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For us comes down to budgeting. If we didn't stick to our budget we would not be able to live on one income because it is too easy to overspend.

We use goodbudget, but there are several options out there. I like the zero-sum, or envelope method. And there is a big difference between keeping track of how much you spend and actually budgeting.

I had an injury that put me out of work 3 months before my unpaid maternity leave and it was tight but we managed because of our budget.

@matador84: does your district offer any sort of short term disability coverage to help cover any of your time off?

Other than that I would stash away any extra penny possible until you have the baby. I'm assuming you've already planned to save the money you won't need to spend for childcare during the summer. Is there anything else you can do?

we've been living off one income since we got married and my husband was laid off for a year plus. we lived on my income, then when he eventually went back to work we stayed on that budget and saved the extra. that helped us with leave, my eventual transition to part-time and then SAH.

anyway, figure out the one income take home (use an old paystub or paycheckcity's online calculator) and work backward on the budget. I did mine custom to what we use but there are many programs out there too. fill in all the must-pays like bills, mortgage, car payments, anything. then see what's left and divide it up among necessities (gas, medical, groceries, etc) and fun money (eating out, clothes, etc). I assume you won't try to save anything those months. you can look at old credit card or bank statements to get an idea of what you've been spending if you aren't tracking it now and see how much you'll have to cut. especially when starting on a new budget, I like to track against it at least weekly to see how on track we are.

I also like to try to write out the big expenditures for the year (or maybe in your case two months) and see how I want to cover them - like hospital bills for the birth, for example. no surprises is the least stressful way to live on less money!

It's difficult to say not knowing the specifics and because it's short term so it's not like you want to redo your whole budget. We have mostly always been on my husband's income (because even working ft I made 1/3 his pay and now I work pt.) Things we have done to save include not eating out, pinching pennies even with regard to not making more laundry and remembering to shut off the ac as much as possible and make less laundry and run the dishwasher efficiently, and no browsing Target/Amazon/shopping for fun. It gets to be a habit but it was tough to start. Really just monitoring better what we were spending helped us cut down after I stopped working ft last year (and I had mostly worked after having lo2, so we had a second kid eating real food, needing diapers, etc. and weren't used to not having the same level of disposable income..) You have a decent amount of time to save, so it'll probably work out ok if you start now!

While you have two incomes stock up on the toiletries and diapers and what not. Paper towels, toilet paper, shampoo, diaper cream, dishwasher soap, detergent, etc. It won't cost much more to collect that stuff ahead of time.

Put money away now for the holidays or start buying gifts and stashing them now since you're up against the holidays for your leave.

Cancel or downgrade your cable.

You're in a shoulder season for kids clothes - try to see if you can sell off a bunch of clothes at a kids sale like Just Between Friends now and get the back to school and fall/winter clothes squared away in the summer before leave.

Get a chest freezer and stock it with meals and food you find on sale (like meat and frozen veg and convenience foods like burritos or frozen waffles). Again if you add a few items on sale every week it won't cost too much extra and you can just buy fresh things on leave.

Stock up on vitamins or supplements or OTC meds before leave so you don't need to buy them during.

Get Halloween costumes early. Goodwill always has a good selection in September. But skip on passing out candy.

Have a spare change jar and have everyone put their coins in it for a special night out (dinner) after the baby is born that will motivate your kids to pick up pennies for.

@gingerbebe: GREAT tips!

Budget is key, not eating out saves a ton. Sell things and stash away that cash. I just sold some really small kid items this week and made $80, not a lot but it adds up.

It was already mentioned but buying in bulk is so worth it. Trash bags/dishwasher detergent/toilet paper last us a long time when we buy in bulk. Also mentioned was the deep freezer, ours was only $150 and it's been a life saver. I can stock up on sale items, or freeze meals I've doubled/tripled.

DH gets an "extra" paycheck in June since there are 3 paydays in that month, is that something you could count on? Tuck that paycheck away?

Good luck! It's hard but you can do it!

Meal planning.

Since your situation is temporary see if you can skip a month of car payments if you have them. Mine lets us 1x in a calendar year- which I utilized when I had a 4K repair bill.

For freezer meals, I personally found individually portioned fully cooked meals to be easier to deal with postpartum. We bought black plastic takeout containers from Amazon and basically just a little more of what we cooked for dinner the last 2-3 months of my pregnancies - like enough for 2-4 extra servings of the meat and starch. I would put the meat, the starch, and a scoop of frozen veggies in the container, label it with masking tape, and throw in the freezer. Doing this enabled me to have like 100 individual meals or more in our freezer and I didn't have to worry about cooking for a while. We'd just pick out a few entrees every few days and throw them in the fridge or counter to thaw and nuke them. Rice based meals freeze very well.

Same with meat sauce, taco meat, pulled pork, stew, soup, chili - make double and freeze the extra flat in gallon freezer bags.

You can make PBJs or plain meat and cheese sammies ahead of time assembly line style and freeze them. You can throw them in for lunches and they thaw by lunch. Or you can eat them for quick meals.

You can freeze hot sandwiches - just assembly line hoagie rolls with whatever meat and cheese you like, wrap in foil, and then bake them in the oven until hot and bubbly. You can make ham and cheese, chicken and bacon, pepperoni and cheese (and dip in marinara!)

When you set aside money for savings each month, put a name to it. Like "this is October's power bill" or "this is October's gas." That way you feel like you're checking off things as you go.

At Easter there will be a glut of cheap hams, so grab one for Christmas. Fourth of July is when you would stock up on condiments and hot dogs or sausages and burger patties.

The dollar store has surprising good toiletries and school supplies for cheap. Hair ties and bows, puzzles and coloring books, OTC meds like generic mucinex and DayQuil, Neti pots, Colgate or Crest toothpastes including the kid kind, toothbrushes, floss, hand sanitizer, cough drops, bandaids, BATTERIES, LIGHT BULBS, greeting/birthday cards, gift wrap, tissue paper and bags, I get it all at my Dollar Tree.

This is what we did for my first maternity leave. It was partially paid but last six weeks weren't. I cut everything humanly possible from our budget and figured out what the shortfall would be on my DH's paycheck alone. We then saved that amount of money during my pregnancy. This was obviously easier for us bc we were kid free at the time. Some things we cut were going out to eat, didn't need our dog walker, less money spent on gas. We're about to TTC number two and I'm formulating the same plan for this time and it will be workable since we will either take LO Out of daycare or reduce to two days a week.

Is your health insurance covered by you or your husband? That's a potential additional expense.

Since you do YNAB, make a category for the expenses you'll have during the 1 income time: medical bills, tuition, etc and figure how how much you need to save by September to cover it fully. Knowing you will have that gap then and having a tangible goal of what you have to save will make it easier to shave off from your budget now. If you're using YNAB, then you're 10 steps ahead!

Also, plan for making the outback work for a least 6 months post baby, longer if you can! You know we have outback love. I have 2 cleks and could totally make another work! Dionos, etc for a lower price point! Look for sales now because 3 car seats are cheaper than a big new (or even new to you) car!

I thought of something else, is it possible to prepay anything so that you can take advantage of a discount? Like if you're paying tuition, could you pay the year up front for 10% off, or something like that?

If you're a spender, like me, remove all your credit card information from saved sites. Sign up for alerts so that you are informed if someone spends over a certain dollar amount, it might also help to alert you to impulse spending.

I don't get maternity leave paid either. When we found out we were expecting DD2, I started saving right away (I used YNAB). Wasn't much but at least it was something. I also tried to buy most of the household/baby stuff I needed in order to have the least amount of expenses possible while on one paycheck.