Living on one income

Are you entitled to working for families? We are only on one income and have been down to half that recently due to husbands medical issue. We get WFF but Got nothing else from them during that time and still managed to cope. You make do at the end of the day. Do you really need a phone? Do you still have a cell to use instead? maybe look onto doing childcare at a friends house if they don't work. Do you have anything you could sell to make some extra money. Maybe look at a house thats cheaper to rent. You can go to WINZ and look into whether you will be entltled to rent, power and food benefits?
We have another one on the way too and I'm a bit scared about the money side of things too but we will make it work.

We arent entitled to WFF - I'll still be employed while on maternity leave, just not drawing a salary.

We've started putting stuff we dont need on trademe. We couldnt move without incurring high costs. I think we can lose the home phone but not sure if that would mean losing the internet at the same time (that we depend on for work).

Has anyone worked part-time from home while on maternity leave?

WFF is worked out on your annual income .. so you should be entitled to it even though you are employed.

I claimed accomodation supplement during the time I was on maternity leave as our weekly income dropped to under the threashold, I just stopped it when I returned to work as we arent entitled to it when I draw a wage.

I would definately drop your daughters days down especially if you are claiming a childcare subsidy because when you go on maternity leave they decrease the subsidy to nine hours because Winz figure you can look after her.

How long do you want to take off? Between now and baby's arrival make sure that you and DH take as little annual leave as possible so that you have the maximum amount to use when you stop work. Once you've used up your annual leave then you've got the PPL for the 14? weeks, so that should help some. If you can, work as close to your due date as possible as all the extra days you don't take off before bubba is due can be used the other side.

I'd work out how long you'll have off being paid through annual leave and PPL (it might work out to 4 months or so?), and then see how many more months you can afford to be on one income before you start going seriously backwards and make a call on what is the right balance of losing money v going back to work.

Oh, and I think if you're working part time on maternity leave then you can't get PPL, unless you start p/t work after your payments are finished. Check with your daycare too as some places will offer you a special reduced rate if they know you're on maternity leave but want to keep your child in care - shorter days etc.

Belle will be 3 by that stage which means she can get the 20 hours free ece. So perhaps drop her time to that and that way daycare is covered (if the place you are at is enrolled in the program). So that bill is out of the way.

I only found this out a few days ago but if you dont get maternity payout you can get parental tax credit. It isnt that much but register for working for families and then you can get weekly payments or at the end of the year and get a July payout. (Reminds me I better fill that forms out for Andrew, wont be a lot but hope to get his bed that way).

Start trying to get down on bills now already and see if you can come out just on the one income. Cover the daycare bill out of your salary as that will go totally down when you are just on one so wont have to be covered from the other income.

Only other tips I can give is make sure you actually need something before buying it, borrow babystuff from friends instead of buying or look on trademe for some of the stuff (but make sure it is in fact cheaper than buying brand new). Wait for sales for absolutely everything.

Drop to a cheaper internet and phone package. And get best buddy from Vodafone on the cellphones $6 to one number unlimited calls. Huge huge savings there.

Recheck your insurance packages and see what else is out there for the same cover. Just read through everything to make sure they cover what you need.

And see if you can grow some veggies in the garden.

And sticky babydust your way.

Yeah the only reason I knew is because I only got 9 hours while I was on maternity leave.

It went up when I went to work part time .. then up again when I returned full time ... but then went back down to nine hours while SD is on summer holidays and will go back up again when school starts again ... such a PITA!

We were on no wage for a while after the twins as DP hurt himself at work, but his company made him hand in his notice, so were surviving on our Working for Families, and he got sickness benefit for a while and PPL.

It wasn't a lot, but we just cut down on the things we bought when we did the groceries, didn't even top up our phones, and budgeted gas to a $40 week amount. Now we still are on one wage, it IS tight, but we make it work.

PPL has gone up though since last time I was on it, so it's a bit better.

And yes, WINZ only subsidise 9 hrs once your on PPL.
We dropped DS1 down to a few hours a week - think he just used his 20 hours, and it wasn't free as they still charge food costs. (always pays to check this out!!) but he got to stay with his mates till he started school.

Sending sticky vibes to you!!

This may sound kind of anal, but we have a spreadsheet that works backwards. Basically you have incomings in one column, and all expected outgoings in another column. We over budget for all expenses such as power, and if we get any extra (or less) money one week for any reason we just adjust it accordingly. It helps us keep track of everything that needs to be paid, and also means we know what big bills we have coming up such as rates and insurance.

But like everyone says, amazingly you do just make it work. And trust me, you will be better for it!!!

Good luck, we are all here in support

Stick baby Stick!!!

Hopes wrote: jazzy wrote: If I remember correctly to get WFF, 1 person must be working at least 30hrs a week. So would look into that, maybe you can get it now, think you just have to fill out forms & state the relationship, also look at accommodation supplement. You just never know. I think you still get something if neither of you is working 30hrs - just not nearly as much. I only know because when this Bubs is born and I'm not working (as least for the first while) I think we'll still be eligible for a bit, even though DH isn't technically employed (he's a student, he's on a good Scholarship, but apparently what he does doesn't count as 'work')

It would be best to ring & check. Several months ago my DH had his job restructured, so we looked at worst case which would be DH no job & me taking a part time job (I was offered), WINS told me that 1 of us had to be working 30hrs a week to get it & since the part time job I was offered was under that we would not get any WFF if DH was not working. In the end I did not take the job & DH got a better job, so all worked out good for us.

Thanks