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I know a few people who have two kids and most of them end up going with a nanny instead of daycare.
For me this is one reason why I want my first child to be atleast 3 before baby number 2 that way the first one can go to free pre-K

@Thehistoryofus: That's how I felt too. I didn't know where we could possible cut. But we ate out quite a bit before #2 so cutting this out saved us a lot. We were also smarter with our groceries (we bought bulk, frozen, and just stopped wasting food). Oh, and we also asked our family members to give us gift cards instead of buying us gifts. This was HUGE for us.

We will have two in daycare in the fall and we need to cut on food, eating out and other splurges! It will be around 2K for two kids!

Yeeeah. right now I'm leaning towards waiting till our first LO is 3, because some schools in Hoboken/Jersey city have free preschool at 3. But it's a lottery system AND dh wants to have the second a little closer together.

Day care here is around $1500-$2000 for 1 infant, so having two.....there's no way. I only make about $4000/month after taxes so that would be my entire salary and I would just stay home.

At least in my profession (education), I don't feel like you miss TOO much by taking a year or two off, but then you have to look for a new job again, and possible go down in the pay scale to get hired. The only other option is to make sure I keep working in this school district so that in 3 years I'll be tenured. And that means I could take a whole year off to be with the LOs and they would hold my job.

But definitely, day care for two is crazy expensive.

The daycare closest to my house, which is known for being one of the more expensive ones, to be fair, is $2900 for full time infant care! But I live in an expensive neighborhood (which is why we are moving) in the most expensive state for daycare in the country. But my point is, if we found something slightly more reasonable, I would still end up taking home a little tiny bit of money at the end of the month. With two, I'd be paying to work. I wanted to be a SAHM anyway, but the math makes sense that way anyway.

I know a few people who opted to stay home for a few years when they had 2, because it was less expensive than working. But they were in situations where they could get another job reasonably easy after taking a couple of years off-- that really depends on your field.

This is why I'm planning on doing a nanny share. My goal is for the nanny to be watching my baby and two others at the same time so we can split it 3 ways. If we did this with two babies it would still be waaaay cheaper than daycare x2!

I think you have to have an honest look at your budget and determine if you can swing that much extra. To me, a few hundred a month is 'make it work' territory. We live comfortably, but don't have nearly a thousand a month in non-essentials. Remember, you will have other expenses associated with a 2nd child too (diapers, medical, etc).

But as others have said, there might be alternate options that reduce costs - nannies, nanny shares, a SAHM friend that might be willing to take on another child. We have twins, and while I made a decent salary, it was the most practical for me to stay home until they hit school age.

Do you get a discount for 2nd child? I know our daycare offeres that.

I have a friend who got pregnant with her 2nd and told her current daycare she could only afford an additional $500/month (had been paying $1600 for infant care) and the center agreed to it. But they're not a giant chain, which I think makes them more agreeable to negotiation.

But, I also think that if money is a giant issue, then it may be better to wait and space them out more.

@Thehistoryofus: in our situation, my husband and I would have to stop sending extra to our mortgage each month (we send an extra $600 monthly) and we would probably have to cut back on our retirement savings. THIS is why we're only having one (sigh). It stinks knowing how much more you'll be pulling out to pay for another one in daycare.

If I were in your shoes, I would go one month writing down every single thing you buy/spend money on. Keep track of even a candy bar you may buy at the store, your gas, groceries, eating out. Just mark down every time you use your debit card, credit card or cash. At the end of the month, look at that and see what you could cut out. Is it just $200 you could cut out or is it more like $600-$700?

I like the idea someone else posed about asking daycare for a lower rate than just 10% off. Heck, our daycare gives us 10% off if we pay in full for a year. If we had another, I would ask for a bigger discount than that.

@KissMeCait: how can you find it frustrating? It has nothing to do with you! OP was looking for suggestions....not a scolding.

As others said, I would look into a nanny or nannyshare or babysitter. And then maybe daycare once a week for social interaction? I know lots of centers only offer FT care though....

If we had both kids in daycare full time, we would have been paying around $1800-1900/month. We ended up putting the kids in just two days a week, instead, and I stopped working.

Is there anyway your or your DH can alter your work schedule so you can reduce the number of days you need daycare? DH just started a new job that allows him to go to work at 6 so he's home at 3:30 every day and he gets every other Friday off. When I start working again, I'm hoping to work nights and weekends, so we won't need daycare at all.

When we have two it'll be more cost effective to have a nanny. Nannies around here are about $2400-$2600/ month and infant care is $1800. And with a nanny I can eliminate the cleaning woman.