[Solved] What to do when maternety allowance runs out

Hi Stu

Welcome to the forum. I think it is great you are thinking about this now & not in a few month time when it all hits the fan. There is help out there e.g.
Child benefit - have you claimed this yet - not based on income, everyone gets it. Think about £20 a week for first child but they will only backdate it 3 months so make sure your claim is in. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/index.htm
Child tax credits - these are income dependent, & again need to make sure your claim is in as won't backdate far. These will cover cost of childcare (or 80%) so if your girlfriend does go back to work definately worth claiming! http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/index.htm
Working tax credits as well - income dependent: http://www.taxcredits.inlandrevenue.gov ... edits.aspx

All a bit confusing I know! Best guide I have seen though is from the FSA - Parents Guide to Money - check it out here:
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/financial_capability/pgtm/ You can get the guide in a printed form with a CD & calculators, email them to see if you can get a copy for reference.

Finally, I guess the other thing to do is make sure you & girlfriend are talking things through & doing budgets together so you both know what life is costing & can try to find ways to save money together.

All the best.

Hi Stu

Firstly breath dude. When you say breaking even what do you mean, what do your finances cover?

I have 2 kids (3 and 4) a wife, a morgage. Up untill last month i was the only bread winner ( my wife now does 4 hours a week from home and brings in £100per month). Mate its all about budgeting and reality. Look at the things you have in life ie you car/s, Mobile contract, Sky, your hobbies, cloth spending etc and make a budget and stick to it. Its just for a season in life.

We now have pay as you go and i put £10 a month on each, we don't use our credit cards and go by the mantra that nothing is free for ever but you can pick up some great bargins along the way. Use a regualar place to buy stuff like nappies and toiletries so you get points - we used Boots and then used the advantage points to get christmas present in their 3 for 2 offer. Small things like that make a huge differnace. We buy clothes very cheaply and swop kids clothes, toys and stuff with lots of friends. Buyt kids clothes at places lie tesco or charity shops too as they grow out of stuff really quickly.

What about child tax credit and stuff like that? have you looked in to it?

Hi thanks for the replies, I will look into all that you have said. We have sent off for Child Benefits and Tax which will be coming through shortly, these are going into a seperate account for us to save a bit of cash.

I suppose at the moment we aren't really budgeting at all, we buy the food we want, and just basically spend what we earn each month. I pay for the mortgage, car, council tax, debts, and a few other things which leaves me with a couple of hundred per month to spare for living. The maternety pay (about £500) pays bills and food. So when it comes to September I've calculated that based on my wage we'll be about £300 short each month, but that is just totally breaking even. No money for anything else other than bills.

You'll probably say ahh that's life, but it's tragic to go from living comfortably to living on [censored] all because of a few hundred per month!

Day by day this whole being a parent/homeowner/breadwinner role is seeming less enjoyable and more a nightmare that I'm just trying my best to pacify.

as it was mentioned little things make huge difference: i was buying breakfast and lunch at work and was paying 2.5£ and 3.5£ each day (no drinks - coffee is free in our office), which makes it 6£ each day. Which you might think isn't a huge deal. Or is it? One month adds up to 6£*22 = 132£. Then I got bored by the same menu over and over again... So started making my own sandwiches and wraps. Pack of wraps is approx 1.3£, chicken breast fillets 4£, rice, salads, veggies 2£. So 1 week costs me now on average 8-10£. Which adds up to 40£/pm. 90£ saving. 🙂 Other minor thing like starbucks also make huge difference. Make your own coffee/tea if office doesnt provide, but never ever buy drinks from cafe's etc. you can make it for 0.4 or so, whilst they would charge you 2+£.

Snake is so on the ball. If we look to trim our luxury spending ie Starbuck, lunches etc we really can save some serious dosh each month and if we shop efficianlty for groceries we can add to that saving. Some of my mates even go as far as sharing food! It works on the basis that bulk cooking is cheaper ie make a massive Spag Bol or curry that feeds X number of adults and X kids etc and then you drop it round to your local buddies. They then recipricate over the next few days. Its a really great idea and again saves a few £ each week which over the long haul builds up. We cook in bulk and then freeze stuff which also works well.

I was talking to the wife about this last night and showed her this thread. She suggested that your girlfriend could save some money by doing stuff like swopping clothes with friends, esp any who are getting pregnant and need maternity stuff in exchange for summer wear. She also said if you're the kind of folk who like lables then try buying kids stuff off Ebay, alot of POSH mums sell on their kids lables in bulks ie 30 odd items. We do this for our oldest kid and coz the quality of clothing is good it lasts for him, his brother and we still get to pass it on to mates kids too. We buy a few lables and then buy basics in Tescos, Asda or Primark etc. Works really well. She also said (she's a wise old bird)! try to avoid keeping up with the Jones when it comes to buying your child all the latest must haves. Babys play with anything it doesn't have to be the new IT TOY. We rotate the kids toys so they don't get bord with them and we swop with mates too. Join a toy libary by visiting your local childrens centre. buy an old video player and then buy Videos for the kids to watch not DVDs we pick up 5 for £1 at the local charity shop each month its cheaper than being on Sky! You can also rent films for the libary cheaper that anywhere else. When our oldest went through his TOY STORY stage we got a video and a bag of characters off ebay for his birthday that cost us £8 total we then spent another £10 on a nice new thing and he was as happy as Larry.

We have a few posh mates and instead of getting embarresed by not keeping up with them we side step by talking about recycling toys and clothes being better for the enviroment!!