Please could someone help me with SMP

Annie33

Thank you everyone

mgdavid

Sorry, can't help with calculations for SMP and income tax etc, but I would re-examine the requirement for spending on baby clubs and eating out.

thriftylass

First of all congratulations on your pregnancy.

I can't work out how much money you will be taking home. Just my tuppence to your plan.

Annie33 wrote: »

I have been with my current employer 9 years so know I am entitled to SMP so 6 weks at 90% and then 33 weeks at about £138.

Does anyone know how I can work out exactly what I will take home on SMP. Ive tried a couple of online calculators but Im not convinced I am doing things properly. My monthly earnings before deductions are £1736.87. write down where this money is going atm excactly, try to make cuts now, post a SOA I get paid on the 25th of each month. Ive just stopped my pension contribution to help save for my maternity leave Don't think this was necessary esp if your partner has a similar income to you.

My due date is the 23rd March and I plan on starting my Maternity Leave on the 16th March. I hope to add three weeks annual leave to this so I will finish at 36 weeks. the annual leave will add full pay to your time, so another 3 weeks at 100%

Ive worked out my statutory pay will end on the 14th December. I then plan to use a further 7 days leave from this date (five days holiday, two of the bank holiday I will have accrued) up until the 23rd December to extend my leave from work, the office then shuts down until the 4th January at which point I will return to work.

Does this sound like a good plan?

Luckily my husband will be paying the entire mortgage (£800.00) whilst Im on maternity leave and our electric, water and food bill. I will be using the smp to pay our remaining bills (council tax, insurance, credit card, phone bill) which will leave me with about £100.00 for spending (including child benefit) per month do you have any debt, does money for credit card mean paying off debt? . I plan on topping this up to around £300 spending money with my savings if hubby is already paying food etc you wont need that much spending money, save your savings. This will include clothes (cheap, on ebay, Tesco, they only wear them briefly), baby clubs, eating out that won't happen much esp if you can't afford it, i wouldn't spend my savings on that, rather have friends round the house? etc.

I did look into the possibility of taking a mortgage payment holiday for a couple of months but our lender (halifax says we must have 25% equity to do this and we arent quite there yet - nearly though!) Even on SMP you should have I guess at least 2k income which should be plenty to cover all bills etc, post a SOA and we could advice in more detail?

Also our fixed rate mortgage comes to an end in September next year. Our current rate is 4.9% (high I know). Our mortgage offer illustration suggests that once this period is up the rate would go on a base rate, they gave an example rate of 3.9%. However, the Halifax current SVR is 3.5% so would our mortgage go down to this rate? I hope so as this would mean our payments would go down to around £650.00.

Do people actually spend alot on maternity leave? I plan on walking every where to save on petrol and wont be paying my usual travel expenses to work....I didn't, like you walked everywhere, was able to go to the grocery shops at reduction times, planned my meals, didn't spend much money going out as I was busy with the baby, napping to recover or doing the household/garden/cooking from scratch

We've been given so much baby stuff already we have very little left to buy. Im so grateful for our generous family. Great

I'd really appreciate some input from someone in the know, if possible. Thank you.

Good luck

katiegizmo

I didn't spend much on maternity leave. Like others have said, you do not have the time/energy to be doing an awful lot of socialising! There are plenty of free (libraries usually)/cheap groups to join for baby and you socialise there - may not be the people you would normally choose but you can find some gems of friendship sometimes and anything is better than babytalk all day every day!:rotfl:
Play dates are usually at eachothers houses/parks - it's SO much simpler than being out in public with multiple children/buggies etc etc but if you do want to get out maybe look up buggy-friendly walks etc
Do factor in your nappies/wipes/formula(if using) as this the only real cost babies have.
Our food costs went down, I was around to cook and make better choices. Alcohol bill although not high in the first place went right down as one glass of anything would send me to sleep!!!
Just my opinion but I wouldn't stop pension/mortage payments etc until you actually couldn't afford it...
Try not to worry

thriftylass

katiegizmo wrote: »

Do factor in your nappies/wipes/formula(if using) as this the only real cost babies have.

Things I've learnt in respect to those. Formula is about a tenner a week. Wipes are cheapest in Tesco and nappies in Aldi. But try things out that work for you. Our firstborn DS we had just in pampers at 20p each as the cheap nappies didn't work as well on him whereas DD now is quite happy in Aldi nappies. If you need to go onto formula like I did with DD, there aren't many savings to be made as there is only brand.

Annie33

Thank you Thriftylass and Katiegizmo.

I do intend to do mainly free classes. I would love to try baby sensory or water babies.... Water babies is so much £££ though. I think I'll give that a miss and do the baby sensory instead and just take the baby swimming at the local pool now and again, should I feel the need.

Stopping my pension payments was probably done in haste! I was panicking abit about the drop in income. I know I am very lucky that my husband can foot the bulk of the bills and he will still have money left over for whatever we need.

I have heard good things about Aldi nappies so I will be purchasing those.

Thriftylass, the £100 towards a credit card is debt unfortunately. Its on interest free for the next year and I owe £3500. Minimum is £35 but I pay £100.00 a month at least . Im going to try and pay this off as much as I can before maternity leave

We also have car finance outstanding which we are saving to clear and this will be gone in January. Wahoo! Never, getting a car on finance again.

We have had some unexpected car repairs recently (£500!) which has set me back a bit.

I currently have £2000 in a savings account which I can use for top ups/emergencies on maternity leave.

Thanks for all your advise. Its just pretty scary...taking such a drop in money. Im sure we will cope though.

thriftylass

Annie33 wrote: »

Thanks for all your advise. Its just pretty scary...taking such a drop in money. Im sure we will cope though.

I know it can be scary. But your life (style) changes and after having a baby you wonder how you managed to spend 2 full wages and have nothing to show for it. The drop in pay will also be good practise to live off less money once you go back to work and childcare cost are taken off your wages. We now earn less than before the two kids and pay ca 1000 in childcare and still manage to save/pay off debt. Crazy to think where the money went before, lol

all the best

Mrs_Soup

Because of the timing of your maternity leave being March/April I think you will get to take home just about all of the 138 per week as you won't be anywhere near the personal allowance for tax until you actually go back to work in the new year. I don't think its necessary to spend a lot while on maternity leave - home based (or friends houses ) are often a lot less stressful than trying to juggle a baby out in public but obviously you don't want to be a recluse. If you want to do an expensive class how about asking for contributions towards it as gifts. You may find it trickier finding the money for childcare when you do go back to work as that is expensive - look into childcare vouchers if your employers do them.

katiegizmo

Join all the baby clubs you can find, you sometimes gets freebies/good offers. Get every points card going. Learn to shop around both online and off and plan your meals - you will have more time for this kind of thing even if it feels like you no longer have a life outside being 'mummy'

One cost that did go up more than I expected for us was gas/electric - I needed the heating on more as I was in the house with a little one, doing more washing loads etc etc. Might be worth checking you're on the best deal you can be now although your due date means you'll avoid the freezing weather with a newborn at least!

we did sensory, loved it. Was well worth the cost in my opinion, and worked out per session was not more than I used to spend on a lunchbreak from work! I liked that sensory had a free play time so you and baby got to know others outside the actual class structure.
By the time we got our baby, money had lost a lot of it's importance for us. Of course it's a necessity but values do change a little.

And your earlier question about when your mortgage fix ends, yes it should automatically move to the SVR

jemb

I went back to work Sept and was on the same as you. It worked out at £500 and something a month. Changed by a few pounds every month. Dont forget everyone is entitled to Child benefit regardless of income, so that's another £80 odd.

Re class, check your local surestart. One other side of town had a free sensory room that you could book for private use and up to ten could fit in. Also, they have playgroups etc. We do Rhythm time which the first is free so you can see if you like it, then about £4 a class but my little one loves it. Look on netmums and see whos around you too, as could always meet with other mums and babies get to socialise too. We did NCT which meant we had Mums local we already knew which was great.

HTHs x

Marmite27

jemb wrote: »

I went back to work Sept and was on the same as you. It worked out at £500 and something a month. Changed by a few pounds every month. Dont forget everyone is entitled to Child benefit regardless of income, so that's another £80 odd.

Re class, check your local surestart. One other side of town had a free sensory room that you could book for private use and up to ten could fit in. Also, they have playgroups etc. We do Rhythm time which the first is free so you can see if you like it, then about £4 a class but my little one loves it. Look on netmums and see whos around you too, as could always meet with other mums and babies get to socialise too. We did NCT which meant we had Mums local we already knew which was great.

HTHs x

I though child benefit was means tested now :huh: