Maternity leave

Crmccone

I only get 6 weeks paid short term disability, I started a new job, my dream job about 3 months ago I was 2 months pregnant. My question is we live to pay our mortgage, car, insurance, and other house bills. How can I stay home for at least 12 weeks and still survive finacially. And for the 6 weeks I ony get 60 of my pay. So stressed right now! Any suggestions?

PhillyGal34

You have about 4 months left right? Start putting aside the money you will have to pay for daycare each month. You will have to learn to live on the lower amount anyway right? Unless you have free daycare from a friend or family of course. That will give you some money to live off of. Otherwise you may have to dip into savings a bit.

Good luck!

belladonna11307

Go through the past few months and track every penny.  Look at what you NEED to spend your money on versus what you WANT to spend your money on.  You'll probably find there are some wants in there that you can either cut back on or eliminate.  Those might be very small, but if you're able to make a bunch of small changes, you'll find that at the end of the month they've added up.  Look at your service providers (phone, electric, internet, etc) - shop around again.  It's a pain in the butt, however you might be able to find a lower cost option.  It sucks.  We just did this.  We weren't happy making some of the choices we had to make, but we are much less stressed (about money anyway!)  Good luck!

cutiepie75

By law, you won't have enough time in to cover you for FMLA.  Is your employer willing to give you the extra 6 weeks time off?  Some places are super strict and will only give the 6 weeks for normal vaginal delivery.

diablesse

ouchie.  That's tough.   I have no advice (I'm self employed), but wanted to wish you luck.  

Amerbutt81

From someone who found out she was pregnant at 20 weeks (giving me about 4 months to prepare) and only 6 weeks of unpaid maternity leave, let me tell you this:  you find a way.  We were so financially unprepared to have a baby as we had just most of our savings into purchasing a house.

 We have cut a lot of "extras" from our life- cable, cell phone plans, eating out, etc.  I am a stickler for meal planning so I only purchase the food we need, instead of food we might need-- this cut my grocery bill from $100 a week to $150 every two weeks.  Also, driving less.  It's something I never really thought of before, but the less I drive, the less gas I use, the more money I save.

Not to sound all hippydippytrippy, but a huge savings for us was breastfeeding and cloth diapers.  I know these are not options for everyone (no judgement whatever you decide) but they were huge money savers.   

Good luck!