00:00If you're currently on maternity leave and wanted to make some extra money but you just have no idea where to find the time,
00:04I'm going to share with you three things that helped me earn £1,000 every month to top up my statutory maternity pay.
00:10Okay, so the first seems simple but I'm obsessed with writing a to-do list every single week.
00:13So on a Monday, I'll write out a to-do list and I'll split this to-do list up into two sections.
00:17So the first one is absolutely essentially have to do by the end of the week.
00:21And the second is a list of things that I'll do if I can get around to it.
00:23So if I finish everything on the first list, I'll work my way through what's on the second list.
00:27I'm the worst for doing it but it is really important that you make sure that your list is realistic
00:30because if you get to the end of the week and you've hardly crossed anything off,
00:32you're just going to feel really shit like you haven't actually got anything done.
00:35So make sure that everything on your list is actually doable.
00:38Second thing I'll do to stay on top of my work is to set aside an hour a day from Monday to Friday
00:42to make sure that I can get everything done on the to-do list.
00:45And that definitely isn't at the same time every day.
00:46I will try to do it in the mornings because that is the time my baby tends to sleep more in the afternoons and in the evenings.
00:52She tends to get more groggy and I don't have a spare.
00:54Second, to get any work done.
00:56Third thing that I'll do is to try to make the most of the time that the baby is feeding.
00:59Because obviously that happens quite a lot during the day and I don't like to waste it just scrolling on TikTok.
01:04So I try to make the most of it by making notes, having a look at websites that inspire me
01:08or content creators that I think have got really good ideas.
01:11And essentially I just try to add to that to-do list.
01:13I don't do it every feeding time because obviously it is a special time and you want to make the most of it.
01:17So I do do that sometimes but not every time.
01:20So I'll make notes on my phone, I'll come up with ideas on how I'm going to get through my to-do list for that week.
01:25It just helps me feel more organised for the week ahead.
01:28Okay so I think I've figured out how to become financially secure whilst you're on maternity leave.
01:32And it's probably easier than you might think.
01:34So when I found out I was pregnant last year I obviously had a look at what I was going to be entitled to
01:38in terms of pay when I went on maternity leave.
01:40I was shocked to find out that it isn't a percentage of your wage for the entire 9-12 months.
01:44It is actually just statutory maternity pay which is around £750 every month.
01:48So I do get six weeks of enhanced maternity pay from my employer
01:51but after that I will be on £750 for the month which barely covers my bills.
01:56So I've got a partner who's obviously going to be supporting me financially as well.
01:59I've always been really independent and I think that it's actually interesting to see whether I can challenge myself
02:03to earn what my wage would have been every month.
02:05So I set out on a mission to earn some extra money alongside my full-time job in preparation for going on maternity leave.
02:10And I've earned nearly £10,000 in freelancing and other side hustles.
02:13So my page is all about how to earn extra money whilst you're on maternity leave
02:16or how you can prepare before you actually go off onto maternity leave as well.
02:19So you've got some good saving pots to be able to live off as soon as you finish.
02:22I'm on a mission to earn as much money as I can whilst I'm on maternity leave
02:26because statutory maternity pay is shite.
02:29So I decided to start this mission after I found out how low statutory maternity pay was
02:33when I fell pregnant last year.
02:35So I tried out loads of different side hustles to try to make money whilst I was still at work
02:39to save up for when I was on maternity leave.
02:41And now I am on maternity leave, I am trying to make as much money as I can around obviously my newborn baby.
02:46So I wanted to share my journey, the ups and downs of trying to obviously earn money whilst working
02:52and then also being a full-time mum.
02:54How much money do you think you should save before going on maternity leave?
02:57So we all know how bad, well you might not know, how bad statutory maternity pay is.
03:01So it's about £750 every month and every woman in the UK is entitled to it.
03:05And I feel at the moment it's obviously harder than ever because we've got a cost of living crisis.
03:08Everything is just ridiculously expensive and way more expensive than it used to be.
03:12And so that means obviously saving money before going on maternity leave whilst you're pregnant
03:16is also much more difficult than it was before.
03:18So I managed to save about £7,000 before I went on maternity leave.
03:22So I found out I was pregnant last October and I went on maternity leave at the end of June.
03:26So it's the law for your company to give you six weeks at 90%
03:30and my particular company give me another six weeks.
03:32So after 12 weeks, which is three months, I will be on £750 every month.
03:37So for me that just isn't enough for me to live on, that barely covers my bills.
03:40So I had nine months to basically save some money and make additional income alongside my full-time job.
03:46So obviously I've not been on maternity leave before and I don't know whether that's going to be enough money
03:49or whether it is not going to be enough and I'm going to have to go back to work sooner.
03:52But I would like to know how much everybody saved before going on maternity leave
03:56and if they managed to get to the full 12 months or if they had to go back a little bit earlier
04:00because they had run out of money.
04:02So I've just tallied up for the first time how much money I made through side hustles
04:06since I found out I was pregnant last year.
04:08And the figure was £8,500.
04:10So this was since last October and this was alongside my full-time job.
04:14So essentially I wanted to start side hustling when I found out I was pregnant
04:17because of how low statutory maternity pay was.
04:19So I don't know if I'm the only one, but I did not know how low statutory maternity pay was.
04:24I thought that it was a percentage of your wage that your employer would pay you every month
04:28that you were off whilst you were looking after your baby.
04:30Which now obviously I know isn't the case.
04:32So I think SMP, which is statutory maternity pay, without any enhance is about £750 a month.
04:37Which obviously barely covers any bills, let alone food shops and everything else
04:42that has gone up in the cost of living crisis.
04:44So the majority of that extra income, which was £8,500, has come from freelancing.
04:49Obviously there was other parts to it, so things like selling on Vinted, mystery shopping, surveys.
04:54I did all of that, but the majority of that money came from freelancing.
04:57I didn't spend loads of time doing it.
04:59Obviously I had a full-time job at the time, I was pregnant so I wasn't feeling very well.
05:03I only had a couple of hours after work and then at the weekend.
05:06So I didn't overwork myself and so I'm really happy with the £8,500
05:11because I don't feel like I've worked enough to get that money, if you know what I mean.
05:15So my very first job as a complete beginner to freelance earned me £1,500
05:20and that was creating really simple Instagram captions for various different brands.
05:25My day job is in marketing, so jobs like this I do find quite easy.
05:28So that was what I used to offer as a freelancer, was my marketing services.
05:32However, and I've said it in all of my other videos, if you do all of the best free courses,
05:36so I've done another video on different kind of courses depending on what jobs you're going for,
05:41you create a really, really good portfolio, you show all of your examples,
05:45you would be able to land a job like that as a complete beginner to freelancing and marketing.
05:49You just have to know how to market yourself and how to speak to clients and how to land those jobs.
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