How much debt did you acrue on maternity leave?

kathrynha

None. I spent 6 months of pregnancy (didn't know I was pregnant till almost 3 months) saving as much as we could, started maternity leave as late as I could, and then spent sensibly whilst on maternity leave.
Hubby's wage covered mortgage, council tax, gas, electric, water, phone, broadband and insurance. Maternity pay, child benefit and tax credits covered food, petrol, clothes and activities, and actually didn't need to spend the money we saved until my first month back at work when work forgot to pay me.

We did get all the big baby purchases and a lot of clothes and stuff bought for us as presents though, which saved us a lot of money.

ahomemadetouch

I didn't get into any extra debt - my paying off debt slowed down.
We cut our food shop
we went to free groups at the surestart centres
me and friends go to each others houses for coffee rather than out.
I batch cooked more
we used cloth nappies which saved a small fortune
I accepted hand me downs and brought things second hand at baby sales

if you are on paid maternity from work you also have your keep in touch days - you can do 10 and they get paid.

have you checked if you are entitled to tax credits - you will need to call as the form is based on last year so you will need to explain theres a drop in income

inkie

None. In fact the money that I had saved to cover my unpaid leave didn't get touched and so we used it to put a conservatory on the house

Gigglepig

None - I did not want to try to conceive until savings were in place. I also worked until we left for the hospital, saved up all my annual leave in advance and did 10 kit days etc - tough at the time but well worth it. We did use a bit of savings so we could enjoy nice holidays etc during the unpaid leave.

dundeediva

None. Savings made up in the year before she was born. Still have some left too, almost two years later

Trixsie1989

I'm hoping to accrue none but still manage to pay off credit cards etc that have appeared with paying for a wedding xxx

clairec79

None,

with my three eldest I was lucky enough to be working for somewhere which paid full pay for 3 or 4 months (which was mat leave at the time)

With the youngest I saved beforehand to pay off council tax etc so didn't have those bills to worry about, and then went back to work after 6 months as couldn't afford longer

clairec79

Some places will let you split maternity leave if your baby is premature so you can come back to work (have to have minimum of 2-4weeks off after childbirth) and then go onto maternity when the baby comes home - may be worth looking into as an option