What did you do?

[kelsbels]

To prepare financially for being off work?
We are ttc and I'm hoping to take 6 months off when bubs comes down the track. Id really like to have all major bills, ie council rates, phi, insurance, rego etc paid 12 months in advance which will take a load of pressure off while I'm off work.

But I don't really know how to go about it, do I start paying some off each week or save save save and pay them all out just before nuns comes?

What else did you do to prepare financially? We are going to be fairly tight but would plan to put a lot of the ppl into getting bills in advance.

Any advice?

[Astrid]

I would be more inclined to put the bill money into one of those online saver accounts where you get good interest and pay them as they come due. Some companies wont sent out bills when the account is in credit, so if you do wish to pay in advance find that out first otherwise you wont know what is going on with that bill. Also some may not be payable in advance like rego.

What you can also do is live like you would if you had one income and save the second income. It would help you sort out what areas you need to work on financially and to see if it is possible.

[RhiChiChi]

I was fortunate enough to have paid mat leave through my work plus the baby bonus (this was in 2007), which all helped. What I did though was stock up on things like washing powder, soap, shampoo etc... when on special, so I didn't have those expenses when doing my weekly shop. At the moment I have been trying to put DH overtime he gets paid into a 'bills' account so that we will have money saved for bills (he is on less income this time around).

[Starlite]

Made DP get a better paying Job! Lol. We then saved half of whatever he got paid. Maybe not do-able for alot of people. But we saved what we could. Also helped that DS was born at tax time, so we were able to live off of Tax returns for a while.

I layby'ed alot of baby stuff early on, and started paying it off quickly. So that when bub was born, we wouldn't really need much.

I also paid extra on my electricity and gas bills so that i was up heaps and they could take bills out of the money i was up.

Also stocked up while shopping, I had an entire shelf of toilet paper in the cupboard, boxes of washing powder in the laundry, and my pantry looked like a mini supermarket. lol

[kaze]

Pay extra in your tax each week so come tax time you get all that money back. All my big bills are due. Idle of the year too

[Nai]

I set up an ING account and put money in each pay - as much as I could afford. I took a year off both times and this payed our mortgage for that time so it was worth it. Plus while I was on leave we kept to a very tight strict budget.

[LizLemon]

I agree that putting the money in an account that is available but still earning good interest (like an ING account) is the way to go. Prepaying bills or tax makes zero sense financially as you are always better off having the money in your account earning interest rather than prepaying a bill that won't pay any interest to you.

Also, in relation to tax be aware of when you are due and when you will be taking time off, as depending on how it falls in a year you may be eligible to reduce the rate at which your employer takes the tax out so that you don't have to wait for your tax return to get it back, if that makes sense.

[~Hestia~]

Have to run as dinner is on the stove, but what I did was put half of my pay in a money box while I was pregnant. It added up to a nice amount was a great help once my paid leave ran out!