Never a good time but here goes.. 29 March 2021 at 10:39AM in Mortgage-free wannabe 35 replies 2.5K views

kaycastle

Congrats on your new arrival its nice to read a diary of someone on maternity leave. I'm expecting my first baby in january and currently trying to squirrel away as much as possible

ladysummerisle

Thanks @kaycastle - congratulations to you! I’ll say what I do to any approaching parenthood - prepare to feel like you’ve been run over! It’s a definite shock to the system so I’d recommend taking as much maternity leave as you can justify. She’s 15 weeks now but things have settled down sleep wise (no feeding every 3 hours in the night) but don’t worry, hormones are magical! 

It’ll be a bit traumatic to start when you realise how much nursery fees are BUT it’s time limited. School will be here in the blink of an eye (my son has just started school 🥳) and the positive of the past 18 months is that hours and work locations are the most flexible they’ve ever been. It’s exhausting but definitely worth it. You don’t need to spend hideous amounts on things either. I say that having picked up a £190 high chair for £35 off FB earlier 😀

killerpeaty

Brilliant marketplace score! It's been really lovely reading your diary, so happy and positive I love it.

kaycastle

Thank you @ladysummerisle I can't wait so excited.

I'm going to take a year off and hopefully only go back part time as makes a lot of sense with childcare costs. OH will be a primary school teacher as well which will help with child care. 

Fb marketplace is great, it feels like everyone is just giving us tons of things as well. 

powerspowers

Congrats on your new arrival ladysummerisle! You’re doing great with the money saving, a real positive attitude that you can make a difference rather than thinking that maternity leave automatically means you can’t do it 😀