I was chatting with some other Mummy friends recently about the struggles of your wage taking such a drastic drop & it got me thinking. The UK is the third worst Country in Europe for Maternity pay, with only Ireland and Slovakia worse-off. We are also the Country with the highest childcare costs, by quite a margin - making a return to work after maternity leave a near-impossibility for some!
I have put together a list of a few things you could do to help your family get-by on that awful Maternity salary. We all know how expensive raising children can be, so every little helps when it comes to counting out your coins!
1. Save Holidays in Work
Before you finish work to start your Maternity leave, try and use as little holidays as possible during your pregnancy. Save up as many as you can and take these weeks before your baby is born instead of starting Maternity Leave early. This way, you can start Maternity Leave from the day your baby is born (legally it can be no later) and finish-up on Annual Leave first. This gives you 100% of your wage for those first few weeks that you are off, helping to keep your wage packet higher for a little longer!
2. Adjust your Bills
In the final month of work before I finished up, I had a run-through of all of our outgoings with a view to reducing these where possible. It's actually very eye-opening to see where all those little bits of cash are going and how they all add up. I managed to bring down or completely eliminate a couple of non-essentials such as a soft play membership for my Son, for a venue we hadn't been to in months! I also managed to reduce our Sky TV package, getting rid of bundles of channels we don't watch & removing our movie package and settling for DVD's instead. My Brother-In-Law agreed to make his own Netflix subscription and take over the payments so I could cancel ours that he had been using too. You could also try things like switching energy provider (we have seen a great improvement in cost since having smart meters installed) and calling-up your mobile phone company to see if they can offer you something better, or look somewhere else to make savings!
3. Budget
Make yourselves a budget, and really stick to it! There are many mobile apps you can download that you link to your bank accounts to track all income and outgoings. You can group each transaction into different categories and see where your money is being spent the most. You can then set yourself individual targets or budgets for each of these categories to help you spend less on the things you don't need. Two great apps I like to use are Mobile Dashboard and Yolt.
4. Gifts
This is where your baby shower comes in really handy, and also events like Christmas or Birthdays. If there are things you need for your baby, yourself or older children then don't be shy in asking family members or close friends for these items or contribution towards these. I know many people struggle for ideas on what to buy pregnant mummies for their shower gifts or what to get little kids for Christmas, help them out and let them know the baby doesn't need another comforter or a fifth pair of tiny shoes that it isn't going to wear. Make a wishlist on Amazon and direct everyone to it, or write a list and anyone who asks what to get you can show them the list for choices! Make sure to mainly include items for small budgets, like bath products, bibs etc. With my daughter being born in August everyone is asking what toys to get her, when there is no point! Instead I have asked for clothes in larger sizes or gift cards for baby clothes shops as these will come in really handy when they take a sudden growth spurt and need a whole new wardrobe unexpectedly!
5. Second Hand Purchases
This one might not interest some parents, as I know and understand sometimes you want to make sure everything is brand new for your precious little bundle. But if, like me, you have no issue with pre-loved items that are in near-perfect condition then these will be a life-saver when it comes to saving cash. Check out online selling sites, Facebook market place and events like car-boot sales and baby fayres for all the bargains available. We all know how quickly our kids grow and half of their items are barely touched, clothes worn just once or twice or sometimes never!
6. Selling Your Used Items
Staying on the subject of second-hand, you can also be the one to give other mummies a bargain whilst benefiting your purse too! When your baby is here and you're not going to wear those over-the-bump jeans any longer (okay, maybe you will just for a few more months as they are just so comfy?!) make sure to advertise these on selling sites or on social media to friends that are expecting. You can make a little bit of money back from selling your babies out-grown clothes, no longer used toys and little baby items too. List these on eBay or similar sites to help bring in a little more cash, or save it all up and take part in a local car-boot sale or the-likes to make a bigger lump sum at once!
7. KIT Days
Make sure to use your Keeping-In-Touch days while on Maternity Leave! Many women don't know that these are available so make sure to look-into it and discuss with your HR department or line manager to ensure you lay out the terms and come to agreements with them. They are not legally mandatory for either party, so the conditions change between companies and can even be adjusted for each person. Most companies will offer shift lengths similar to what you were working before to a rate of pay the same as your basic hourly salary previous to Maternity Leave. The payment for these 10 shifts are paid as extra on-top of your SMP or other Mat pay, so they really help bring in a little extra on pay-day. It is also a good way to keep yourself up-to-speed in work and it gives you a little day to be known as You again too - not just a new little human's Mummy!
8. Pensions & Saving Schemes
Make sure to contact your pension scheme provider and halt your pension payments for a few months. This little bit of money will really help you out right now and you can get back to adding to your retirement pot once you return to work. See if similar options are available for any saving schemes you may be part of linked to work or separately, to see if you can take a break from the scheme for a while and set a date to continue this from.
It is really hard trying to get by on such a change of income, but you will manage! Try to make sure you make use of every penny and don't meet up with your mummy friends in expensive coffee shops and instead schedule play-dates from home or a walk around a local park with a picnic if you have older children to entertain too! Are there any life-saving, super-savvy, money-saving ideas I've left out? What do you do to help you get-by on Maternity Pay?
