Is anyone elses OH taking part of their paid maternity leave?

sulkisu

2522laura wrote: »

I was gob smacked to hear on the news the other day they are going to be cutting housing benefit for people that earn over £100k - what on earth is someone earning that much money doing living in social housing that us middle men have to pay for.


This is incorrect. What they said was that high earners (those earning £100k+) living in social housing, would have to pay market rent for their homes. It has nothing to do with claiming housing benefit - many council tenants work, and pay rent without benefits. The high earners pay their own rent - they might be asked to pay more.

Does your budget include nappies, baby items and milk (if not breastfeeding)?

rpc

tea_lover wrote: »

OH earns slightly less than me, and works for a very small company and would struggle to get even basic paternity leave.

If he meets the qualifying criteria (which are rather simple) then he has a statutory right to leave - there shouldn't be any 'struggle' to it. Any company that makes it a struggle could find themselves in very hot water - and should be thrown in it IMHO. Paternity pay has additional requirements, but almost all working dads will qualify for leave.

2522laura

Ah right, it was early when I watched it! I still would have thought that with that much income you would pay market rate rent anyway, not reduced rate? I thought social housing was still for people that were 'in need'.

The budget includes for nappies - which I have already started stock piling using vouchers in the Bounty packs but doesnt include for milk as I am hoping to breast feed, though that being said I guess that wont be all that easy to do when I go back to work though i have bought a breast pump so could express and refridgerate or freeze.

katiechoc_2

I don't have much useful to add but just wanted to say this thread has been a very interesting read - I'm 22+4 weeks at the moment and just starting to get a handle on what we need in preparation for the big arrival (too paranoid to start buying before the 20 week scan). Have just signed up to all the freebie things like the huggies club and tesco baby club etc

Our situation is a bit different in that I'm self employed (work from home) and will have to continue working once the baby is here, albeit taking on a reduced workload and no daft deadlines (although I guess with a baby I'll still be up half the night anyway, just maybe not sat at the computer working!) OH is by far the main breadwinner but to cover my contributions we will be reducing the overpayment on the mortgage as we're paying double the minimum payment at the moment. We live in a one bed flat too Gillyx, going to be a squeeze with a baby but we'll manage!

HRV

pretty sure u wont get any tc OP. my oh income is less than yours, we have 6 month old twins (+ Oh 2 daughters who we pay maintenance for n live with us about a third of their time) and are entitled to none if i give up work and no help with childcare if i do go back to work- luckily i earn fairly well- similar to oh- so by sacrificing my pension payments i can just pay childcare and the bills i need to cover:-(

Dinah93

Hi Laura, I really think you could trim your budget so that he can stay home with the baby if that's what the two of you choose.

The tax credit threashold is dropping to £26k in April for families with one child, so this is unlikely to be an option as I reakon your salary is higher than this.

You could shave £50 off your Tesco bill without much hassle, £100+ if you were prepared to put a bit more time into planning meals, batch cooking etc. Equally aiming to pay off the credit card as soon as possible would save another £50 a month. As my sig indicates I'm no stranger to paying off debt (cleared over £16k in 9 months a couple of years ago through exta income not my wage, and currently clearing over £2k a month) and I'd suggest ebaying some clutter/old clothes, books etc to pay off this balance. It might seem like a drop in the ocean, but I've just been doing this for a few months and made over £800 a month doing it from little items I didn't think had any value, but it all soon adds up.

My big suggestion though would be you could definately afford for him to stay home if you got rid of the second car. I don't know Chrons at all, so don't know if it affects mobility so this may not be possible. We thought we needed two cars, but reluctantly came to the decision to sell the second one last year as we wanted to try for a baby and needed to save some money. Best decision we ever made. We very quickly adapted to only having the one car, DH cycles or gets the bus/train on days I can't drive him to work, and I swapped my Tuesday evening class to a Thursday so he could keep going to football that evening. We're in a suburban-rural location, but lucky to have a train station so can get into town to the shops/leisure centre even without the car. I do most of the grogery shopping online now as it's a lot harder to go over budget. The running and maintenance costs really didn't stack up for us, and on the days we both REALLY need a car then I either ask my parents for a cheeky lift or one of us gets a taxi - it works out a lot cheaper than running a car full time. You only budget £20 for fuel but it still needs an MOT, tax, insurance, if you're using it this little I would say it's somewhere you could save quite easily.

You mention prescriptions - I hope you use a prepayment prescription - if not jump on this asap it will save you a fortune.

You also say you work 3 jobs - you should get smp from each of these provided you've been employed there long enough and meet the other criteria, which may make it much more profitable for you to take the maternity leave than your OH. If any are on a self employed basis though you can't claim sma.

2522laura

Thanks for your post. I'm not sure how well we would get on with just the one car with his hospital and doctors appointments, plus we don't work that close to where we live and is no public transport what so ever from where we life to where we work. I don't currently have a car as someone wrote it off just before christmas but will give it some careful consideration before I do.

I don't do the three jobs anymore, that was while we lived in our old house because the mortgage was so much higher than it is here. We both pretty much ebay everything we no longer use already a I hate clutter but these are will god suggestions and appreciated and may help some of the others on here.

I can't pay the credit card off before I start maternity leave as I am having to put by as much as I can to cover the shortfall while on smp but I am sure things will work out fine, I am just a bit of a worrier!

Wilma33

Read this to decide if you really need boiler cover:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/boiler-insurance

You are paying out £180 a year.

Rockporkchop

Has your OH looked into claiming DLA as his crohns is so bad? It's not means tested and it's an extra £200 per month towards his meds or anything else needed.

http://www.nacc.org.uk/downloads/disability/Overview.pdf

2522laura

Rockporkchop wrote: »

Has your OH looked into claiming DLA as his crohns is so bad? It's not means tested and it's an extra £200 per month towards his meds or anything else needed.

http://www.nacc.org.uk/downloads/disability/Overview.pdf

We did look in to this a couple of years ago as he was going through a very bad patch and probably spent more time off ill than at work but they wouldn't give it to him. You pretty much have to be able to do nothing at all for yourself in order to be able to claim and we are not going to lie about what he can and cant do. The injections he is now getting in his spine for the nerve damage have made him a lot more mobile, so he should be able to start building up some muscle on the side of his stomach where it has wasted away which in turn should help him recover from the Crohns flare ups quicker as he will be fitter. Just as well with a baby on the way, especially if he is going to be taking 3 months of my maternity leave otherwise LO would be running rings around him!

If you know any one with Crohns, one of the biggest things that has helped his condition is getting B12 injections every other month. As he has no large intestine his body has no way of absorbing it naturally and being deficient in it can have serious conequences. We didnt know he was supposed to get these until I researched it about a year and a half ago. He should have been getting them since his large intestine was removed, more than seven years ago!!! I am pleased to say though since then his Crohns has improved dramatically, there is no way we could have even considered having a baby with how bad he was before.