[Closed] Costs of childcare

Nursery costs roughly £50 a day per child in Bristol

Take off £100 a month for childcare vouchers (per parent though IIRC it's now limited to £50 each)

Take off about 1.5 days a week once they're three, during term time for government early learning grant (or whatever it's called)

Per kid? Do you get a discount for two?

Some people / places will offer a discount for 2nd child from same family. Probably no more than 25% and probably only on the cheaper (1/2 time) one. ie. 1.5 becomes 1.375...

The £50 a day is per child. I think some places offer discount for more than one but it's usually not a lot of a saving.

The vouchers are per parent if their company offers it (eg one working parent can only get one set of vouchers regardless of how many kids they have)

The early learning grant is per child. IIRC it works out about £100-£150 saving per month.

Ours is at a place in Rhoose and its £25 per day for a 2 year old. Not sure about a discount though as our other is off to comp this year.

loads and loads and loads.

Any self-employed peeps know how it's going to work out for mrs deadly and I (Bollocks, I swore I wouldn't ask child related questions here)? (Both self-employed)

Based purely on conversations with friends who are similarly employed, they seem to miss out on the vouchers though I don't know the specific reasons for it since in theory, your company could offer them I would assume...

Something I'm interested in at the moment.

Not earning a huge amount, but enough that it's comfortable. However, now that my wife is not working, and we're only on the one wage, we're finding it much harder, although just about hanging on.

Throw in that she'd like to consider working, but we can't afford it, it hardly makes any sense for her to go back to, essentially, work for nothing but a few quid at the end of the month.

ETA, if the government were bright, they'd subsidise the nurseries again and you'd find that there would be whole legions of mothers heading back to work, and those wages ending up back into the economy...

How do others do it?

Just looking into this as well. £3 per hr for a registered child minder in NI. Nursery about £40 per day

Ours is at a place in Rhoose and its £25 per day for a 2 year old

Hmm that's cheap, almost worth driving to Rhoose for!

"is thinking childcare costs ought to be more and not subsidised"

At the moment Mrs B does one day a week (teacher, well up the management scale so on decent money) and the boys are looked after by a grandparent. This might have to change and we'll go to commercial child care for one reason or another.

It's not at all clear cut whether it's worth her working after costs have been paid - remember someone still has to collect and care for the 3 year old after hours unless either of you has the flexibility to work around this - with our 3 that's proving the costly part and a logistical nightmare.

"is wondering if bikebouy is going to follow that up with something incredibly ill-judged, sanctimonious and judgemental" 🙂

Around here (south east London) it is £45 per day until they are 2, then £40 from then. However, some places are not keen to do the half days presumably as it leaves them one short the other half of the day

"is thinking childcare costs ought to be more and not subsidised"

It's a different debate but less working people = less overall tax in. I'm sure someone cleverer than me has figured out the subsidy benefits the government over the individual in the long run.

I know that I hemorrage £120 a week for childcare, to a childminder, for one schoolboy and one not-yet-at-schoolboy. Not sure how many hours it is though.

Depends where in the country you are I guess. We're SE and put eldest into nursery 1 day a week for about 18 months, that was was £65 per day. Yes, ouch.

While the missus would love to go back to work, based on those rates she'd have to earn upwards of £50k gross just to break even to put the pair of them in full time (both under 3). That just aint gonna happen.

Child minder would probably be your best bet.

Bollocks, I swore I wouldn't ask child related questions here

Awaits DD's 'what papoose for coxing' thread.

Absolutely brassneck.

The benefits system for middle class families is not in their favour (I class myself as middle class, based on earnings, home owner etc).

It is not a case that we cannot afford to look after our own children, it is more that my wife would like to work if she could, partly to continue her career, partly to stop herself from going slowly mad, and then finally, to boost our income.

Yes, you could argue that it should be something we pay for, but then if it is set at a value where the BULK of families are unable to afford to use the nurseries, then the tax take will go down for the goverment, and the nurseries slowly fester.

Increase the subsidy, and you'll find that earnings per family increase, that goes back into the economy in various ways, shopping, holidays etc and the nurseries have a subsidy additionally.

The lower earning brackets who do qualify and deserve extra benefit through childcare would continue to get this and wouldn't be affected.

As for all the benefit theiving scum whom milk the system for all it's worth, well they'd still be doing it anyway - they'd not care about nurseries I expect!

It's all a balancing act, but at the moment there is nothing to incentivise my wife and I to send her back out to work if all we get at the end of the month is an extra £100, and extra stress rushing around getting to nursery etc...

Looks like the first £25k of salary would all go on childcare. Arse.

Increase the subsidy, and you'll find that earnings per family increase

Umm provided there are actually jobs for them to do of course.. but that's another debate.

Exactly molgrips - our predicament too.

Really seems pointless - We'd rather my daughter benefit from extra time with my wife, at the cost of her sanity at times, than work just to get time in an office and our daughter in a nursery and have nothing to show for it.

ETA re: jobs - well yes, indeed. We're lucky in that my wife has one, and potential career development upwards - but I appreciate not everyone is as lucky.

molgrips - Member
Looks like the first £25k of salary would all go on childcare. Arse.

You get government funding mate, also childcare vouchers through work. It works out a LOT less than that IME.

Basically molgrips between now and when they go to school you will pay an absolute fortune for childcare.

It varies between regions but we paid around £150 a week per child. Childcare vouchers and the 40% free hours once they are 3 blunt some of the impact but expect to be paying a big chunk of money out every month. The upside is that once your children go to school (assuming its not fee paying) you'll be immensely better off and can take advantage of onsite pre/after school clubs to soak up any difference in your hours vs when school starts or finishes.

We were paying 575 a month for my 3 year old and a further 485 for a nanny to pick him and his big brother up from nursery and school and bring them home for an hour or two til one of us got back. Now both are at the same school and we've got a little extra flexibility from both of our employers we'll be down to 110 a month for the pair of them to stay for after school club two days a week.

Its mental but if you need 2 salaries don't expect to see a great deal of second one unless your wife is earning shed loads.

Bloody kids!! 🙂

Childcare vouchers at my work appear to leave me about £50/mo better off in actual money terms.

Sounds right - £243 of vouchers for £193 reduction in take home pay for people joining the scheme now IIRC

Hardly seems worth it if you work part time...

TSY 😆

Any self-employed peeps know how it's going to work out for mrs deadly and I (Bollocks, I swore I wouldn't ask child related questions here)? (Both self-employed)

DD - will get mrs S to drop you a line. she knows the score for vouchers etc as we* do it for jr and are both self employed.

* I say "we" but we all know I have no effin' clue. The boss does all the complicated stuff.

It varies hugely from area to area I think. We pay £3.90 per hour for a childminder, nurseries around here are around £45 – £50 per day, childminders round her go up to about £4.50 per hour. I think most places offer a sibling discount but only usually about 10%?

Don’t forget you need to look at childcare across both your salaries not just your wifes and also going back to work isn’t just about the money

ETA, sorry I didn’t mean that last sentence to sound quite so patronising!!

Cool, thanks Stoner, muchos appreciation.

In the meantime, is it safe to carry a newborn while coxing an 8?

Molgrips,

I could ask my mil if she is available if you want 😉

In the meantime, is it safe to carry a newborn while coxing an 8?

Above the waterline is the key thing.

Above the waterline is the key thing.

Nah, newborns have that innate breathing underwater reflex thingy, it’ll be fine.

We'd rather my daughter benefit from extra time with my wife, at the cost of her sanity at times, than work just to get time in an office and our daughter in a nursery and have nothing to show for it.

Amen. The people I feel for are those who simply have to both work full time to scrape by, yet still are having to pay out hundreds for the privilege. Mrs B really only works to keep a toe in the working world (and a bit of adult company, doesn't get that from me :-))- if we have to start paying for child care outside the family she'll be miserable and we'll not really clear enough 'profit' to be worthwhile.

Cool, so just a wetsuit for warmth then. Excellent! 😀

Being serious for one teeeny moment....

I don't envy you lot having to juggle childcare costs and work/life/normal stuff.

One reason I'm a selfish (and happy) git.

Surrey...£67.50 per day, per child...hence now baby no. 2 is here my wife won't be going back to work. We previously had our eldest in two days a week only and it was like having a second mortgage. Thankfully the eldest has just turned three, so she'll just do the free 15 hours a week ( 3hrs every afternoon) at the nursery of the local primary school and that's it.

Can't wait till they are both at school and we have some disposable income once again!

In the meantime, is it safe to carry a newborn while coxing an 8?

Only if they've got a good quick, smooth connection at the catch. Any airshotting, hanging or ripping and the baby's neck is likely to break...

We pay £800 per month for four days a week for one child, theres a 10% discount for siblings

I pay £2.43 an hour for jr but that is at a council nursery. They tend to be cheaper but have later starts and earlier finishes than private ones, some are also only open during term time.

We also pay £1.15 a day for lunch, decent lunch not just sandwhiches though

we're paying about £530 a month for our 2 year old, childminder from 0830 till 1730 4 days a week.

I don't know how people manage with 2 kids, childcare vouchers are awesome though, as is child benefit 😀

EDIT: surestart centres appear to be amazingly cheap but you need to put your name down about 6 months before you start trying for a baby.

£50 / day here (Bath). If Mrs transapp was earning less than £75/day, than quite simply, she'd stay at home. Happily she's got a cracking job and mini loves the nursery she goes to. She also gets child benfit vouchers from work so saves a bit more.

Bloody hell, its pricey having kids in the UK!
Here in Sweden we pay roughly £160 a month for both kids!
Looks like that move back to the UK is on hold for a while...

For us it has always been a fine line between earning enough to make it worth while and our family life so much so that my wife found it best to work a almost term time only contract and look after the kids in the holidays, out of term time is a real cost once they go to school. She likes to go to work so that it excercise here mental facilites and gives her adults to talk to. We are lucky in that our child minder is very flexable and offers discount for sibilings plus the nursary we use is run by the trust i work for and offers fee direct which works the same way as the vouchers but has no upper limit.
The nursary costs £4:05 per hour and they open 07:00 until 18:30 which is very good. Our childminder charges £3:50 for the first and £3:00 for the next. This in the Southampton area.