You’re having a baby, congratulations! There’s a lot to do, right? Making sure you have enough money saved for maternity leave is one major task that we can prepare for together.
Hi, I’m Sam. I’m on a mission to help women take control of their finances. How? With some simple tips around budgeting, saving and investing.
Having a Baby is exhilarating…and a little scary
Preparing for a baby can be one of the most exciting and terrifying times of your life, believe me – I’ve been there! I felt like there was so much to prepare for and so many unknowns. Would the baby sleep OK? Would I sleep OK? Am I going to do a good job?
I had a thousand thoughts running through my head most nights. It was exciting but a little overwhelming, to be honest with you.
If you can save money for maternity leave it can take some of the stress away
Getting your finances in order is important. It’s more important than getting the nursery looking good. Trust me, your baby doesn’t care about the cute animal decals on the walls.
The last thing you want to be worrying about once the baby gets here is money. There are already so many new things to learn. How to nurse the baby, operate the baby sling, sterilise the bottles and so on. All that on minimal sleep.
I mean zero sleep. I never knew I could have such little sleep in my life! I also never knew that my heart could swell with so much love…
: )
Unfortunately, money worries are also a reality for new mums
While we are so lucky to be entitled to 12 months of maternity leave in the UK, not all of it is paid.
Your workplace may offer you some of the time as fully paid. For the rest, you may be eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).
This is:
- 90% of your average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks
- £184.03 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks (as of 2024)
This is likely to be a steep income drop. In other countries, you may get far less paid leave.
If you can save money for your maternity leave before the baby gets here it will take away a lot of the stress.
It will generally help you to feel as calm and relaxed as possible, which is best for you and for the baby.
So here are my top 14 tips for saving for your maternity leave.
Tip 1 – Make a Budget
Work out how much you will need for the duration of maternity leave. Don’t wait till after the baby is born. You won’t have time! (heads up: you will hear me say this a lot).
The first step when saving for maternity leave is to know your numbers
If you haven’t already done this, now is a good time to figure out a budget for your household.
How Does Having a Budget Help Me Save Money for Maternity Leave?
When you make a budget, you get your arms around all your numbers. You know exactly how much money you have coming in and going out of your household.
Then you can control those numbers. You can increase your incoming, by getting a side hustle or negotiating a pay raise for example.
You can also control your outgoings, by tightening the belt and limiting your spending
Once you cut your spending you can then use the budget to track how much you have saved and then funnel this money to a separate account and use it for baby stuff. This stops it from getting sucked up into the black hole of other mindless spending.
How do I make a Budget?
Check out my article on how to create a budget for beginners.
Once you have a household budget you can work out an amount to start saving each month for maternity leave. This is now your maternity savings target.
Tip 2 – Talk Frankly about Money
Don’t keep any financial secrets from your partner (or family members if you are flying solo). Keep no secrets and there won’t be any surprises.
Pregnancy can be a tough time emotionally. Money worries are often the top contributor to stress.
To help alleviate that stress, talk it out and agree on some ground rules. For example, you can agree not to buy anything over a set limit, say $50, without discussing it with your partner and vice versa.
To take the edge off – give each other a ‘treats’ budget
Agree on a set amount each month that each partner is allowed to use for treats – no questions asked.
Life is tough, but there should always be opportunities to take a moment to smell the roses – just as long as you both keep within budget.
Tip 3 – Cut back on Expenses
When it was time to take off for Bubba I decided to pause pension contributions for the first year to save money for maternity leave.
This allowed me to have more time at home. It was a calculated cost that I was willing to take.
Have a think, and see if this makes sense for you. I wouldn’t normally advocate pausing your investments because the payout is so huge in the future.
Maternity is a rare opportunity to bond with your baby however, a different kind of ‘pay-out’. This is one time I would say it is worth considering a pause. It may reduce your monthly spending considerably during maternity leave.
Pausing Non-Essential Spending is Another Way to Save for Maternity Leave
You might find that the amount you need to budget for during maternity leave is less than you originally thought.
Trust me, you won’t have time to go out to dinner, get your legs waxed, or do any of the other fun stuff you used to do before the baby arrived!
Your leisure spend will naturally drop off once that little bundle of joy arrives : )
A lot of baby activities are very low cost or free, so you can spend much less money. When they are very little kids have no clue what is going on.
A trip to the grocery store is as fun as a theme park for them, and much cheaper for you as well. Save the expensive excursions for when they are older.
If you can pause your non-essential spend then this is a lucrative way to save for maternity leave.
Tip 4 – Reduce Your Debt
As early on in your planning for maternity leave as possible, make a debt repayment plan. If you can clear debt, particularly high-interest debt like credit card debt, it will save you a lot of money for your maternity leave.
Don’t just pay the minimum, clear it. Don’t ignore credit card debt. It will just kick you in the butt harder if you do.
Tip 5 – Open a Savings Account
Once you know how much you will need for the duration of your leave, start putting all the money you have saved into a dedicated savings account.
Setting Money Aside Will Help You Save More Money for Maternity Leave
The reason this is so powerful is that you see that account grow and it motivates you to keep adding to it. It feels so good to see the money growing like a little ‘money baby bump’.
If you start early enough and interest rates are high, you can add to your savings with interest as well.
Win-win!
Tip 6 – Maximise Your Income
See if you can earn more with a side hustle, or eligibility for any entitlements.
You might be able to pick up overtime shifts at work. Remember, if you are already pregnant or trying to get pregnant- your health comes first.
Don’t overwork yourself now for the sake of future maternity leave. Your health and the baby’s health are the most important mama!
Other options to make extra money outside of your main job are below:
- Tutoring
- Online surveys
- Babysitting
- Virtual Assistant
- Waiting
- Bar tending
- Dog walking
- Task rabbit for DIY
- Proofreading
- Transcription
- Data entry
- Translation
- Blogging
- Uber taxi driver
- Food delivery
- Personal shopping
- Housekeeping
- Rent out your spare room*
- Rent out your driveway or parking space
*If you have a spare room in your home, you can rent it out to a lodger, free of tax, for up to £7,500 per year. This is halved if you share the income with your partner or someone else. Once the baby gets here you can covert the lodgings into the baby’s nursery.
Even if you take up one shift every weekend it could make a big difference to your savings
An Example
- Jaspreet has taken up babysitting for 4 hours every weekend at £18 per hour
- The total she earns in one evening: £72
- Shifts Per Month: 4
- Total earned in one month: £288
- The extra income earned in a year before tax: £3,168
Not bad to play Connect Four and watch TV for an evening!
Check to See if you are Entitled to Any Maternity Benefits
Check online to see if you are eligible for any maternity benefits like the Sure Start Maternity Grant (UK) worth £500.
Tip 7 – Make Use of Keep in Touch Days (UK Only)
In the UK employees are required to offer you KIT days or ‘Keep in Touch’ days. This is where you voluntarily return to work for up to 10 days during your maternity leave.
You should be paid for KIT days. How much you get depends on your contract, but it must be at least the minimum wage.
This can be for work, training or meetings. You might even be able to return to work for just a one-hour meeting and get paid for a whole day’s work!
You could potentially be paid for two whole weeks using KIT days!
This is a great boost to your income during maternity leave because it could potentially give you up to half a month of ‘free money’ during your maternity leave.
Check your HR policy and talk to your manager about this before you start your leave.
Be careful when you take your KIT days – It makes a big difference to how much you’re paid
I suggest that you wait until your Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) ends before you take your KIT days if you are taking more than 39 weeks of maternity leave.
As a reminder: Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is paid for up to 39 weeks in the UK. You get:
- 90% of your average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks
- £184.03 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks (as of 2024)
If you take your KIT days whilst still on Statutory Maternity Pay (UK), you might only get paid the extra above SMP
An example:
You work a KIT Day when your pay for the day is £250.
You will get paid the £184.03 + £65.97 to make it up to the amount you should’ve been paid.
You can find more Information here
Tip 8 – Declutter and Sell Stuff
You will likely need the space for baby stuff anyway – now is a good time to have a clear-out. You might be pleasantly surprised by how much money you can make.
Vinted, eBay, and Facebook marketplace are the biggest online marketplaces as of 2024.
eBay have removed fees on selling pre-loved items as of 2024. I assume it is to take Vinted head-on; I say – bring it eBay!
One tip is to post everything at a price you think is fair. If the items haven’t sold after a set period, say 3 weeks, then slash that price.
People will receive a notification of the price slash, which will generate new interest and hopefully close the deal.
If you are still not getting any interest, my advice is to shift the items to the nearest charity shop or thrift store and treat it as a lesson learned in the power of ‘less or more’.
Remember you can make £1,000 trading tax-free in the UK.
Tip 9 – Child Benefit
Start claiming child benefit as soon as Bubba is born
As of 2024 child benefit in the UK is £100.80 a month for the first child. Not only that, you’ll be accruing National Insurance credits.
But What Does National Insurance Mean for Me?
Earning National Insurance Credits will pay you in the future. They will allow you to claim a greater state pension when you reach the age of about 68.
This may seem like a lifetime away. But it will surely creep up on you If you’re lucky to live long enough (which we hope you are!)
Click here to read up on UK National Insurance Credits.
Tip 10 – Save Money on Groceries
After housing and transportation costs, groceries can be one of the largest household expenses. They are also one of the areas where you can make cost savings.
See my article on how to save money on groceries. For some quick and easy ideas on how to save money on your food shop.
In my experience, when it comes to groceries and the first few years of parenthood, you can save TIME by going full-on take-out or batch-cooking
One will blow your budget out of the water while the other will save you hundreds each month. I will never judge a parent for anything they do to survive those tough years of raising kids. You do you honey.
If you want to save some serious cash, read my article and give these cash-boosting tips a try!
Tip 11 – Meal Prep
Buying baby food is expensive but I saved $100s a month on baby food. I did this by adjusting my regular meals to be baby-friendly.
Baby-friendly food is just food that has less sugar, salt and spices. I’ve never had to cook separately for Bubba. I just added a small amount of whatever I was cooking to the blender and voila – baby food was born!
There is also the baby-led weaning movement which sounded pretty cool. But this involved reading up on stuff, and my brain was too saturated at the time to take this on.
How Do I Meal Prep?
Use the nesting phase to practice meal prepping, you won’t have time once the baby gets here!
Practice making sauces and soups and stews and casseroles.
Portion out chicken breasts and salmon steaks. Brown some ground beef and onions. Get it ready in the correct portion sizes and then into zip lock bags.
Whack it all into the freezer and you’re done!
How Does Meal Prepping Save You Money for Maternity Leave?
Once you get the hang of it you should see that you start to buy less food because you have planned out your meals for the week.
You’ll find you order less take-out because you don’t need to cook on those nights when you’re too tired to move.
This approach has the added benefit of being a lot healthier because you are eating homemade foods, and you control and amount of salt and oil you use.
You got this mama!
Tip 12 – Pause Work Subscriptions
If you subscribe to any work journals or trade associations, get in touch with them before starting your maternity leave.
Most of them will allow you to pause your membership fees for the duration of your leave.
Tip 13 – Tag any Leave to Your Maternity Leave
Whilst pregnant and still at work, try taking as little vacation as possible. You’ll then have a few weeks stored up when you want to start your maternity leave.
You can take your vacation first and then start maternity leave. But remember that maternity leave must start on the day that your baby is born.
You might think it is a waste of leave to take any time off before your baby arrives. Trust me, your body will thank you for some rest!
You’ll also accrue leave during your time away
You can tack this on at the end of your leave to extend your time off. It will reduce the amount of unpaid leave/SMP leave you need to take.
Tip 14 – Spread Out Your Maternity Pay
You may have the option to ask your employer to spread out any maternity pay they offer you for the duration of your maternity leave.
So for example, they may offer you 3 months maternity leave at 100% pay and then 3 months maternity leave at 80% pay. After this they offer you 0% pay and you rely on statutory maternity pay (SMP).
You may want to take 12 months maternity leave. You can ask your employer to smooth out your maternity pay over the 12 months so that you get the same paycheck each month for 12 months.
This Won’t Exactly Save You Any Money for Maternity Leave, but it Will Help with Budgeting
It does this by giving you a smoother income stream. You won’t accidentally overspend at the beginning of your maternity leave and get caught short nearer the end.
That’s a Wrap
There are my 14 tips to saving money for maternity leave. The earlier you plan the easier you will find it. But it is ever too late to prepare mama. The key thing is not to stress about it. You are enough for bubba. You are MORE than enough : )
What have you tried to save money for materbity leave? How much leave are you planning to take? Share you story in the comments!
