Any advice appreciated

furey1975

I am over the moon at becoming pregnant with my first baby at 36 but am now worrying myself sick, statutory maternity pay is approx £500.00 per month and after paying my household bills I will not have a lot left out of this, I have a loan and credit card and do not know how I will be able to pay these whilst on maternity, any advice grately appreciated:o

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Congratulations!

When will you be going on maternily leave? How long to go?

Try doing an SOA for now and see if you can pay down your debts before you go on leave to minimise any problems you will have then.

And then do a second SOA for what your new situation will be (when you are on maternity leave).

If you post both here, people will be able to advise on your situation.

Here's the link: http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

D9

furey1975

Thank you very much for your reply, I will be going on maternity in September if everything goes well, unfortunately up until then I will be using all my spare money to pay off my overdraft and store card, I feel like I'm drowning at the moment

tryingveryhard_2

Hi Furey 1975

Just wanted to post to offer my support as I am in a similar situation to you - I am delighted to be 6 months pregnant but also a bit suprised as I am 40 so had kind of given up hoping! My job pays ok and I have been paying off my debts and trying to save a bit, but it is daunting to think of trying to survive on maternity pay. My OH will pull his weight but I am so used to paying my way and splitting every thing down the line I can't really get my head around the idea that I won't be able to for a while. Also my debts are my responsibility and not OH's, so I would not ask him to pay towards them. Anyway, that is not very helpful to you, but just wanted to say that I know what you are saying! Oh and don't forget, you will also get child benefit of £20 odd pw on top of the SMP, so that is a little bit more.

Best of luck with your pregnancy :T