so all im only entltled to child benefit which will be about £40.00 pm and I can have child care vouchers from my employer (NI exempt ) which will save around £14 pw. My maternity pay will be statutory which will be about £105.00 pw. This is around £250 pw less than my earnings so really we are stuck during my maternity leave and dont have any savings to cover it.

Would it be useful to put together an SOA for now and one for the time you're on maternity leave so you can get more detailed advice?

chevalier

emma_nottingham wrote:

Wow, never heard of freecycle before just had a sneeky look, sounds too good to be true. Think ill be spending a lot of time on that site

Thanks

Hey now worries, I heard of it via word of mouth too. I am busy trying to divest myself of stuff at the moment as we are emigrating. So it is going to be a handy way of getting rid of things!