Baby Fund Challenge

Peonie

mustnotspend wrote: »

Thanks. I should qualify for SMP so that suite good. Was self employed for Dd1 for qualified for Maternity Alowance of about 500 per month for 10 monts or so (not taxable). Have you checked if you qualify? Google HMRC and MA and you should get the info

Thanks for mentioning the HMRC. I have been playing with the maternity entitlement calculator. I have put off finding a new job for a new company as I wanted to get pregnant and did not want to lose the maternity pay. I knew about the SMP but thought I would not get anything if I changed jobs. It's good to know that I would. Although the pay/allowance would work out £1,000 different between the two. That doesn't seem fair.

castlelough

Hi!
Could I please join?
I am currently in the middle of a miscarriage but we hope to try again soon, maybe in January after my first normal cycle.

One of my regrets when I was pregnant at first was that I hadn't any money set aside for maternity care. In Ireland there is a dual system, and I'd like to go 'private' which will set me back €3000 (I can get 20% back in tax relief at the end of the tax year).
Myself and DH were already furiously doing our sums to ensure we'd have the first installment of €1000, which would have been due in early January. I guess we now have a little more time on our hands. :-(

I amn't going to worry too much about furnishings or clothes etc (and I would advise you to hold onto your money until you are at least past the 12 week mark) but I would like to start setting aside some money towards the consultant's fee.
My maternity leave will be more or less fully paid for 26 weeks, so I'm covered there.

So if you wouldn't mind adding me to the list, and I will start off with a small deposit to my fund:

€30 / €3000

hollysmum22

hi please could i join i came off of the depo jab march this year so i am hoping that next year i will be able to start TTC looking to save £1.500 as have most bits still from dd1 xxx

Peonie

castlelough wrote: »

I am currently in the middle of a miscarriage but we hope to try again soon, maybe in January after my first normal cycle.

I guess we now have a little more time on our hands. :-(

I amn't going to worry too much about furnishings or clothes etc (and I would advise you to hold onto your money until you are at least past the 12 week mark)

Hi Castle, I'm sorry to read you're going through a miscarriage. I had one in June and they really are carp. I thought the same; a little more time to get financially prepared. I really needed to take the positives wherever I could find them. I do agree about waiting to buy until after the 12 week mark.

castlelough

Thanks Peonie. I'm sorry about your loss too.
That's exactly it - hunting for the positives in the situation.
By the way, I am most impressed by your Rainy Day fund savings of £12,000. I would love to have those kind of savings - well done!
I'm concentrating on getting debt-free, but it is important to put some money aside for a rainy day too (or a sunny one, like a pregnancy!)

Princess Lou thanks for setting up this challenge :-)

PrincessLou

Thanks for joining us Castlelough and Hollysmum22. I have added you to the list :j Let me know when you have any updates!

So an update on my situation - when i started this challenge i was pregnant already but had no idea! The idea was for me to start saving ahead of time for bits and bobs for the baby.

Since then we have found out we are expecting twins :eek: so this challenge is even more important to me now!

However, in my case as i am already pregnant instead of saving as such i am going to buy bits and pieces here and there and add them all up for my total.

Randomly the first thing we bought this weekend was a baby bath! It was on special offer in Argos £25.99, on most other websites it was £39.99. It's the Fisher Price Aquarium bath - we liked it because it's the only bath that comes with a sling that you can sit your baby in so you have both your hands free to wash! Pleased with that purchase and will add to my total!

Any updates from anyone else?

Peonie

Here's my end of year update - I've saved £5,084 so far and 60% to my £8,500 target. Only £3,416 to go. We should hit the target sometime in the summer.

castlelough wrote: »

Thanks Peonie. I'm sorry about your loss too.
That's exactly it - hunting for the positives in the situation.
By the way, I am most impressed by your Rainy Day fund savings of £12,000. I would love to have those kind of savings - well done!
I'm concentrating on getting debt-free, but it is important to put some money aside for a rainy day too (or a sunny one, like a pregnancy!)

Thanks. The rainy day fund took a few years to accumulate. Mr P has left his job and went freelance so our funds may get dipped into. Good luck getting debt-free; it will be worth it. I like the idea of calling my maternity fund a sunny day fund. I think I'll use that one.

PrincessLou wrote: »

... we have found out we are expecting twins :eek: so this challenge is even more important to me now!

Wow, congratulations. That's amazing news.

castlelough

Congratulations PrincessLou! That's fab news - lucky you! :-)
It's a great idea to snap up some bargains in the sales!

Peonie I'm glad you like the like the 'sunny day fund'! I might use the term myself! Wishing you babydust! xxx

amyloofoo

Congratulations PrincessLou - twins are adorable! I would loooove to have twins

Do you mind if I join you on this challenge? I'm in a similar position to some of the other posters, we're currently TTCing but are expecting it to take a little while for various health reasons, so using the time to save seems like a reasonable idea.

My plan is to save £2000 as I have pretty good maternity leave and would plan to be returning to work within 9 months so hopefully the shortfall in earnings shouldn't be massive. I've currently only saved £100 though - this is seperate to my house deposit saving funds.

PrincessLou

Thanks everyone. We are very excited but terrified at the same time. :j I am 16 weeks today and i'm panicking slightly because i think we should be starting to buy things (so far all we've bought is a bath) but then again i don't know if it's too soon?

Amyloofoo, welcome to the challenge! I will add you to the list - it's so exciting having new members! :j

Peonie, wow! you've saved so much already! Keep it up :beer:

Good luck to everyone with their savings and TTC. I do slightly envy you for having a bit of time to get ahead with your savings.

I will update everyone's totals now.