Found out I'm expecting but know maternity pay won't cover monthly debt repayments

elsien

Prolific academic if you're sitting on a laptop anyway.
I get about £40 a month from it. I could get more if I had time to do the longer studies. 
And they're a lot more interesting than other survey sites banging on about broadband providers, as it's academic research. 

Plus for some one off easy money if either of you don't mind moving your current account, have a look at the switch incentives, currently running at £100 or so depending on the bank. Or if you don't want to move but would find a second account handy, look at one that doesn't need a full switch or minumum amount every month (although you can just move money back and for to meet this anyway via standing order)  and just move a couple of direct debits to meet the criteria. 

Every little helps, as they say. 

mdni

Congratulations!
Remember that the baby won't care about using second hand stuff. Keep an eye on Freecycle, Nextdoor, etc, some fantastic bargains to be seen. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hi and congratulations on the baby. I'm a December born and its a magical month to have a birthday. 

You have some wonderful advise on here already, saving up the bits here and there will be a good way forward. There are some wonderful baby bargains by getting second hand on places such as local facebook pages, freecycle etc when the time comes to get equipped. I have two kids and had a mixture of new and second hand items. I just made my own mind up what would work for us. Its a personal choice. Also I don't know if you have come across the save 1p a day savings challenge? Its typically something that starts in Jan to December but I have found this addictive and helped me to put some money aside for Christmas. This may work for you on small scale savings or just a motivator to keep going. 

The debt free diaries are really great to do and I would really recommend these and everyone is really supportive. 

Sncjw

I'm sure friends and family will help in purchasing bits and bobs.

I'm. Sure dental treatment is free for pregnant women and for 1 year after baby is born. Forgive me if I'm wrong.

Is it not best to let your employer know soon as so they can do a risk assessment. Also I'm sure they would have to keep that private as its medical information. It will also help as you will be entitled to leave for appointments relating to your pregnancy which you may have for scan and blood tests.

kimwp

There seem to be a number of new opportunities for earning in your spare time like sheppar etc, that might fit well with being on maternity and needing to push a pram round to get the baby to sleep. Best of luck!!

ladysummerisle

Congratulations! 

Aside from the above, my question would be around childcare. Full time nursery would be around £800 a month minimum, which is horrifying. Do you have any willing grandparents that could help out? 

I’m due in June and you can absolutely buy everything you need for a baby at bargain prices, nearly new. Facebook marketplace is a good place to start. 

Sofee3

Congratulations!

You will make it work i'm sure and have time on your side to help with that.

I would say don't feel like you need to take 9-12 months off, for my first child I took 9 months off as I had the luxury of saving money in advance to help with the short fall, with my 2nd child I took 5 and a half months off as didn't have same amount of spare cash at that time, although it'd be nice to be off with him longer, he knew no differently!

poppytattoo

Hi everyone, 

Sorry I've been a little quiet since my last comment! 
There's loads of good advice here and as ever I'm feeling very grateful for the suggestions and support. I really do think we will manage and get it sorted and I want to prepare as much as possible but also I'm doing my absolute best to have a calm pregnancy! 

Thought I'd just respond to a few of the points in one go: 

• debt free diaries - absolutely, I've been very lax with mine in the past year but need to pick it up again or start a fresh one 
• Will definitely be getting as much as I can second hand (and on sites like Freegle etc - I've noticed there is lots of baby stuff on there but at five weeks pregnant it feels a bit early to start filling our spare room with cribs etc!) I don't care what the items look like etc as long as they do the job and are safe for baby 
• Definitely not planning on telling my boss until 10-12 weeks when we tell everyone else. He is a lovely chap but has a tendency to overreact to things and try and have very in-depth conversations about personal things and I struggle with keeping those professional boundaries because I'm such a people pleaser. There's no need for a risk assessment for the work I do. I'm also up for a promotion in early June and I know *legally* this shouldn't affect my chances, I also know that my boss is well-meaning but quite old fashioned and can sometimes talk quite disparagingly about people's ages, marital status, and child/parental status so it definitely will impact how he feels about promoting me. There is no HR department, my only direct supervisor is him and he gets final say, so it really doesn't feel worth it - the promotion would come in handy and another chance might not come up for a long time after I get back from maternity leave. I also have a chronic health condition anyway so I'm regularly at doctors and hospital appointments so no issues with time off for those 
• I have never heard of Sheppar - just had a Google but couldn't find it! What is it Kimwp? I would definitely like to earn as much pocket money as I can whilst off!
• I have had extensive dental work done in the past five years to sort my teeth and I'm paying it all off now but hoping there will be no further dental treatment needed - fingers crossed! After multiple serious issues with NHS dentists which is a really long winded tale of woes I'm not willing to leave the wonderful private dentist I'm with now as I finally feel my mouth is under control and I don't literally throw up with panic about going to the dentist any more haha  
• Congratulations Ladysummerisle! Bet you're excited about June! We won't know for sure until we tell the grandparents, but at least one of them will likely offer one day a week (she is very jealous that her other grandchild lives too far away and gets looked after by grandma on the other side of the family). I think I will potentially go down to a four-day week and husband should be able to arrange one weekday a week free too, so if all pans out I think we would have 2/3 days a week with nursery. It'll be a stretch but we will manage! 
  
• Definitely need to think about how much maternity leave to take - I need to think about how much I can afford to take, rather than how much I want to take, I think! 

Thank you all again for your advice, I really appreciate it so much

kimwp

Sorry, I think the spelling is shepper. If you go on the MSE pages about earning extra money, it's one on there. It's basically going to shops and properties and reporting back on them.

poppytattoo

kimwp said:

Sorry, I think the spelling is shepper. If you go on the MSE pages about earning extra money, it's one on there. It's basically going to shops and properties and reporting back on them.

Brilliant! Thank you, I'll definitely have a look at that!