Pay off debt v save for maternity leave?

retepetsir

Good point on the balance transfer option, see if that is possible for the card due to finish in October.

Another recommendation for Aldi nappies, we now use them!

Listerbelle

Pay off the debt. Breast milk is free. Reusable (washable) nappies are awesome. Even my husband could deal with them!!

You can buy new or get from friends etc. They last for five or six kids - however many you will have!! They are hardly any messier than disposables, as with disposables it is still illegal to put faeces in landfill so you are supposed to empty the poo into the loo before discarding the disposable nappy.

Best wishes

Idiophreak

Listerbelle wrote: »

Pay off the debt. Breast milk is free. Reusable (washable) nappies are awesome. Even my husband could deal with them!!

...but breast milk isn't *really* free in this instance. I didn't read OPs question as being about whether to buy D&G shoes for the baby, more about how to survive maternity leave and the pay cuts associated with it.

Even if the baby didn't cost a penny to keep, the OP is 10% worse off for the first 6 weeks. I guess most people could afford to take a 10% cut and get by....especially when you add back on Child Benefit...

30% pay cut? For a lot of people that would be cutting things fine.

SMP isn't a lot of money...that's not far from a 50% pay cut even for someone on minimum wage...

Then there's the three months with no money coming in for the mum. I certainly couldn't afford to live month to month on my wage alone...So I'd need significant savings behind me to top up my income before my wife went on maternity....In OPs position, I'm just not sure I'd risk giving up my savings to repay the credit cards unless I really had to.

Tixy

I would try applying for a new 0% balance transfer card now whilst you are still earning, and if accepted would use that for the debt that is just coming out of a promo deal.

If you got a sufficient limit and a long 0% period and assuming the debt is roughly equal over the 3 cards I might be tempted to consider also transferring early one of the other cards. Yes you lose a few months at 0% but it gives you a bit of extra security through your maternity leave.

I'd keep the work bonus and save up anything else extra you can between now and when your income drops.

In terms of budgeting I'd do a revised SoA to see if you can likely manage at 90% of your income (hopefully) and then how much of a shortfall you look like you will have at 70% income plus child benefit.

mrso2b

Oh I don't know what to do now!

I do have another bonus of £1500 coming in December and my mortgage comes off it's stupidly high rate in January.

I want to pay the cards off as they've been hanging around for the past 3 years but I'm scared to leave myself with no money.

Caroelle

This may be a silly question, but do you have family who you could borrow from in an emergency? I know that if my kids came to me and said that they had paid off all their debts before the baby was born, but that had taken all of their savings, I would be more than happy to loan ( probably give) them some cash in recognition of the fact that they have acted responsibly to shift their debt. Sorry if this is not an option for you, but IME the bank of mum and dad doesn't charge interest and will probably be particularly keen to ensure that all is well for a new grandchild. Just a thought if you are lucky enough to have family who could do this. When you become a mum you will understand that you will still be willing to help out your children whether they are 3 months or 30! Good luck with the bump.

newmum1

This was the case the last time I was on mat leave although it was 5 years ago now, so unsure if this has changed.


Return to work days I think there are 10 of them for use during maternity leave. I used the 10 days during the last 3 months of my mat leave which was unpaid, I worked 1 day a week so that I did get a wage but as it was low I would end up receiving tax back in my wage each month.


I used it this way as it would be more effective especially as I was getting ready to go back to work and had to get used to leaving my baby. But financially it really worked out well. HTH

Idiophreak

Caroelle wrote: »

This may be a silly question, but do you have family who you could borrow from in an emergency? I know that if my kids came to me and said that they had paid off all their debts before the baby was born, but that had taken all of their savings, I would be more than happy to loan ( probably give) them some cash in recognition of the fact that they have acted responsibly to shift their debt. Sorry if this is not an option for you, but IME the bank of mum and dad doesn't charge interest and will probably be particularly keen to ensure that all is well for a new grandchild. Just a thought if you are lucky enough to have family who could do this. When you become a mum you will understand that you will still be willing to help out your children whether they are 3 months or 30! Good luck with the bump.

...as the child, I'd be fairly embarrassed going to my parents and saying "I used all my savings to pay off a credit card sooner than I had to and now I've run out of money - can you loan me some, please?"

Where you see this as acting responsibly, I see it as acting a little rashly and with little aforethought....

You're right, it's probably a way of making a sneaky withdrawal from BOMAD, but in this situation they'll likely give you money, or stuff, anyway....

DigForVictory

I'd be looking to move the lot to a 0% life of debt card if possible whilst I still appear affluent.
That way it's just the repayments.

I'd try & throttle back on buying-for-baby too - I was given *loads* of stuff & while we bought the car seat to bring youngling home, we were given a wad towards pram, cot etc by eager grandparents-to-be & then found another cot (which we delighted in restoring to full glory) in a charity shop. (New mattress installed, of course.) Saved us another chunk when youngling #2 needed a place of safety...

All the very best with your pregancy & well done trying to get finances sorted before you're in the delivery suite!

longtermplanner

Agree with the others about buying as little as possible for the baby. The baby won't notice if their room isn't redecorated or if their buggy is second hand.

I read earlier in the week that there is a battle among firms to get to the top of the credit card 0% transfer table. Halifax and Barclaycard leapfrogging each other in the length of 0% deals, now up to 33 months! If I were you, I would apply for one of those, you may not get a large credit limit so pay off any debt you can't transfer. But with the debt you do, calculate what you need to repay each month to clear the debt and do that every month. So at the end of the period it's gone.