How much does childcare cost?

Average around me in Somerset is £50 ish a day.

I don’t use a childminder as there are non close to my work. There is a good nursery though.

Its amazing in 35 messages only one mentions child-minders why is this?

Childminders are qualifies care often more so than nursery managers and way more so than the Apprentices used by many nurseries and cheap labour and often more so than the room leaders. (many have early years degree and early years teacher status too).
They are regulated and inspected by Ofsted (as are nurseries and schools up to reception) and work to the EYFS like them.
They are suitability checked and increasingly work with others (assistants and/or co minders).
Childminders and often cheaper and more flexible than nurseries who for example have a set no alternative closing time.
Yet many never even consider them Why?

Worth factoring in at least yearly price increases too. Ours started as £38.00 a day when DD was 9 months old, its now £43.50 a day, she's 3 yrs 8 months so about £2 a day increase each year. Not massive but it does add up.

We're not all that far from you in Buckinghamshire. We use a nursery and pay £61/day, that's a full day (they open 7.30 close 6.30 and can drop off/pick up any time around that). It's cheaper if you do full time but my DP works shifts and the days we need it shift from week to week so we have to pay on a daily rate. DS is 7 months but the rate is the same until they're 3. Hope that helps!

DS, 7mo goes to nursery, 1.5 days a week at a cost of £66. He is also care for by family for another 1.5 days. Myself and his dad both take a day off during the week, I work compressed full time hours and his dad works weekends.

Midlands here, we use a not for profit nursery that's run by a community cooperative in conjunction with sure start. They charge £43.50 a day for unfunded places. Pre 3 years old we were paying around £740.00 a month for a 4 day week. Now she gets 30 hrs free during term Tim so we pay full rate during school holidays, term time we pay £43.50 a week plus lunch and dinner fees which is £10.50 a week for the 3 funded days.

@Inthenightsea good question! I think it's something like, because the 30 hours are funded by the government they only fund term time, so full fees still apply in half term. The amount per hour funded by the government is also less than the price per hour that Nursery charges.

@Inthenightsea it depends on how your nursery interpret/ implement the funding. Ours doesn’t do 30 free hours term time, it does 22.5 hours all year around with meals on top. If your child is full time it doesn’t matter how long you drop them, their full time week is 50 hours.

SE England

I use a breakfast club and an afterschool club. Breakfast club is £5.75 from 7.45 until 8.45 for one child and includes toast/cereal and fruit juice.

afterschool club is £15 from 3.15 until 6:00pm and includes chopped fruit/veg and a drink.

I pay £44 a day for my 11 month old

@Tisfortired why do you pay 250 if he gets 30 free Hrs?
Does your child do more than 30 Hrs?

What does your OH earn? If its also low you could qualify for tax credits which would help towards childcare.

Midlands, nursery, about £830 a month full time. Dd gets 30 hours free which makes a big difference now but it’s still just over £500 for a full time space. Childcare vouchers helps- they come out of mine and my husbands pay before tax. It probably saves us a couple of hundred pounds a month.

My child minder just went up from 4.50 to 5.00 per hour. Dinner is an extra 1.50. I'm in Bedfordshire.

When my twins were in daycare for 2 days 8-6 it cost £1100 a month this was from aged 1 very expensive didn't make it worth going to work but I thankfully had a supportive dh who helped.

What kind of shifts would you be working as a waitress? Could you get some evening/weekend work around your DP?

Preschool is much cheaper than nursery BTW (£23 per day for me in SLDN), but they will only take kids from 2 and it’s only open 9-3. I work nights so manage to earn a full time wage this way without costing much (sleep while DD is there).

We have 2 kids. Nearly 4 and nearly 16months. They have nursery 4 ful day’s a week (8am-5.30pm) the eldest has 3 funded days but I still pay for day 4 and food on all 4 days. So between the two of them it averages £850 a month. Before the funded hours we paid £1300 per month roughly.

Also take into consideration that you will need to drop off before work and they will be there after you finish, also paying for food. When I realised this it meant I was earning nothing. For example:

I start work at 9, ds would need to be dropped off for 8.15. I finish at 5 and he would need to stay there until 5.45. So I had to pay an extra 1.5 hours and £2 per day for lunch.

Have a look at entitled to, you might be eligible for tax credits to help cover childcare

I'd you're a waitress and on shifts then that could prove tricky for childcare which is usually set agreed hours. Equally if you're a waitress, do you have a partner that you could work opposite hours to?

A full time nursery place in Oxon is between £1k - £1.2k but childminders are cheaper (£4/hr). Would becoming a childminder yourself appeal to you?

It isn't just £2 an hour though, OP.

It is staying in a job, which means you won't have to look for another one. It is continuous employment from a contributions POV. It is independence, an opportunity to do something for yourself.

Many people on here keep jobs going for that reason; others feel that the time spent working and away from their DC is not worth those things. It is the individual's choice.

Do you have a partner? We both went part time so we could both keep our career going and cut the childcare bill.
I appreciate this isn't an option for everyone though.

Hollowtree, if you can I would. We were paying the full price for the 3 days until January last year, about £600 a month and it was crippling us! We considered taking him out a couple of times but kept at it because he loved going so much.