Review of budget

With a new arrival on the way I am in the process of reviewing our budged. We are already quite good with money. I am up to date with the best electricity & gas deal, broadband + rental line, we are aware of the cost of water and we are using water butt for our small garden. Our mortgage has the best deal (unfortunately ending this October). We buy food staples in bulk when on offer and I make the most of our freezer. Also my no buy year (OK half a year :-)) showed me that I actually have more clothes than I need.

Source: Web

At the moment I am buying only the basics of pregnancy clothes and also most of them are from e-bay. Very ECO and also cheap!
We will buy cot/ cot bed on e-bay too and then just buy a new mattress. I am not doing any outfits for our baby. A few baby grows will do. We are very lucky and my husbands parents offered to buy us a pram/ buggy. I can just chose which I want! It will be probably the smallest one possible due to my small car. :-))). I am thinking about getting cloth nappies too. It will be probably more gentle on baby skin and very budget friendly.

Source: Web

Source: Web

It is easy to feel overwhelmed and start buying everything what is in shops. They are not here for you, they are here to make money! Of course shop assistant will tell you that you need this and that but really what a newborn needs is to be fed, warm and loved. 


I have spoken with my manager and I when I will take maternity leave I will get 6 weeks of 90% of my salary and then £138 per week. Of course that is not going to pay my mortgage and we decided that I will take only 6 months of maternity leave and then go to work on part time/ flexible hours (working from home) basis. I will probably still squeeze some shifts in my second job too. It really depends on how much energy I will still have after looking after a baby.

Source: Web

My husbands mum is retiring in same time when my 6 months maternity ends so she will hopefully help us.
It is a little bit early to be doing this planing but we do not want be in situation where we have difficulties to pay our bills. In the end we live in Surrey. One of the most expensive areas in UK.