Curious how do people who have babies afford 12 months off. I’d like another baby but really want 12 months off. I have no long service leave or annual leave but will get 14 weeks maternity leave from my employer. Do people save up? Do you do half pay? Just curios what others do.
5 Replies
Half pay then returned when my leave ran out.
I never used all my mat pay in one go because it was always more then I was used to earning anyway. So we saved most of it and then lived off it for the whole year.
There was no paid leave back then. So we just saved up what we could, and lowered our expenses for the period so we could live off of one wage.
We started living off hubby wage, saving my wage and tried to reduced our spending and bills before we got pregnant. I got the 18 week government PPL and that plus my savings helped us get by for the 12 months I was off
You're lucky you get paid anything for maternity leave. I didn't with my first as it wasnt a requirement my employer stuck to. (Yes I should have reported them but I was 19 and didn't know any better.) I had 10 weeks off because my husband and I were in low paying jobs and could not afford any more time off without pay. We were also living on about $40 a week for food and petrol. This was early 90's and a lot changed by the time I had my second.
11 years later - with my second I had 12 months off because my circumstances changed. I was in a much better paying job and so was my husband (yes, same husband). Maternity leave was paid for 12 weeks but unlike others, I couldnt take it at half pay for 24 weeks which would have been handy. I also had 4 weeks annual leave owing which I also took. So that was 16 weeks off that I was still being paid for.
By this time, we'd already purchased a house and were budgeting really well. We were able to save enough to cover the mortgage so i could take 12 months off. We also cut right back to just essentials from the time we found out we were pregnant to the end of the 12 months off (Ie no Foxtel, no movies, no new cloths unless absolutely necessary, eating out once a month only - which also meant saying no to a lot of friends birthday dinners, etc).
For you, I'd start saving now before you're even pregnant :)