How much did you save before going on maternity leave?

[Penguinnnn]

(This might not be the right place for my question)

Starting to think about finances and wondering what people have saved for their maternity leave? I.e. if you take home £2000pcm but bills are £1000pcm, have you saved £2k, £1k or something different?

We didn't save anything extra. We had our usual buffer of 3 months expenses in a savings account but we just made cutbacks to budget for living off dh's wage plus my maternity pay. It was for the best anyway because nursery is such a huge expense that we were no better off once I went back to work, so it was a permanent readjustment rather than a gap that savings could bridge if that makes sense?

Do you and your DP assuming you have one have joint finances? You shouldn't be covering the whole cost of mat leave yourself would be my first thing.

Bills are not the only necessary expenses so you collectively need to be sure you save enough to cover all of those.

That definitely does make sense. I am the higher earner so have felt the need to save something but bills could be covered on DH’s salary alone so maybe I’m overthinking it.

Yes, married and have joint finances but I’m the higher earner so my salary drop during maternity leave is dreadful!

We worked out what DH would be able to afford to pay on his salary, then our outgoing would be. We then saved the short fall between what was left and mat pay. It was joint saving so DH also contributed to the saving plan too. I also added a bit extra for baby activities (swimming, sensory etc) . I think it worked out about £3-4K in total.

Could you share parental leave? If he's the lower earner maybe it makes sense for you to go back sooner and him to take some time off?

I think it depends what you're including as bills. What about stuff like food shops, presents, transport etc?

What is your plan for returning to work? I had savings but I didn't plough through them to continue contributing the same amount as finances changed when we became parents. I returned to work part time after mat leave and on the days I worked baby was in nursery so our funds changed as a family.

This is the plan 😊

Everything (meals out included). I have a spreadsheet - I know where every penny goes 😂.

The plan is to go back full time as we plan on having another baby fairly soon after 🤞🏻will re-asses before any decisions made by I’m not exactly a young mum!

,,, nothing. just adjusted to our means and ensured our COL was manageable on one salary if needed

You can use the mortgage charter to reduce mortgage payments for six months this really helped me!

We didn’t have the money to save anything, was basically on full pay for 6 months then SMP which equivalent to about 2/3 my net pay, then nothing for 3 months then 7 weeks back to full pay (accumulated annual leave). It did leave us with some debt but was worth it to not have to go back to work until DD over a year old. With our older DD I’d gone back to regular KIT days at 6 months and then back properly at 9 months but ended up leaving work completely by the time she was 12 months as just too overwhelmed so ended up worse off for years!!

Sounds like most people just get on with it and live a bit more frugally - I am clearly overthinking it!

It depends on your situation and how income is split in your family / what your maternity pay is like. I’m the main earner, and I get very low maternity pay, to take 9 months maternity leave we’ve saved 10k.

It just depends what your situation is, will
your maternity pay and husbands income cover the essentials anyway? If only just about and can afford to save the it makes sense to save a bit now so can have a bit more comfort later or less debt.
we couldn’t afford to save so didn’t

@Penguinnnn I don’t think you’re overthinking it. If you have the means to save, do it! DH and I needed IVF. We’ve been saving £400 a month since early 2025. I’m now 7 months pregnancy and due in July. I get full pay for 6 months and then we will have roughly £12,000 to cover my “portion of the bills” for the last 5 months of mat leave and 1 month of shared parental leave for my husband. Statutory pay will be used for baby classes, the gym and coffee dates. So we’ll cut back slightly on things but we won’t be under any pressure.

Full pay for 6 months is amazing! We don’t really need to save to cover bills but I think I would like some sort of buffer to cover the expensive stuff. I’m also planning on having two pregnancies fairly close together given my age so any savings will need to cover two periods of maternity leave.

I don't think there's a simple answer because it depends on how much you both earn to start with and whether 1 wage comfortably covers all bills, also whether you consider finances joint?

We already have healthy savings and I get 6 months full-pay for maternity leave, I've got lots of holidays and have enough holidays to take another 2 months holiday pay too, I will only use 1 though and use the rest to go back 3 days a week for 6 months (I already do compressed hours, full-time over 4 days). So I will take 7 months full-pay, 3 months statutory and then add on my paid kit days, we'll be fine. If you aren't already pregnant I'd advise you to move somewhere with a good enhanced mat pay policy and wait out the minimum you need to work before enhanced pay starts.

I've never saved for mat leave as such, we just always have savings, we have joint finances anyway and bills can be covered by either of us alone. We aren't mumsnet well off, just sensible with money. We won't have to dip into savings, we'll just not contribute as much to the savings pot in the 3 months statutory. I really think making sure you have an established career and work somewhere with good maternity/paternity policies is as important as how much you have saved, especially if you are having more than 1 close together. I'm in a group and can't believe how many women despite planning their pregnancies never thought to read the maternity policy at work before actually getting pregnant!

When we found out my second was on the way we opened up a maternity account in my name and transferred money into it every month, so by the time she was born we’d had exactly £20k saved in there, and when my maternity leave started my partner transferred me an additional £2k per month to subsidise my salary and then the maternity account was mine to dip into as I felt necessary. I was very lucky as it allowed me to take extended leave of 18 months with my little girl.

We are currently saving as getting 3 months full pay but statutory after that and that plus husband's salary isn't enough to cover London mortgage, bills and spending money so saving the shortfall for those months. We would rather save now to have extra then make cuts during maternity leave and it not be as enjoyable.

Gosh, your bills must be enormous to need that kind of money. Lucky you could put the money aside as that would have been stressful otherwise! 18 months sounds like a lovely amount of time to have off. I hadn’t realised you could extend maternity leave that long. Did you need to request an extended mat leave or was it treated as unpaid leave in addition to maternity?

I have realised since posting this how rubbish my maternity leave is. It is mad how you are expected to live off such a small amount of money especially if you are a high earner. The drop is insane! It will be worth it, hopefully having that cushion to fall back on will mean you can still do the classes you want to do and not feel guilty about the cost. Some of the classes local to me are £12-15 a session.

To be honest it’s more the fact that my maternity leave policy at work is shocking so we basically didn’t have anything topping it up! So I did the full 12 months leave and then two months annual leave followed by four months unpaid, I did also consider using parental leave but it didn’t make any difference. But yes it really has been amazing, she’s my last one so I’ve been so lucky getting the extra time with her and my toddler, I’ll never forget this period and I’ll be sad when it’s over!