Living in the United States, a country that doesn’t seem to be up to par in comparison with many European nations when it comes to providing assistance for new mothers, can make going on maternity leave hard enough without the added pressure of living during these tough economic times. I am currently 23 weeks pregnant and I don’t seem to be the only one who is very afraid of the economic strain that maternity leave is sure to place on me and my husband. While I live in California, and will be eligible for a small amount of government assistance in terms of pay while I’m out on leave, missing as much as 50-60% of my pay while I’m not working is not going to be easy. So how can you prepare for maternity leave? What are some simple ways to help alleviate the costs of your regular bills while you’re missing all or most of your regular income? Read on to hear of five simple ways to help prepare for the economic burdened of maternity leave.
1. Stock Up on Groceries and Diapers:
For the last few months every time my husband and I go to the grocery store we buy at least one pack of diapers (in various sizes that way we don’t overdo it on one size).With a pack of diapers ranging from $9-$15 depending on the brand buying these slowly over time will help to ease some cost while you’re not receiving a full pay check. We just keeping stocking them up in the babies’ closet, and have now almost hit the ceiling! By the time our daughter is here (expected April 15th) we should have enough to carry us most if not all the way through my maternity leave, which will be a big savings. We have also started stocking up on groceries. Every time we make a run to the store we purchase extra food to freeze, and anything that can be stored in a pantry we’ve set up in our garage such as canned food items; tooth paste; paper towels; toilet paper and miscellaneous cleaning supplies. If you can prepare for your maternity leave by stocking up your pantry, you’ll only have to go to the store for perishable items like milk; cheese; eggs and produce.
2. Cut Out Extras:
Take a look at all your bills, which are absolute necessity and which are more for luxury? For example, my husband and I decided to cut back on our cable package; from having movie channels down to basic cable we were able to save $30/month. Now this one item alone doesn’t sound like a whole lot but added together you can often save more than you think. What about your cell phone bill? Do you have additional charges for a multi-media package or extra text messaging options? Cutting out my media package has saved me another $30/month. Even cutting back on our land-line phone has helped each month. We really wanted to keep a land-line for emergencies such as 911 calls (where dialing 911 from your cell phone does not always go to the closet dispatch center but one much further away which can slow reaction time). However by cutting down on long distance we were able to save $10/month. What about memberships? When we found out I was pregnant we cancelled our gym membership which was $65/month, we did have to pay a onetime few for cancelling our membership early, but the overall saving we will gain over the months of not paying this bill will really add up. Also look at the number of times you dine out each month, if you can even cut back on one meal out and stay home instead you could easily save $50/month. These saving will be different for everyone, and you just have to remember that these can be temporary; you can always beef back up your cell phone multi-media package when you go back to work, or add those movie channels back to your cable subscription. You might even find that with the new addition to your family you don’t have time to watch as many movies or text on your cell phone and these luxuries are ones that not only can you live without but you don’t really use anyway.
While a lot of us will rely mostly on a baby shower to gather the many much needed baby supplies like blankets, bottles and other gear there are other ways to get the goods for free. Some of the larger baby super stores offer classes once a week, and if you attend they usually do handouts like bottles. While these alone aren’t going to save you during your maternity leave in terms of cash flow, if you look for enough freebies you can save the money you would have spent on these items ahead of time to use while you’re on leave. Also don’t be afraid of hand-outs. My husband and I have more baby clothes then out little girl will ever wear because we accepted hand-me-downs from family members and a good friend at work. They even gave us a ton of clothes that were un-worn! We did of course purchase a few new items just for fun, but most of the items we were given have only been used for a few weeks or months before and unless you knew they were used you’d never know! Having all these baby clothes will enable us to return most of the baby clothes we will get at our baby shower in exchange for gift certificates that we can use to buy needed items during my maternity leave.
This option can be a little tricky for those of us that are pretty far along into our pregnancy’s, or for those of us that live paycheck to paycheck but if you manage to save even a little from the money you’d normally be spending on extras like cable, gym memberships or dinning out over a few months this money can really add up. If you’re a little more ahead of the game and are researching ways to save prior to your pregnancy then this is a big one for you! Research the maternity laws in your particular state (In California the government does help a little, read http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/69587/maternity_leave_in_california_understand.html for more information on maternity leave in California) and research the maternity benefits (or lack thereof) at your own workplace. How much money will you get while on leave? How much time will you take off? How much are your bills each month? Use these figures to see how much you’d need to save prior to becoming pregnant and then work towards that goal. Also for those who really have a hard time making ends meet do research on programs like WIC (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/) and other government funded assistance programs for your particular state. These programs generally have an income bracket you must be fit into in order to qualify for funds, but are worth researching to see if you could get some financial aid during this short-term time of hardship.
This is probably one of the hardest things to do, but there are ways to make some cash on the side, and often times you can do it from home! Take a look around your house, with a new little one on the way my husband and I found that there were a lot of things we needed, or wanted to sell. For example, our office became our nursery so we found a local consignment store to sell our large corner unit desk that consumed the room we will use for our little girl. Also we had some open bookcases in our living room, we consolidated our book collection and put away some picture frames so the my one-year-old niece wasn’t tempted to grab at the items within her site, and found that we didn’t really need these shelves; so for sale on internet sites they went! Recycling programs can also offer extra cash. Our county has provided us with recycle bins from our home for our cans, glass, paper and plastic items but we do have the option of taking them to the local recycling center ourselves and turning them in for cash. This option won’t bring home loads of extra money, but remember this is more about every little bit added up to create savings during a short term period of your life. Also for information on work from home options like virtual personal assistants, read this http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/252100/making_money_as_a_virtual_assistant.html?cat=3 .
Just remember that none of these items will work alone, and you’ll have to work on several areas of your financial life to help cut costs but it can be done. Also remember that while it can be daunting to look at the task ahead, this time off is only temporary and soon you’ll be back to work with a full paycheck!
