Baby Budget!!!!

For the past few months I've been a bit nervous about how we were going to manage with my drop in income come April when Baby #3 arrives. 

In Canada we are lucky to be able to collect maternity/parental employment insurance benefits for up to a year which helps. I did some number crunching and made some telephone calls this month. It looks like in April 2014, I can expect to bring home $1,950/month as I will be eligible for the maximum benefit amount based on my income in the past 52 weeks. This amount is the amount AFTER minimal taxes are taken off. I will be selecting the less tax option (with spouse). Note: there is some variation by province - I am in Ontario.  I will also receive the Universal Child Care Benefit of $100/month per child under 6 years of age which means I will stop receiving for B in April but will start receiving for the new baby. In total, I will be bringing in $2,150/month. 

I don't plan on taking a full year off this time around. I will for sure take the Summer off but hope to go back to work sometime in the Fall. Since I am working on contract currently, I'm not guaranteed a job to go back to so it is nice to know that I have the safety net of a guaranteed income for  up to one year, should it take me some time to find another job. 

Surprisingly, we didn't have to make too many cuts to our budget which was sitting somewhere around $6,900/month though we've been bringing in about $7,200 or better so we did have a fair bit of slack in there. By the end of March, we will also have our Visas completely paid off, freeing up just over $5,000 as an "emergency fund" should we need to use it at any point while I'm off. 

Without further ado, the budget line items that were affected have been highlighted in red: 

Expenses	Monthly	Notes
Housing
Mortgage Interest	900	Approximate
Property Tax	420
House Ins	85
Enbridge	135
OPUC	80
Water	65
	1685
Transportation
Car Loans	740
Car Insurance	290
Gas	270	$60/week for DH, $15/week for me
	1300
Investments
Mortgage Equity	500	Approximate
RESP	70
TFSA	25
	595
Debt	620	These are more or less our required payments or payments that would be a hassle to reduce.
Vacation	570
Life Insurance	120
Childcare	400	This was only actually reduced by $100. Won't be making use of this as much but will be using as a placeholder/banking hours to lessen the increase at first when I go back to work.
Entertainment	300	2 iPhone Plans, VIP Cable w PVR, internet - unlimited bandwidth, homephone w 500 NorthAmerican LD minutes
Groceries	400
Spending/Other	160
	$6150