Child care?

juliecwuk

juliecwuk

Well-Known Member
Mar 2, 2006
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who has to pay for childcare?

our monthly bill is about £800, Sophie is in full time nursery mon-fri 7:30-5:30, and then we have a baby-sitter on a wed eve when we go to Pilates/hockey training. We sometimes need the babysitter on a saturday too if our hockey matches clash. Our family are all far away.

We just found out yesterday that our good friends (we met in hospital when we had our babies at the same time), are now pregnant with baby number two.....so uber chuffed for them, but it just highlights how we would like a second but realistically there is no way on this earth we can afford to pay more than £800 on childcare a month!

We have been very fortunate that OH changed his job last summer and has a higher wage now, and we saved for years before having Sophie so that we didnt have to change our lifestyle. Whenever our parents mention us having a second, we reply saying we can't afford it.....occasionally people mutter well maybe you should sell the horses......but the horses don't cost anywhere near £800 a month so even if i sold them it wouldn't mean we could afford another!

I can see why people just have one child.
 
yup, its more than our mortgage :(

but unfortunately i do earn more than the daily nursery rate so it does 'pay to work' in my circumstances....
 
Child care is a crippling cost. My cousins day care was £1250 a month and that was mon-fri, 7.30am to 5.30pm. I don't know how anyone affords to work and have kids! It's one of my worries, the dream house will give us a huge mortgage, I can't see how we'd pay for child care :(
 
I'll have to start paying around £800 per month come September as well. It's insane to think that money dictates how many kids people have and I do sometimes feel that those of us with full time jobs seem to 'pull the short one' when you see people with tons of kids on benefits etc etc. but that's a whole different thing altogether. I'm not in a position where it'd be 'cheaper' for me to give up work or go part time much either.
 
I think people who work sadly draw the short straw.

I know I shouldn't say it, but I will!! We have tenants who pop them out like peas in a pod as my midwife said! And of course, the state pays for it all and they have no bills whatsoever to pay.

I suspect you would be an awful lot better off it you weren't working. Not at all what most of us think is the way forward, but with the benefit system we have, probably more lucrative.
 
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Edited to add, that massive respect to you that you are actually supporting your own child, when so many expect the state to do so for them.
 
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Childcare costs are astronomical, however it is only for those few years until they are in school, but then that again is if you choose to use state education. We're currently debating on putting her back to private education. My daughter is now 5 and was a summer baby so she had one year less in preschool than the babies born September onwards, but she always went two mornings a week with lunch from 15 months so I could have some time to myself after I left my full time job to have her as I wanted to be at home with her when she was so little. But I was lucky enough that we could afford it and my husband was on the same page as well for childcare. Family here for us is non existent as well and I won't use a baby sitter, so she stays with either my husband or I and we work things around our schedules.

I went back to work part time and have now stepped up my hours now she is heading toward Yr 1 however I still do two long days and she is looked after by her father. Give it another year or two and I know the after school club will be much more cooler though :rolleyes:

Don't get me started on the families in town with 5+ children that expect the state to support them and the school to 'sort em out'. :mad:
 
It is really tough when the babies are young but as Ruskii says, it does get easier as they get older. Make sure that you make the most of childcare vouchers as you will get a huge saving. Both my husband and myself collected and saved our vouchers when I was on maternity leave which meant that we had over £2000 saved towards our first year of childcare costs. As soon as your child reaches 3, you get 15 hours per week paid for which again helps lots.

It was cheaper for me to drop down to part time work rather than pay for 2 children in full time nursery. I still work 2 days per week and my youngest is about to start school. I know that I really should up my working hours, but for a few months at least I am going to enjoy 3 whole days per week to have nothing to do but ride my horse. After 2 pregnancies, and 7 years looking after children everyday, I deserve a bit of 'me' time!
 
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Unfortunately my husband does earn a pretty good wage so we don't qualify for any benefit help at all :( without my earnings we still wouldn't qualify for anything :( but without my earnings we couldn't afford anything at all, so it's a viscous circle!

We will have to wait until nearer school age for us to think about a second child, but that then means paying childcare out again for another 4 years on the next child :(

I just wish we had family nearby :(

Unfortunately my OH's work do not do childcare vouchers....I'm eagerly awaiting the change in the scheme from next summer.

Oh and Sophie will def not be going to private schools as we just simply cannot afford it. Plus my OH went to a private secondary school for a few years and hated it so he isn't keen anyway.
 
All children get 15 free hours of termtime nursery care when they reach the age of 3. It has nothing to do with how much you earn.

In addition, I believe that everyone can claim childcare vouchers. Your organisation has to sign up for them and you get them as a benefit before you pay tax. Look up Kiddivoucher - that's the organisation which both myself and my husbands company use.
 
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Didn't read the last bit of your post about your husbands work not doing childcare vouchers. Why on earth not - they don't cost the employer anything!
 
sorry MP - yes i have been doing childcare vouchers through my work, but my OHs company don't....thats why i am looking forward to the change next summer as then it is irrelevant of employers.

his old company didnt either, when he moved last summer we thought the new one would as its a bit bigger but they don't either and say there isn't enough interest to do it.....bit frustrating but can't do anything more about it :(

yes looking forward to the 15 hours free in a few years....we had a brief chat this morning about affording a second child as its obviously been on his mind as well.....i just said there is no way on this earth we can afford to pay more than £800 a month on childcare, so we can't afford a second until that childcare reduces i.e. when Sophie starts school.....UNLESS the grandparents would be willing to cover the excess during an overlap of childcare whilst the youngest is in nursery, before sophie starts school - we have 4 sets of grandparents - all have come into money over the last 3-4 years, but not once do they ever offer to give us a helping hand - yet they keep pushing for more grandchildren?!?! its so annoying big time, it would really really help us out now and then take it off our inheritance!
 
There is 3 years between my children and I took over a years maternity leave with my second. We therefore only had 3 months of nursery overlap before my eldest went to school.

I do feel for you. It's really hard to be a working mother, you can't win either way and it's almost like you are punished for going to work. It is worth it though. At the moment my youngest son is playing with lego in the conservatory and I am having an e mail conversation with my eldest across the room. They are such lovely boys and all the financial sacrifice is well worth it. x
 
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Im probabley coming at this from a different angle but I can empathise! for the first time in 18yrs I am having to look into childcare again. My youngest isnt of free nursery age, and Im just in the process of getting back to work after being a single mother bringing up my bubba. I went for some advice today about it all, and looked at a couple of nurserys as there are ZERO registered childminders in my area and the nearest one has no space Im living very rural. The nearest jobs suitable for me are approx a 60mile round trip a day, so Im having to take into consideration travel costs, Nurserys are £40 a day and its all a huge headache. I dont have a partner or family to help me, alougth my brother kindly bought me a new2me car. House rentals are through the roof closer to where the employment is, and its so hard to feel positive ! but... Ive seen a job I totally adore and feel excited for. Im hoping if I get it, I can battle it out until little one starts nursery in Feb. I will probably be poorer then being a single stay at home mother but Im hoping it will bring me opportunites for my future. Has been difficult circumstances and I never envisaged I would be in this sort of position in my life from being comfortable in the past. Theres no point moping around and waiting for a miracle! I hoped to do something self employed in my area of expertise, but logistics just dont work. One thing for sure I have enjoyed the joy of bringing my little one up day in day out, Its the hardest job on earth! I can also empathise how difficult it is putting children into daycare from young. I did that with my eldest from approx 3 months old and worked full time. If I could turn back time though I would of forfeited my lifestyle to of been a full time mum.
 
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