Moan about childcare costs - Earlsfield / Wandsworth

[ToffeeForEveryone]

Probably something that has been done to death, but I am just about to sign DS up for nursery and am pretty depressed about the costs! I earn £34,000, so below average for London, but still (I thought) a decent wage.

I am planning to go back to work 3 days a week but after childcare I have about £200 left for the month ... Working 4 days would leave me with even less! Even working full time there is no way I could pay for basic utilities never mind mortgage. Luckily DH's wage will cover our cost but how on earth do single people in London do this?!

Is the profit margin on nurseries excessively high? Or am I being fleeced somehow? It cannot possibly cost them £1,150 a month to look after DS for 3 days a week. My sister pays less for 2 kids 4 days a week in the north of England.

[HSMMaCM]

Calculate it as if you and dh are paying half each.

[melibu84]

£34k is below average for London?! And here I am on £25k :(

My partner and I have worked out that in our current area, childcare will cost £1k a month. (£6.50 per hour). If we move further out to Kent, it will be more like £700.

When I was a kid, my mum was a cm and charged £60 per week per child. Nowadays it's more like £60 per day per child.

I really think they slap a premium on just cos they're in London/south east England. It takes the fucking piss.

I'm putting in a flexible working request (work from home 1 or 2 days a week) as it will reduce childcare substabtially, or there is almost no point in me working!

[airingcupboard]

Nurseries are expensive to run and going to get more so with the living wage. They have to have high ratios of staff to kids and have enough staff so they maintain their ratios if someone calls in sick. Properly is expensive in London. Insurance, ofsted etc etc. If it's a 10 hour day then you're paying under £10 per hour.

Countries which have cheap childcare do so because it is heavily subsidised. Are you and your partner both getting childcare vouchers? would save you about £1000 each per year.

[NotCitrus]

Look at the pricing structure - you may get a discount when they turn 1 or 2. And certainly there's the 15 free hours from when they are just over 3, so it will get better soon.
With childcare vouchers it helps too. And does your work offer interest free season ticket loans?

Just think of your NI and any pension contributions and the fact that your career is progressing.

Now if you have a second child at nursery it's really painful - but better rapidly.

[namechangedtoday15]

We stopped paying for nursery about 3 years ago and it wasn't too far off that for one - and in the North (West) of England. But I had twins .

Babies are the most expensive - some nurseries lower prices as the children get older because the ratios can increase, and as others have said, it will get better when your child turns 3 (but please don't think you'll get 15 free hours, it never works like that).

And yes to childcare vouchers, doesn't sound like much but if both you and your husband claim them, it makes it slightly more palatable.