What I spent on Maternity Leave

  By Chelsea Traver at Evergreen Advice

Before going on maternity leave, I wanted to estimate how much we needed to save. I’m a planner, so I scoured the internet for this information and adjusted and readjusted our savings goal. Now that I am returning to work, I wanted to provide a review which may be helpful to anyone else in this position. It also has some tips on how to make the most of your money while on maternity leave.

For more information on financially planning for a baby, check out this article on Planning for a Baby.  

How much we saved for maternity leave

There were three categories that we wanted to save for:

1. Regular expenses
2. Partner leave
3. One-off expenses

Calculating your regular shortfall

We based our plan on current day-to-day spending and how we thought our spending would change in maternity leave. We also looked at where our money was currently going and whether we could reduce or eliminate any expenses during this period. For example, pausing investment contributions or subscriptions.

1. List your current expenses (either monthly or fortnightly, depending on what makes sense for you)
2. Add estimated extra child expenses (Estimated $10k per year according to online tools).
3. Subtract after-tax Paid Parental Leave and any other income, such as your partner's salary, or rental income

Multiply this monthly or fortnightly shortfall by how long you plan to be on leave to see how much you need to save.

Current expenses

Calculating current expenses can be tricky— it is a good idea to go back over a few months of expenses. Don’t forget any large annual expenses such as insurance. You can also use the Sorted calculator.

Estimated Child Expenses

It’s hard to budget how much extra you might spend on a child. This article is really helpful, and they were bang on about the surprise purchases. 

Partner Leave

It was important for us that my husband could take time off, both at the beginning of maternity leave and during our planned visit to family overseas. He is a contractor, so we needed to budget for the loss in income during this period.

One-off Expenses

For us, this included:

• Baby expenses: e.g., stroller, capsule, car seat, cot. We were lucky to get a few things from friends.
• Overseas travel: Both my husband and I are expats, so we wanted to use my maternity leave to introduce my son to his international family.
• Private obstetrician. We went with Wellington Obstetrics, which cost $7,400.

(Pre-baby) Savings goal

Add up all your expenses and compare the total to your current savings. Figure out how much you need to save, then set up an automatic payment into a separate account. If it looks like your won’t reach your savings goal, review your spending and consider how you can cut costs, e.g., buying second-hand.

For us, we had a total savings goal of $50,000, but the amount you need will vary widely depending on your circumstances, so it's worth going through this exercise with your own specific information.

What surprised me

Here’s how my spending turned out and what caught me off guard.

Social

The main expenses I hadn’t factored in but ended up being so important for my mental wellbeing were engaging in social activities as a new mum.

• When my son was 6 weeks old, we began attending Space, a program of play for babies and caregivers. This cost $99 for 9 months of weekly get-togethers.
• I also did a mum’s fitness class called Mama’s on the Move. This was $20 a week, and they had someone there to watch the babies. There is also yoga, Pilates, or BFT classes that have postpartum or bring a bubs options.
• You can do baby classes such as Baby Sensory.
• Finally, if you are looking for a free option, most libraries offer a rock and rhyme or story time session, and local groups hold group music sessions such as Mainly Music

Having two regularly scheduled classes each week encouraged me to leave the house consistently and develop skills for managing with an infant in public settings. While it was initially daunting—particularly with concerns about crying or napping—the supportive environments eased these anxieties and prevented feelings of isolation.

Overall impact

Now back to the budget question. Even though I spent more on social items, we were spending less on other discretionary things. I learned that I used to spend quite a lot when I went into town (lunch most days, maybe a coffee), so it all evened out.

Baby Shopping

The other item that I was surprised by is how much shopping we did for our son. While I had planned for the big items, it seemed that there were quite a few marketplace or Sleep Store purchases. At the start, there were items purchased during the newborn stage, such as a Bluetooth room thermometer and getting set up for mixed feeding (pumping and bottle feeding). Then later there were the big expenses of car seat, crib and highchair.

Overall impact

While I budgeted for this, I thought we wouldn’t end up spending much. That being said, we still came in significantly under the $10,000 extra a year that we had budgeted, probably closer to $5,000 on one-off items and a few thousand on regular shopping extras.

How much did we spend?

In the end we spent about $35,000 of our savings which was less than originally budgeted. This was because my estimated expenses were conservative and my partner ended up working part of the time while we visited family overseas. Even though we didn't end up needing all of it, I am so glad that we set an ambitious savings goal as it was a real comfort to know we had money in the bank.

You are never going to know exactly how maternity leave spending is going to work out, but some early planning can give confidence and comfort during this time of change.

Tips for saving during maternity leave

1. Hand-me-downs or the second-hand market is a great option. Get ideas on quality brands from whanau or Facebook pages such as NZ Babies Born in January/February/March (for example). Start looking early. I wanted to buy a highchair second-hand; however, the one I wanted doesn’t come up very often.
2. Use free/inexpensive resources such as Space and the library Rock and Rhyme to get out of the house and meet fellow parents. There are even free counselling services available if you speak to your midwife/doctor.
3. Figure out how to have an inexpensive, ready-made meal. There were times when all we could do at the end of the day was crash into bed, and cooking a meal was the last thing we wanted to do. We were so fortunate that my parents came out in the first 4 weeks, but the rest of the time, we relied on a local Indian Tiffin service when we were exhausted. We could have a healthy, relatively inexpensive meal delivered right to our door. Think about what your convenience meal might be, whether it’s a supermarket ready-made or freezer meal, a restaurant with big portions where you can split one main, or batch cooking for freezer meals when you do have some spare energy. Or look into your local tiffin service!

Tips from other parents

• If things are tight, you can chat to your mortgage provider and potentially go interest-free or set your mortgage payments to their minimum just for your parental leave period.
• Stocking up on items such as nappies when they’re on sale to ease the grocery bill after baby arrives – keep in mind though, some babies outgrow the small sizes quickly. Keep your receipts so you can return/switch nappies if you need to.
• Lots of meal prep (setting aside time each week to do this) so you’re not tempted to get takeaways when you’ve had a rough week.
• Having set pocket money every week really helped.
• Consider using cloth nappies or wipes. Not only was it much nicer for the baby/toddler having natural cotton/bamboo instead of chemicals, it saves you a significant amount. You can even sell them once your kids outgrow them. Using cloth was super easy, you just need a bucket to soak them in and then throw them in the wash with everything else. It also means avoiding about 2 tonnes of waste to landfill per child.