Okay, DH and I hope to have a young un' in the next couple of years. What I want to know is how much money should I save for maternity leave. Let's say I take 8 weeks. I know i have to save for regular expenses and I have a good handle on how much that will be. Can anyone impart an idea of how much more I should have saved for the inevitable bills that will roll in during that time, plus extra expenses that I have no idea of (baby related). I guess what I am asking is do you think i'll need that much more than I already more than get by on?

P.S. I DO NOT want to use the emergency fund.

Well, I think it depends on many factors. If I knew when I had kids what I knew now ...

I think the best thing for us would have been being completely out of debt, except for living expenses and maybe a car payment. That would have helped tremendously, and would have stretched our dollar further. So that's suggestion number one - if you have debt, try to eliminate as much as possible.

Number two would have been to save up six month's salary for my maternity leave. Even though I planned being off work for two months, I couldn't work for a longer period of time - I didn't go back for five months after my first child was born. Also, if you have a baby that has ANY health problems (God forbid, but it does happen), you don't want to have to worry about financial issues and make a choice between being with your child or bringing in a paycheck.

And number three would have been to research the TRUE cost of child care in my area. We were NOT prepared for the cost of infant care when my daughter was born (of course, she wasn't planned either).

Good luck!

The maternity leave period is the least expense of having a child IMO. It's when they hit teens (especially girls) and vocab becomes "Mom, I want..."!!

Wouldn't trade mine for the world though , well ....

It depends on alot of different factors...formula vs breast milk, pampers vs generic diapers, whether or not you purchase all of your baby things or receive them as gifts or hand-me-downs....daycare is more expensive than you think...boy was I surprised that the going wait was $250 a week here in southeastern MA and there was a 6-12 month waiting list for openings....needless to say...I had to quit my job due to lack of affordable childcare....which led to bankruptcy.


What costs money day to day?

diapers and wipes
formula/baby food
clothing
toys
laundry expenses go up
heating expenses go up
daycare/babysitters
trips to the zoo
pictures
clothes for mom after pregnancy and delivery

more life insurance for both parents

Hand me downs and yard sale all the way. Old Navy for fat me clothes. I think I am leaning toward what Quilty said aim for 6 months worth of dough. I will be back before then in some capacity, or else there'll be bigger problems, I run the place. I am a crazy planner when it comes to saving money so I will calculate how much money each week I have to save next year. Thanks for the suggestions. Hey how many diapers do you use a day?

Before you figure your expenses, check with your employer about short-term disability. Maternity leave is a paid benefit under my disability policy. I understand that this is not very common these days, but it never hurts to check.

When my daughter was smaller (up until she was about 5.5 months to just recently--she's 6.5 months) she could go through about 40 diapers a week (that's a small package of diapers) or more. She would soil her diaper after EVERY nursing plus quite a few in between (and add just wet diapers). If you're not breastfeeding, you'll need formula (can be expensive especially if your baby ends up needing something Like nutramigen), wipes (we go through quite a bit even now).

That's just the "normal" stuff--I'm not including toys, clothes, carseat, etc..I would suggest you take your expenses now and add 2-300 (just tobe on the safe side), and save about 3-6 months worth of that total.

Now, if you're offered maternity leave where the employer pays part (0r all) of your paycheck, that'd be great. You should check your hr department and see what maternity benefits they have, and make sure your employer qualifies for FMLA. Also you can check your employer and possibly even your insurance for any short-term disability benefits.

I have spent many hours trying to figure out all of this. I will give you my base lines for what I feel things will cost.

Start up baby needs (assuming I pay for it all and no one gives any gifts, all new) $3,500 ( I have this list if you want to see it but it is long, some things are not needed but nice wants)

Monthly baby items for the first year (breastfeeding, Costco cost of diapers) $200 (I have seen some people only spend $100 and some $300, depends on how you live)

Daycare? (I am hopping so stay at home, but who knows)

Savings for birth and health care = look at your insurance plan, mine covers it all but the average vaginal birth and typical nursery stay runs about $14K, if your insurance only covers 90% or 80% then you want to have the 10-20% saved up.

Savings for maternity leave = 9 months my share of cost of living, at least. You never know when you are going to be put on bed rest. I am a healthy average young 20 something female and I spent 3 weeks on bed rest in the first trimester before I lost the baby. It would have been at least the whole first tri, to then be re-evaluated when I hit the second tri. I was allowed to be on modified bed rest, only going to classes, it was my last 4 weeks of college, had I been working I would have been on full bed rest. You want to have enough saved up to make it through any bed rest and then maternity leave. I say 9 months to cover 2nd and 3rd trimester bed rest and then 3 months of maternity leave.

Some suggestions I have:

If you or your DH are going to stay at home, then try it out for one year. That is living off of one income for one full year and just put the second income in savings. This gives you a chance to get use to only having one income, while having a safety net for when you don’t plan right. Plus you have a huge savings then.

If you are debating between staying home and working, look at ALL the costs involved. Add up what you spend on work in one year, car expensive (oil changes due to miles driven, new tires from the miles, higher insurance, gas) food costs (eating out for lunch) work clothes, ect. and then add in daycare cost and formula cost. Compare this to your income, how much do you have left over, is it worth working for? Then considered that if you don’t work you can cut major costs, like cheaper insurance because you drive less, less car care, less gas, less money spent on work clothes, ect. For some people they is only a $100 - $300 difference, and they can make that up by decreasing costs or working a part time job on the weekends or a couple nights a week.

WOW, this is a very long first post

If both of you are working try to live on one income and save the other.

Well, there is no paid maternity leave to speak of, I am part owner. Secondly, there will be no staying home on either of our parts, mainly because I make the bulk of the money, and I wouldn't want to. My MIL will be keeping said sprout for us until preschool. My cousin, family business, only took 2 weeks maternity leave-not coming back soon is just not an option. I have 4 weeks vacation built up and will have at least 2 more by the time we get around to this. I'll just need to save up the extra weeks and incidentals. BTW that is a very impressive list. Looks like we think alike.

So very true. I was 20 (still am but about to turn 21) when I was pregnant. At 28 weeks, I spent an entire week in the hospital (on complete bedrest) due to hemorhaging (sp?). Then another 2 weeks or so at home on modified bed rest. Then even when that was lifted they told me to take it as easily as I could....it wasn't fun at all, and it *can* get expensive (especially if you're not working and usually are).

First and foremost, god bless the both of you and best wishes. Kids are the most cherished thing in this world. I love my two daughters more than anything in this world. When you're young, you never think you can love to that point, you never say to yourself I'd do whatever necessary god willing to protect and provide.

I had a scary situation a few days ago, where I thought my daughter was gonna be placed in harms way on accident, thankfully I was clearheaded enough to pull her from the situation before anything bad happened, but its scary.

Kids are an ever increasing expense, sadly there's no way to budget for them because there is no telling what can and will happen till it does. They are the largest variable in expenses ever. Its like having a CC with a 0 balance and one day waking up to a 15,000 balance with 85% interest

I suggest you think about ways to save expenses, as well as saving money now to cover those expenses. I know between my 2 daughters I have 3 closets of clothes and 4 dressers besides that (I wear ripped up clothes that look like moths ravaged my entire wardrobe mind you, but I don't mind it never bothered me). I sacrifice at every turn that I can. I'm working on quitting smoking also, if you do, or your DH does, have them do likewise. My family splurges on my daughters more than I can afford to, they spoil them to no end.

If you need something educational for the kids to watch in later years, take advantage of your local video stores free rentals for kids programs, all of them have them now, and it gives you a good library of things to pick from, some good, some are not good (strong violence and improper messages IMO).

Just cherish the time you have, because mine are almost 5 and 3, and I can't believe it. I'm shocked to say I'm gonna have to suck it up and watch my oldest go to kindergarten soon. You only get the chance to have the first one, one time, don't overlook that fact.