A new mum saved £15.5k for maternity leave - so she could afford to have a baby.

Alice Gregory, 30, was "shocked" when she found out the statutory maternity pay in the UK was just £184.03 a week - after falling pregnant late last year."

The mum-to-be realised the money would not even cover the bills and started saving straight away so she didn't have to be reliant on her partner, Dion McGrath, 31, support carer salary.

In nine months, Alice managed to save £7,000 from her salary and £8,500 from side hustles such as surveys and freelancing but felt a "pressure" to work to afford her own maternity leave."

This weekend Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch suggested maternity pay had "gone too far" and was "excessive"."

She later said she had been "misrepresented" and her comment had been on a wider point about cutting regulatory burdens on business."

Alice, a head of marketing, from Anglesey, Wales, said: "It's quite upsetting."

"For me personally it's a low amount of money."

"It's saying new mums - you're not worthy of being able to get that minimum wage."

"It's not in line with the cost of living."

"It's the most important time of your life - and it's not seen by the government."

Alice was excited when she found out she was pregnant in October 2023 but when she looked into maternity and paternity pay she was shocked at how little it was.

She said: "I thought maternity pay was a percentage of my wage."

"I was really shocked at how much it was."

"It's £2k less than what I'm used to."

Legally companies have to pay 90 per cent of a salary for six weeks but Alice's work paid her at that rate for 12 weeks.

She will then receive the rate of £184.03 per week - £736.12 a month before tax.

Alice said: "It's not even minimum wage."

Alice didn't want to just rely on her partner's salary and started squirreling away her income as well as freelancing to make an extra pot of cash.

She said: "I have always been really independent."

"I stopped buying anything I didn't need - any clothes."

"It's a different lifestyle for what I feel I have worked for."

"I have to think any transaction through now."

"I'm only getting necessities."

Alice spent evenings and weekends freelancing and even after her daughter, now three months old, was born she continued to pick up clients to keep her emergency savings pot topped up.

She also side hustles picking up cash through market research jobs and surveys where she can.

She said: "Some people can't afford to save anything."

"I'm privileged I am able to save."

"Having gone from a carer to earning less than minimum wage just because you've had a baby is crazy."

"I'm lucky I have a partner who is really supportive - if you don't it must be an incredibly scary time."

Alice asked her followers on her TikTok account @alicesidehustler if they saved anything for their maternity - and some said they had saved as much as £20k.

She said: "People were saving like £15k - it's like a deposit on a house."

Alice says she battles with the financial pressures while trying to enjoy this time with her newborn.

She said: "It's supposed to be the best time of your life."

"But there is financial anxiety."

Alice hopes to be able to take the full year of maternity but may have to go back early if energy bills shoot up this winter.

She said: "I want to have as long as I can - ideally that full year."

"If I'm a little skint I don't really mind."

"It's the most important time in mine and my baby's life."

"It might have to be that I go back early."

"It would rob me of a whole three months."

Alice feels lucky she is able to have a baby at all with the cost of living crisis.

She said: "It should be a really special time in a couples life."

"You try and be present but you can feel this creeping anxiety about money."