How do you cope while on Maternity leave

[Zaki]

hi All

Hope your ok

I will be going on maternity leave on 30/05 for 7 months
My fiance and are both working and we are scared how we will cope with only one salary from him and silly amount i get on maternity...

how did / do you cope

What other benefits apart from child benefit i can apply for ?

thank you for your help
xx

 

[catty]

Depends how much you actually get but we are coping ok.
OH wage pays for the bills and I get £580 statuatory maternity pay and £80 child benefit.

I am very careful with the food shopping spending £50pw
the £80 child benefit goes on milk/nappies and wipes.
im very careful with petrol and we dont really go out much, spend days out at family where we get fed haha.

If you have enough to cover bills and maybe £300 for food etc im sure you will be fine.
You can also check if you are entitled to any benefits on the government website, unfortunately we are not

 

[musicjunkiee]

what she said

im not actually on maternity for another 3 weeks but thats exactly how weve worked out we'll cope. we've said £300 for food etc plus bills and anything left is extra. some months we'll have more than others as my OH is self employed and doesnt get paid in the school holls.

we were trying quite a while which looking back, was a good thing as we managed to save quite a bit as a safety net x

 

[BellaBoo0512]

You just find a way of coping when I was on maternity leave we could claim child benefit once LO was born and also some child tax credits based on our 2012-2013 income. We cut back as much as we could and managed fine x

 

[Loui1001]

I opted to have my maternity pay spread evenly over my time off so that it didn't drop down suddenly, that way I was able to have a set amount every month to work with. With both my pregnancies I saved from when we started trying and built up savings to keep as a safety net while I'm off, it's made life so much easier knowing that the money is there for car tax/insurance etc. we get child benefit for both children and aren't entitled to anything else

 

[Pearls18]

I was paid almost my full wages for the first 6 months so set money aside for the rest of the time off, I've also saved money not having to pay for full time daycare for DS1 and commuting costs so up until next month we've actually been a bit better off, depressing lol.

 

[ArcaneSpark]

Look at your outgoings and cancel anything you don't need. Try to save up as much as possible before and then be thrifty/sensible whilst off.

 

[catty]

Also just little things that help such as I have a park savings account for xmas, I only pay in £15 a month but I no when xmas comes il have £180 which wont cover it all but is a good chunk.
I also do surveys, I only really get about £10pm but again I use towards birthdays. And mystery shops so we get free meals out that we couldnt afford if not. All the little things add up

 

[adrie]

Financially speaking, we cope easily as we don't have high overhead. That means we spend less than we make, we each have minimal debt (and great credit), as well as savings. Personally, I afford my portion of housing and living costs and I'm still able to save as I have minimal debt that will be zero in less than half a year. We didn't have to cut back anything as we already lived more according to needs than wants even prior to pregnancy.

I am planning to go on making only what I make now (just above 50% of my regular wage) when I return to work and will be able to save almost half of that. We have almost 3 months of an emergency fund respectable to each of our income levels. These kinds of things def make you feel more secure.


My Fiance makes too much and so we only receive less than 50 bucks per month tax free benefit (which will be non existent if we make much more--not that it matters anyway), as well as the taxable universal benefit everyone in Canada receives regardless of income.