https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67997480
"I was hoping that the budgeting I'd done would allow me to stay off for the full nine months," she says.
"With my first, I did not get to do that, and I thought with this one, I wanted to spend a bit more time with him.
"But things have increased so much that the money's not there so I've got to go back to work."
For Stacy, the price of formula milk has been the hardest cost to cover.
She assumed she would breastfeed her son but wasn't able to. This means she is now bulk-buying tubs of formula in a bid to save money.
"It's a massive cost," she says. "They'll go through a tin of milk in a few days."
Stacy is currently on statutory maternity pay of £172 a week but says she needs to return to her job as a quantity surveyor at Fife Council to increase her earnings.
She says that although she will have to pay for childcare the little bit of extra money she ends up with each week will make a big difference.
"I know for a fact when I drop him off, I'll be crying in the car on the way to work," she says.
@HebrideanHecate I think this is one of the biggest changes in the Western world in the last few decades. It is incredibly difficult for people on median incomes to have families without being obligated to return to work.
@sullybiker I know, it's really dreadful and it's also frightening, anything could happen to tip any of us into dire straits at any time too, well, us ordinary mortals anyway, seeing as we aren't the elite 😑 It bothers me so much for people, re housing, affording fuel, keeping a car going to get to work, food, kid clothing etc.
Really pisses me off when the smug wanks start their crap too, and the whole why do you need a car at all thing. Oh, I dunno, disability, communing miles and miles and no useful public transport for starters, you condescending pillocks kind of thing.
@HebrideanHecate Bus riders think the world is the same everywhere. It's exactly the same here.
@sullybiker Apparently, car insurance...I can't drive, neither can my partner, and it's a serious nuisance, but what can you do...has gone through the roof. My uncle, who has a good record over the years of not making any claims, was saying he got one hell of a shock when his came up for renewal. Friends saying the same, all living where need to be able to have the car.
@HebrideanHecate Yep. You get absolutely screwed.
@sullybiker One of the teachers here has a 40 odd mile commute, one way, and back home the distances people commute are high too, the public transport, the little there is of it, is of absolutely no use use at all in these situations, and still all we see are campaigns to get people onto bicycles. Madness, no let's get some really good bus services up and running. It also leaves out those who physically can't cycle even if they wanted to, due to disability issues. They seem to be completely obsessed with this to the exclusion of all else, including common sense.
@HebrideanHecate I don't know how people on lower income brackets do it.