How do parents afford maternity leave?

Baby_A

Hi,

I am 14 weeks pregnant and due in January. My maternity pay will be 90% earnings for 13 weeks and then statutory (which is £112.75 a week). Our mortgage payment is covered with one of our wages and the others going into bills etc. This is my 2nd child so I dont have to worry about buying all the necessary things although we were renting (which was half our mortgage payment) when I had my first child so was able to afford time off.

I just cant work out how people can afford to take the year off that you are entitled to? I cant see me taking off more than 5 months at the most at the most, which isnt a age I'd like to leave my baby to return to work.

Have spoke to my mortgage lender and they dont allow mortgage breaks if you are on a fixed payment scheme.

We dont have a lot of savings as it was all used up on the deposit and repairs on our house.

The only other option I can see is taking a loan?

Just wondering what other mums had done when they went on maternity leave? How do you make ends meet?

Justie

the only way to do it is to look at all your outgoings and see where you can save - the old style board is great for how to cut food bills etc. The other side of it of course is that when you go back to work there's then childcare to pay for so there won't be same amount of money for other things anyway. You may find that you can do some money making from home - things like ebaying can be done in the evenings when kids are in bed etc and there are other ways of boosting your income and reducign your outgoings. It's one of those how long is a piece of string questions...

amandada

We saved while I was pregnant by doing our best to live on what my maternity pay would be and saving the balance. We lived VERY frugally for quite a while!

alwaysonthego_2

I don't work at all and we manage on dh wages and tax credits, which is £17,000 pa and we manage by budgeting etc. We have 2 young un's and a morgage too.

overlykeensaver

First of all - congratulations! I hope you are feeling ok.
I was lucky enough to be able to take my full year off for my first baby who was born last year. As soon as we found out I was pregnant we decided to try to live totally from DHs income and saved my income for the 7 months.

This was both a big help financially during the times of no pay and also practically as it meant we managed to adjust to the one income in advance and could see quickly where we had to make changes.

I would definitely recommend the Old Style board - there is loads of great ideas on there on how to save money - on food bills and so on. If you already have most of the things you need for second baby you may find it easier than you think.

Once on mat leave, you won't be spending much money anyway (ie on clothes, getting to work etc) so may be able to eek that out for longer too.

I hope this helps a little and good luck!

filigree_2

When I was pregnant in 1993 I had the option of taking a whole year off because my employers had good terms for maternity leave, but I couldn't afford that much time off. I stopped work six weeks before my due date but Junior was two weeks late, then took six months off so eight months altogether.

I never used to use much annual leave so that year I had a rollover from the previous year plus my usual 5 weeks (generous employers) and they allowed me to keep it all. I worked it like this:

August, September and October: 13 weeks full pay
November: 4 weeks SMP
December: 4 weeks annual leave
January: 3 weeks rolled over leave, 1 week leave from the new year
February + March: Unpaid leave

While I was pregnant I saved like mad so in the unpaid months I was still able to pay my half of the household bills.

When Junior was six months old I went back to work full-time.

Jet

alwaysonthego wrote: »

I don't work at all and we manage on dh wages and tax credits, which is £17,000 pa and we manage by budgeting etc. We have 2 young un's and a morgage too.

It all depends on the size of the mortgage though doesn't it?

We managed on less than that when my son was born but my mortgage was £350 if the mortgage had been anymore we wouldn't have coped and this was in the days before tax credits, so the only income we had was husbands salary and very low child benefit as it was then.

Without knowing someones exact outgoings it's difficult to work out what is affordable and what is not.

liney

It definately depends on the size of your mortgage! When we first bought a house 10 years ago, my FiL said to us; if we were planning to have children, try and live on DH wage only and save the rest. Also when calculating the mortgage bear in mind what would happen if i wanted to stay at home with the kids. We then took a mortgage far less than we were offered, and in comparison now it is tiny. I now have the option to choose whether i want to work or not, incidently i still do.

I know this is not helping your current situation, but i can honestly say it was one of the best peices of advice i was ever given, and would urge others to do the same, although with house prices now i imagine it would be very difficult to do (

Becles

It depends on your lifestyle. I'm currently on maternity allowance after having my 3rd baby. I'll return to work after 9 months when the MA stops, but only plan on working 10-15 hours a week.

We don't have expensive holidays, run older cars, never buy designer clothes etc. However, I'm happier staying at home with my children than working to "keep up with the Jones" so to speak.

A combination of cutting back on the luxuries, and shaving as much money as you can off the essentials is the best plan. Try getting used to it now, so it's not as much of a shock when baby arrives and you've haven't the time to deal with moneysaving.

dianadors

It does depend on the size of your mortgage and lifestyle. When I had my 1st child, hubby and I had gotten used to living on one wage for a while beforehand to ensure that we could afford for me to stop work for a while when we had a baby. You cant do this if your mortgage is a full wage. I managed to have 4 years off and another baby in between before I went back to work - best days of my life.

loopy-loo73

Hi,
I'm due in March & as I work in a school the plan is as follows
6wks @ 90%
wks7-18 @ 50% + smp
2wks smp only (:eek: )
OH will then take 2 weeks off (holiday so full pay) to mind beanie while i go back to work, it's then the summer hols so a further 6 wks off but as i've been back to work this will be @ full pay.
Hopefully this means it doesn't have to go to a childminder until september when it's 7mnths old.
We are remortgaging soon to pay off our car loans & cover some of my drop in income so all the bills can be paid!

I don't remember how we coped when i had DD - i was with my ex then & had 4mnths off, 1 b4 due to high blood pressure & 3 after b4 she went to nursery full time. I think we just got more into debt!

Hoping to avoid that this time OH is much more money aware than ex & also looking fwd to spending more time with beanie while its little!

Good luck & hope everything goes well.

Lou x