Debt before maternity

LoulaBelle

£300 a month for entertainment is a lot x 12 = £3,600 a year - you could throw that at your debts

chris_n

Why do you need 2 cars and a works van?

SassyS

Updated debt
very 639

barclaycard 4648

monzo loan 6877

monzo credit card has been fully paid! Yay

natwest loan 6515
New debt total - £18,679 

Feeling very good seeing progress. I have finished my overtime at work now.. i'm feeling very tired being in month 7 of pregnancy so my last lot was last week for end of October payday  

@chris_n Works van is provided by his job so no costs to us.
We have discussed going down to one car however not something we are going to sacrifice and don't feel it would work for us; eg on weekends - my family are rural and we go there a lot to walk the dogs (GS has awful recall so farm is perfect for him to have a great run) on my family farm so this would limit me if he is footy on a weekend etc, and vise versa if I was out.
My car is very cheap to run so don't feel we would benefit much except limiting ourselves. It could be something we do in future however at the moment its not.  

SassyS

@LoulaBelle We are cutting this down, this month we have £150  for any little outtings or events. 
So halved which has been put into sinking funds 

kiss_me_now9

This might sound controversial but as someone who had a baby in February this year - don't be so quick to axe that entertainment budget. Once baby is here you won't be going out for date nights anywhere near as much and likely won't have time to do them so it's better IMHO to save that then. Not saying that you'll never do them again, we went out a couple of times as a trio in the first 3 months (just to the local Harvester and a pub in our village for a couple of hours) but the frequency will certainly reduce. The last few months before having your first baby are the last ones you'll get to spend as a couple and taking advantage of that is really important I think. 

I would also start talking to your OH about what his plans are for golf/football. I'm lucky that my OH only really runs and plays on his computer but I have friends who have OHs who seem to think that they can spend all weekend at the football or on the golf course and when you have a baby that isn't on! We agreed before we had our LO that we'd try and equally share our weekend/evening activities - one night I go to the gym, one night he runs, one Saturday I'll take LO for a walk so he can play some games uninterrupted, on Sunday he'll take LO out for a walk so I have a few hours in the house by myself. 

Finally, have you got a contingency plan for if you can't work to the end of your plans? Especially if you're relying on a lot of overtime. I delivered my boy at 37 weeks but luckily had started my maternity leave at 34 weeks; and I still felt cheated of that time! 

Best of luck in the rest of your pregnancy

ETA - I would stick with you on having two cars too. We have two. I presume you can't get a car seat in a van (not sure but I expect so) so if you are home alone and you need to get baby somewhere when OH has the only car it makes things very limiting. 

Oh and definitely budget for baby groups! We pay anything between £45 and £60 for a 7 week term of classes. My advice there is to look for the ones that give you 'free' hot drinks and a cake but don't sign up to too many to begin with. I did one every other day with my LO, so we had something Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a fourth optional class (which was free) on a Thursday. Tuesday was our home day. 

SassyS

@kiss_me_now9 Thank you very much for all of that info and advice! We are soaking up the last 9 weeks (give or take) just us together doing bits and bobs and little date days even low cost ones. 
I'm due to finish on Friday 3rd November I think I will be 35 weeks then and I'm using all of November as annual leave before mat leave officially starts on 1st December! Which is very lucky I've got the leave to use up. Last few weeks to push through! But I'm also on annual leave the week after next as well. 
 
Regarding football and golf, he knows golf will reduce to a once a month type thing and football will be the main thing he still does as he needs to keep the season ticket else he will loose it for the following year. A lot of working together and sharing things out for sure  

The work van can't be used for anything other than his work (they will let him if its an emergency) but not day to day which is understandable. And the fact it is filthy as you can imagine oil marks everywhere him being a door engineer haha

Thank you I have been looking at baby classes and groups already and thought about the cost! Wow. I have quite a few friends who have babies close in age/just given birth so hoping we can do free playdates round each others houses as well.

Once my mat pay has started I will re write the budget for SMP pay so we get a true look when I know what we will be left with after tax

kiss_me_now9

Check out your local library and local churches! Our library does a 'Bounce and Rhyme' class (one for babies and one for toddlers) once a week and our local church does several stay and play groups where you take the baby and they have toys set out for them and you get tea and cake (normally staffed by lovely old ladies who bake well and love looking after the little ones!). All free. You don't have to pay for lots of classes but I would say as someone who struggled with bonding with my LO that doing the classes really helped, especially ones that he enjoyed as it made me feel like we were doing something fun together. 

SassyS

Hello! 
Haven't logged on for awhile.... but keeping well. 34 weeks now! 6 to go until little one arrives.
This week and next week left at work then I'm finished which will be nice. Starting to be grunting a lot now and simple things can be hard! 
On the debt front we are doing well. Although it has hit us that end of December wage for my other half will be less due to him taking paternity! But we will go down to bare bones budget for that month, luckily it will be my 90% wage still to try make up some of the difference. 

Hope everyone is having a good week. 
S x

SassyS

@kiss_me_now9 I have seen a couple of leaflets for our local church/chapel so will look into this. 
Definitely want to do classes but like you say it can be expensive. As I said in a previous comment I've luckily got a few friends on maternity leave at the moment with their little ones so hoping seeing them will fill our time as well. Also one of my brothers is expecting in march! Which will be amazing to have a little cousin for our little one to grow up together x

enthusiasticsaver

Glad you are doing well with getting the debt down.  I agree with saving as much as possible for while you are on reduced pay.  Have you checked out nursery costs for when you go back to work?  Will you be taking a full year off?