Affording Maternity Leave?!

Question

Hi Mommas,
So I'm only 17 weeks, but I'm trying to get a grasp on how to prepare for maternity leave. My fiancé and I both work about 30 hours a week (most the time) and it already seems like we're drowning in bills.. yay for adulting. We have a savings account set up to help out with bills while I'm on maternity leave, but are there any other tips/tricks to saving, budgeting, etc to prepare for that time with a new baby and no money?! Any help or advice would be very appreciated.

Answer

i put extra into my savings. and paid smaller bills in advance (phone bill, cable bill, etc). i havent done any excessive spending. i had to stop getting my nails done 😒 and stretch my eyebrow wax to once a month. i stocked up on household stuff like tissue, hand soap, laundry detergent, etc when they were on good sales. USE COUPONS.

also accept hand me downs. it saved me SO much money by not having to buy baby clothes. and have a baby shower if you can. i got a lot of big ticket items at my shower that were completely unexpected.

Answer

Look at your expenses for the last three months; print out your bank history if you can and look where you spend money.
Are they necessary purchases? Are they random "I need a snack and let me pop in here here and buy something?"
My husband and I never realized how much the little things add up very quickly, especially when it's broken down in front of you.
Look at your bills, is there a way you can cut back or modify them; we changed our cell package and got a lower bill.
Look at your utilities, is there a way you can lower them?
Get WIC, it helps with the cost of food.
I don't know how you bank is set up, but something we did was set up a separate account for bills. Each pay period we put in the amount for those bills due at that time and then again during the next pay period. We also put a little extra in case one bill is higher than normal. We look at our leftover money, pay anything left on our credit card (we have one together and keep the balance low, if not at zero) put money into savings and everything else is food and gas money. 
Create a good budget and while you're shopping, use your phones calculator as things go in your basket so you're not surprised at the register.

Answer

Struggling with this myself and I'm already 25 weeks... I'm honestly not sure how things will work out, but everyone tells us they will. In the mean time, I'm trying to get us used to living on a leaner, tighter budget. Although We haven't been able to put much in savings regularly, I've brought down our phone bill and have been evaluating whether some other bills can. E cut back... I buy an extra bag of dog food each ou period with the hopes of having at least 6 extras by the time leave starts (that would mean it having to buy dog food at $60/bag during leave). Basically just trying to find little ways to bring down our expenses during leave.

Answer

If you plan on getting help from your state (I live in Washington, USA) I would recommend not keeping your money in a bank because it can be tracked and try using the envelope method. If you end up trying to get state help with your child, they will look at your savings and expect you to use it up before they will assist you. I'm not sure how this works in other states, but that's what they did with me.

Answer

Girl...
Being an American ain't no joke! I applied for assistance out the gate. Plus, I applied for short term disability. I haven't received payment yet and I've been off almost 6 weeks (because HR at my job is a piece of crap) but that should help, too. Whatever your resources are, I say exhaust all of them. You have to eat.

Affording Maternity Leave?!

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