LO is 4 months old, and we've been able to keep her with family while we work. My husband has been getting killer overtime lately on 2nd shift, so he's been way too exhausted to watch her while I'm work during the day. We decided to look in to childcare and potentially getting him back on dayshift, but it's a much bigger expense than I thought it was going to be!!! How do those of you that have outside childcare afford it?!
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Yeah, um.. if we were to have a baby in 9 months we would just BARELY not be in the red every month paying for childcare. That's assuming a ton of cutting back also.
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Honestly, it was so expensive we decided (among other reasons) I'd just stay home. Realistically all I'd be doing was working full time to pay for daycare. I went to daycare as a kid and it was a blast so I'm not against daycare at all but it's so pricey if you go with a center/school type setting it seems. I know that what my parents did was interview a few people who did daycare in their homes, like babysitters. It was cheaper than leaving us at a daycare center with a salaried staff. We stayed with an older woman who took about 3-4 kids a day to watch and did it just for extra income so she didn't charge thousands a month or anything. My parents did a background check and she was current on First Aid certifications (actually I think she was a former nurse). I know it's kind of a tall order, but it can be done if you're willing to look around and find a trustworthy person.
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we'll be using our mom's help on the two or so days a week that i will be working. but, i know that a lot of my mommy friends around here skip the overpriced daycare centers and look for other sahm friends or friends of friend who are looking for extra money. usually a post on facebook will provide you with lots of suggestions of people who are looking for lo's to watch. from what i've seen/heard sahm's who watch one or two other lo's tend to charge less than a full-on nanny or daycare center.
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We are doing a nanny from mid-Sept. to the end of Dec. and then daycare beginning in January. The nanny is almost $1k more a month than daycare and money is going to be really tight during those months. We're also moving in that time frame so I think I'll be bringing PB & J for lunch. I so wish I could stay home, but we'd be losing a lot of money if I did.
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I'm not working.
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LO isn't here just yet, but we've already decided how we're handling her childcare when I go back to work. I am SUPER lucky that my mom has a degree in childhood development and has had a dayhome essentially my whole life- she has agreed to take Emma at no charge until "she's in college!" lol.
We are really fortunate that we have that option because daycare in our area would cost more than I make in a month, but DH doesn't make enough on his own to float the household. I don't know how some of my girlfriends at work can justify the "cost" of working.
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We waited to TTC until we could afford daycare.
As it is, once we have two kids we'll need a nanny because we can't afford two day care spots. -
I would hardly be taking anything home if I went back full time and put a future LO in a good daycare center. It's actually something that made the decision to be a SAHM easier, although I have always wanted that anyway.
However, I'm told you should look at it more long term-- as in, yes, you may be barely breaking even for your full time salary right now, but in a few years, when childcare costs are greatly reduced, you will have been working that whole time, with raises and experiences, so you will be better off financially than if you had taken those years off. -
@oliviaoblivia: Oh, this too. We waited to TTC until we could afford for me to not work for a few years. It was our #1 reason for waiting.
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i knew how expensive daycare was in our area when we were TTC, but after actually getting pregnant, we took a hard look at our finances and decided to move about 20 minutes further out to a more affordable area. it is going to save money on childcare and housing costs. there were other reasons to move, but being able to save up for a house even with child-related costs was definitely a huge motivator.
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great question...right now we have MIL watching him at a steal but we know she doesn't want to do this long term, so we're trying to crunch the numbers ourselves.
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I assumed childcare was going to take up nearly all of my take home salary. But, when we actually started touring childcare facilities, it only ate up about 50% of my take home pay...so we are able to swing it. All of our bills are covered with DH's salary and we are using the other half of mine to finish paying off debt.
ETA: Once we have two kids, I'll stay home, since daycare would then be eating up all of my salary.
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It is very expensive, but its still the cheaper option compared to me staying home and not making any money at all
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We had an idea of how much day care was going to be before we even entertained the idea of having kids and made sure it was going to be affordable within our budget. It definitely seemed impossible to afford the equivalent of another mortgage payment per month but you figure it out somehow. We just cut back on a lot of things we used to spend money on (eating out, traveling, clothes, etc).
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Good jobs =\
I want to do in-home. It's cheaper.
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My husband and I both make about the same amount of money. Because of this, we can't afford to have one of us stay at home. We found a "reasonable" daycare in our area for $1000/month . It's not ideal but it's better than the bigger daycare that cost $1600+ out near our offices. We did the math and found we have enough to cover bills, continue to fund ira's and 401k's and have just a little left over for savings. It's going to be horrible for 5 years but after that, things will be easier.
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We will be cutting back, and we use Flex spending through my work that allows os much money a year to be pre-tax which helps for child care cost. Otherwise just being frugal and watching, it is necessary for me as I will be going back to work so we have no other option.
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@Mrsbells: ditto.
We make enough to cover chidcare and still have money left each month. The biggest actually is health insurance! If I didn't work and we had to go to a family plan there's NO way we can make ends meet.
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@regberadaisy: Same here. My employer covers my health insurance premiums 100% so it is a really good deal. If I didn't work we'd have to put me on my husband's plan for $600+ a month or put me on a private, cruddy, cheap plan with no maternity coverage for baby #2.
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For us it comes down to picking what is important. We've cut back drastically on some things but kept other things and luxuries in the budget so we could make room for childcare. It means adjusting our timeline a little in respect to selling our house and upgrading, but it is a decision we made that fit us.
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It really does come down to the % of income you have left over to know if it is worth it for you to work. My husband and I both have well paying jobs and for me daycare had to be less then 25% of my salary for me to continue to work.
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Mr jacks had to get a better paying job for it to make sense to get a nanny. Otherwise he'd still be at home with the girls
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We live in a lower cost of living area, and the average day care costs are about 500-800$/month. We are currently TTC, and are hoping to have the entire first year of day care in savings by the time I have a baby. It definitely is a concern of mine, but it makes no sense financially for me to stay home (work is paying me to go to grad school and I have the cheaper health care program by far). Therefore, we are saving like mad! It's crazy expensive, even where I live!
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We just make it work. We pay almost as much as our rent, which isn't cheap either. We both make about the same amount and still have some left over after all the bills are paid. It isn't much but we can almost have the same lifestyle as we did before baby was here.
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We knew how much it would be so we're just cutting back in other areas to make it work.
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It depends on how much you have leftover after paying for child care. It's better financially for DD to be in daycare than for me to be a SAHM.
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We're lucky to both have very good jobs (of course, we're "older" and have student loan debt from obtaining the necessary education, and spent years of working our way up before either of us thought of TTC). That's the biggest answer to how do we afford childcare.
The other is putting off other plans. We wanted to purchase an apartment building within the next few years but daycare at $1400/month is basically that second mortgage. So, that plan most likely has to be put off for a few extra years until LO is in school.
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Daycare is less than 25% of my monthly salary for my job... Sometimes I WISH my job was a lower paying one so that I could make a reasonable argument to be a SAHM. Although we'd be fine on just DH's income, it would be silly for me to walk away from a pretty awesome paying position.
The grass is always greener....
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I would have to stay at home if we had another. Childcare is 685/month where LO will go--that is with early care/late care (7:30-5:30 5 days a week). It does get less expensive as he gets older, but not a whole lot.
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Child care is absurdly expensive in Boston (2k a month for full time daycare, more for a nanny). We have to live here while DH is finishing his residency and also until then I will continue to make 2x his salary. I'm going back 4 days (even though the pay cut doesn't make sense financially) and my mom is watchig T one day a week. It will be tight but I think we are getting a nanny the other 3 days. I used to spend money on clothes - I don't now. We also used to go out to nice meals - we don't now. Also no after work drinks etc. Basically without those things we are citing over $500 a month. We wont be saving much but that's life.
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Our place in Chicago was $2140 a month... there were others that were a little cheaper, but not by much. So.... we moved. We wanted to move back to Indiana at some point regardless and I got a new job that offered relocation so we were able to get out of our condo without having to take a massive loss.... now we are paying $960 a month which is MUCH easier to swing.
So I guess moral of the story is good jobs and moved to a place with a lower cost of living?
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Yeah, I considered daycare in our situation until I found out we were having twins... and then it just didn't make sense anymore. I'll be a SAHM and when the boys are a little older I'll consider going back for per diem work to keep my skills up to date. DH recently got a better paying job as well, which definitely cements our decision for me to stay home!
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My mom is a retired preschool teacher and will be watching our LO. There is no way we'd be able to afford a daycare center or nanny. My husband makes less and doesn't have benefits (insurance, retirement, etc.) so he would stay home or just work the days that I'm off (Fri, Sat, Sun; 4/40 schedule) if we didn't have my mom to help.
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I won't be working until LO is of kindergarten age anyways...so he'll be in school when I do work....but even that is expensive because we'll be sending him to private (Muslim) school....So, I'll basically be working to pay for his tuition and the other child we hope to have by then too. It's tough.....but yeah, kids = expenses!
My only recommendation to you,if I were in your shoes, seeing as family has helped you thus far is to see if someone can take your LO for mornings....or 1 day-2 days a week....Just cutting the # of hours you have to go to daycare will cut your costs.
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Budget, budget, budget! I am the breadwinner in our family (DH is in school) so my working anything other than full time was not even worth considering. We pay about 1/4 of my gross pay in daycare costs. We already did not do a lot of extra things (coffee out, dinner out, lots of movies etc), so we are just really careful about where we spend. Luckily this is semi-temporary as in 2 years DH will graduate and make more than I do, and we will reconsider.
One thing to note is that not all daycares charge by the hour--ours is a weekly cost for the slot, regardless of if LO is there 4 hours or 40. Something to ask about...
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We live in a province that child care is cheap. Families get help from the government.
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@Mrs. Sunglasses: DH thinks that this is what the US should do...or at least more companies should offer child care as a benefit.
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@HeatherlovesKenny: I'm going to write a post about it I think. I don't want to get hate comments on how cheap we pay. haha.
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DH and I both owned houses when we got married so when we sold mine we basically swapped a mortgage payment for a daycare payment. Now that #2 is almost here we are having to look at either 1) tightening our budget even more or 2) taking DD out of daycare and looking into an in-home care provider who would be less money but not as stimulating for DD. It is tough, our biggest thing is to budget really really carefully.
DH would love for me to become SAHM but our health insurance comes through me and it wouldn't be feasible for us to live on only his income and pay for his health insurance.
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