Months 2 + 3

Thankfully due to an enhanced maternity pay package at my work, I received 50% of my pay + SMP for months 2 and 3. I will be on this pay for a total of 5 months, so there won’t be too much variation in the next couple of months. But here goes the general breakdown for months 2 and 3:
 
Essential Bills – Nothing has changed here. I am grateful that this maternity pay still allows me to cover half of the bills in my household - the mortgage, utilities, broadband and groceries. There was also a cost-saving for January and February as we pay our council tax in 10 instalments; therefore no council tax to pay in the first 2 months of the year was a welcomed break!

Savings – We are working on bulking up our savings for both emergencies and a drastic reduction in my income towards the latter part of the year. So £1000 each month was put towards this category. You cannot be prepared enough in my opinion!

Investing – So I said in the last blog post that investing would have to take a back-seat this year, and I would keep you posted on what I am doing in terms of investments. The only investments we made for months 2 and 3 were our pension contributions as standard, and £50/month invested for our son. It’s not much, but it at least feels good to start putting money towards our sons future.

Monzo pots – As in month 1, all of our regular Monzo pot payments were made as usual (birthdays, car insurance, house insurance, MOT & car service, baby fund, etc.). Our house and car insurance will be up for annual renewal soon so I am super grateful that during this time of reduced income, we already saved up to pay these off for the year.

Mortgage overpayment – We also still overpaid our mortgage for months 2 and 3. It is truly such a small amount we overpay, but it is just enough to allow us to not pay our mortgage for one month if we find ourselves needing a bit of breathing room later in the year when I receive no pay.

Fun money – This is one of the first areas to see a real cut. Fun money is definitely a nice to have, especially when we already cover things in our budget such as eating out/takeaways and pampering/self-care separately. It is a small sacrifice to make, but truth be told I am not out as much as usual now that I’ve got a beautiful baby boy to take care of.

Baby fund – I booked on for some baby classes for this term – some free and some you pay for. I will say that a big part of me genuinely loving my maternity leave thus far is that my son and I are getting out and about most days, getting around the town, meeting people, and enjoying ourselves in classes. There are lots of things available out there, you just have to spend a bit of time looking.
 
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Thanks for reading :)