Lately my days have been looking a little something like this: I wake up, feed/entertain the kids, take a nap with the kids, feed/entertain the kids some more, put the kids to bed, and then pass out from exhaustion. On occasion, drink coffee with friends, arrange play dates with other mothers and their kids, and take day trips around the city for culture, food and shopping. This, my friends, is me on maternity leave.
Four months ago, we welcomed Little Sister into the world. She was born 7 lbs, 5oz- though I’m certain 20% of that was hair; Little Sister has a lot of it. Daniel took a week off to help with the transition from having one kid to two, and I started a year long maternity leave at home.
In a nutshell, we lucky Canadians are entitled to a year of unpaid time off from work with paid benefits as a part of Canadian Employment Insurance. So basically, the government pays me up to 55% of my regular income , capped at a weekly maximum. We’re fortunate to have the income, but it amounts to a significant reduction in salary. So our household income takes a hit this year, but it is a year I get to play with the kids- all the live long day.
The reduced income undoubtedly impacts our family finances. While our expenses do not exceed our income, bringing home less diminishes our ability to save. No biggie- I guess- what is one year in the grand scheme of things, right? Wrong. We still want to maintain a savings rate that we’re comfortable with, and in order to do so, we’re reducing our expenses.
Ways We Save On Maternity Leave
Don’t Buy Things for Baby
Contrary to popular belief, babies are NOT expensive. For the most part, baby related expenses are minimal, especially if the baby isn’t a first born. Little Sister is breastfed exclusively which means there are no food costs. As for clothes, she generally wears hand me downs and borrowed clothes. We are re-using all the baby gear, including a huge stash of cloth diapers, that we purchased with our Big Brother. So, Little Sister has food, clothes, gear, and diapers- at the cost of $0. The costs we have incurred are discretionary: save for a box of newborn diapers and some really cute baby girl clothes (I couldn’t resist!), we have not spent any money on Little Sister.
Don’t Buy Things for Ourselves
We decided to stop making personal purchases.. The budget for our personal allowances have been unofficially set to $0.There is no strict no shopping ban per se and we can still buy whatever we want (within reason, of course), but we try not to make purchases for items we do not absolutely need. Four months in and it hasn’t been hard. Daniel typically doesn’t spend money anyway. Clothes are usually my weakness, but since I am still carrying some of my pregnancy weight, I have had no desire to shop. Aside from houseplants, I’m happy to report we have not made any unnecessary purchases.
Cut back on Daycare
Big Brother was attending daycare full time when I was working. We debated whether or not we should keep in while I was on maternity leave and decided that part-time daycare would be the best option for our family. He spent the entire summer at home and now attends pre-school three days a week. Since daycare is so expensive, even cutting back a couple of days made a big difference; it saves us a few hundred dollars a month. If we wanted to further reduce expenses, we could take him out entirely and have him stay home, but at the moment, part-time is working well.
The Last Word
We all have different priorities. Some mothers don’t take a full year off be it for their careers or financial implications. Some families may choose to forego a year of saving in order maintain their standard of living. How to approach maternity leave is a choice that many make depending on their circumstances.
I chose to take a year off on maternity leave. It comes at a price but I want opportunity to be with my children. At the same time, Daniel and I want to continue to make our savings a priority and hope to achieve the saving goals we had set out earlier in the year. With the lesser income, it means making some changes to the way we manage our money. We are choosing to spend as little as we can to save on maternity leave.
What expenses did you cut while on maternity leave?
What a cutie pie. I want to eat her little thighs they’re so fat and nibbly.
*ahem*
As for maternity leave, I got $0 in income even though I ALSO live in Canada but am a freelancer and am not entitled to any childcare benefits unless I pay into EI which I worked out would not be worth it.
For 7 months I stressed out about money, stayed at home, tried not to shop (easy as you said, as I was still carrying post-pregnancy weight), and basically spent close to nothing (in my rosy memories this is true, but if I look at my budget this is probably a big fat lie), as I was exhausted and holed up with a newborn 24/7.
We spent a lot for Baby Bun — breast pump flanges (was given a secondhand pump by a friend, a real great gift!!) and not to mention the initial outlay for cloth diapers, etc. I think I tracked it to be about $2000 last year, and we bought fancy things too, like Stokke high chair, etc.
Anyway, I don’t think we are going to have a second one, but if we did, I’d leave Baby Bun in daycare at least part-time because I need a mental break too. I’d be willing to foot that cost even though it is subsidized here in QC.
I had a lot much harder time during my first maternity leave. I too was worried about finances, not to mention everything baby. Whatever the reason, I am faring a lot better emotionally this time around.
But yes, we spent a lot more on Big Brother than we did for Little Sister. Like you said, there was the cloth diaper investment… and pump… and clothes. We basically purchased everything. We didn’t have friends with babies and couldn’t borrow anything. Between our old stuff and hand me downs, we have all that Little Sister needs. Except for the Stokke chair!!! I SO wanted it for Big Brother but couldn’t justify the cost because we were gifted a perfectly fine high chair, but I think I’m going to go for it this time.
My maternity leaves were three months each and I felt lucky to get them. As you said, everyone has to make the best choices for their families but all choices have a cost. Part time was not an option at my son’s daycare when my second child was born, and he had problems with change so we just left him there fulltime. When my baby was born I had planned to keep the big kids home more but they got bored and it was hard to find places to take a 12 year old, a nine year old and a baby, so off to camp with the big ones.