How do parents afford maternity leave?

lynzpower

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

stuff the tesco mother and baby club lol its pants in comparison to boots join it!

Its doable if you want to do it. Rent wise some people seem to have high rent and say it cant be reduced, i say pha to that, im shifting from high wycombe (where a grotty 2 bed flat is £650 or so a month) to Liverpool where a 3 bed house with 2 receptions is about £400! hassle, sure it is, worth it? completely! I did it because i want my daughter to still have a half decent house to live in and to have spare cash to buy her stuff and well £250 a month is a lot to save on rent as for mortgages, sorry im not help there as i havent got one.

Do you have any family or freinds there, or did you just go where the cheapest ( ish) house was?

Weve only ever conidered moving to be nearer family.. am I being short sighted

What happened about your job, did you just pack it in and get a new one in Liverpool then?

I like liverpool, im from stockport originally, which would be one of the places we consider.

LilMissEmmylou

sorry only seen this, yeah i just packed up and moved where was cheaper lol. I had to give up my job in high wycombe when i moved back to ireland for the past yr and havent had a job here due to the baby etc. I decided going back to wycombe was too pricey so opted for Liverpool to complete uni and will find a job when i get there

Angeline

Im super confused. I was told I get 13 weeks full pay and then after that it will be half pay. do I get smp after that on top of the half pay from my employers? if so, how much is that per week and what does family tax credit work out to be? I dont get all of this at all, sorry everyone!

Js_Other_Half

Angeline - have a look at http://www.entitledto.co.uk/ for some figures about how much you'd get from tax credits etc

http://www.worksmart.org.uk/rights/viewsubsection.php?sun=52 will give you more info on your maternity pay.

hth

moogyboobles

I have 3 children and I stay at home (I did try working when I just had one but it broke my heart). I think we manage (just) because we were poor to start with, we are not missing anything. I was at university, so didn't have 2 incomes anyway. My husband is in retail (unfortunately) so his wages are rubbish.
We are squeezed into a tiny 2 bed house, no holidays, I don't drive and always have bills and mortgage to worry about.....but I'd rather that than miss out on my boys.
I wash nappies and breastfeed, that saves a fair bit of money. Baby food is nonsense, just feed them proper food liek the rest of the family. Children don't really cost much until school age, then it's guitar lessons, birthday parties, shoes, school trips, photos....etc
We are thinking about moving somewhere cheaper so we can have another bedroom though. It is rather cramped!