How does anyone afford childcare!!

My first is going to reception this year and my second baby is going to be 1 next month.In all honesty i have decided to give up work for a year so I don't need to pay for childcare.When she's 2 next year she will be entitled to 30h and then I will go back to work.We are budgeting no fancy holidays, clothes our car is over 10 years old.We want buy a bigger olhouse but that won't happen until I go back to work.

68k a is the awkward spot though..too high for any help, not that high by today's standards.

34k a year would not be a great deal more than the starting/trainee salary in a lot of professions, and i think there would be an expectation you'd want to progress a bit & save up before starting a family.

Agree with you, we are forced out of higher pay

People on that salary are considered well off. It's just that childcare is ridiculously expensive

My situation is the same, over £1800, so I work 4 days, so I don't have to spend too much

What she means is they earn more than the average income/household...All of us have to pay 50% in childcare

I reduced my hours to work three days a week and used a childminder (3x10 hour sessions).

She charged £4 an hour so £120 a week, an average of £500 a month.

And then once the 30 free hours kicked in we didn’t have to pay anything.

We had no holidays/many luxuries as considered it a short term finance. Then wrap around childcare. We thought it would be easier as Ds got older. As he got older, cost of living has ramped up. Our one overseas holiday with Ds got cancelled in covid snd the money topped up furlough, home repairs.
We both worked full time and wiped out savings etc, had debt etc. I’ve always paid for childcare, aside from a few occasional days, never relied on anyone else.
Ds was a surprise after being told I’d not conceive. We moved to a much nicer area, into a house with better schools and opportunities for him to do more sports etc. In some ways, I v occasionally miss the small mortgage in my old flat and I DEFINITELY miss the holidays and lifestyle we had as a couple, but Ds is the absolute light of my life.
Childcare is enormous in the U.K. and so most are mindful of the financial implications before having a child, but sometimes life changes in ways that are unexpected. I considered working just nights snd weekends to cut down our childcare bills. We still generally split out the many school holidays between us to limit holiday clubs, although now Ds is older, but I don’t want him by himself for most of the holidays.

Feel your pain. My nursery is £90 per day so full time is £1912.50pm. There are no private nurseries in my area that provide the funded hours except the council nursery - and their opening hours dont work if you do a regular 9-5.

Yes and never has childcare been so expensive. When people are paying more for childcare than their mortgage it is a problem. Nearly £1000 a month for 3 days a week childcare is a massive amount of money.

Going to university however I appreciate that isn't a viable option for everyone but that's how we afford it

Honestly? Everyone I know went into debt - and we are talking decent middle earners here. Unless you want to drastically make three to four years of your life really miserable by being a total spendthrift, many of us just accepted the risk of going into debt with the ability to repay it once free hours / school started. You are relying on your circumstances not changing to repay it.
i live in a city so many of my friends and colleagues do not have family support - some leave because of it to be closer to family to try and save on costs.

@Cornflakes44 this is one of the reasons we took DD out of nursery! You have to pay for the full day regardless of the hours they're there if they are there even 15 mins over what they class as a "half day".

Childminder goes by the hour so this was best solution for us and honestly the best thing we ever did! Literally half the price and still get funded hours through them too

@Cornflakes44 What on earth? They're making you pay for hours when your child isn't there?

Also the 30 hours isn't that great. For us it's taken us from 900 a month to 750 for the oldest. Because nursery is open 7:30-6 that counts towards the hours, even though she's only there 9-5. Also £12.50 a day for food. It's been very disappointing. I've just had to expect that the next few years we'll be skint, But I don't know how people on low incomes to do. Probably quit work tbh. It's shit.

An age gap of 3 to 4 years so you don’t have two in nursery at the same time. (You can be on your maternity leave the year before year R).

Also earn more than £1800 net a month.

We chose to take DD out of a nursery for this reason and sent her to a childminder instead as it's much cheaper. The nursery just kept putting their fees up every time minimum wage went up and it was costing about £64 a day.

Childminder goes by the hour and is half of the price, still got all the relevant qualifications needed to look after children and ofsted regulated. Maybe you should look into that if it's something that's available in your area?

My second was born the day my eldest started school, intentionally having a 4yr gap to cut down on childcare costs.

I absolutely feel you. We have twins. 2.5k a month 🥺🥺🥺

I condensed hours for my first (two 14 hour shifts and an 8 hour shift)

The second time around I had one GP have him one day a week and condensed into 4 days. It still cost 1k a month for 3 days pw without 30 hours and 600 after.

I wish I didn't bother working as much tbh. I was too stressed to really progress in my career and take on more challenging work anyway.

@Char1997 it’s not even worth you working for 2k a month with an 1.8k childcare bill. That spare £200 will be swallowed up with transport to nursery, sick days and emergency unpaid leave.

You’d be better off asking for a 9m sabbatical and taking the time off until you get the funded hours.

You’d be eligible for some UC and child benefit.

With you on being baffled. I'm about to have a second (eldest is 2.5), the cost of them both in nursery 4 days a week will be around £2.3k (London) and that's a cheaper local nursery after the 30hours funding for my eldest. The nursery has had to increase fees to cover the funding shortfall and (rightfully) meet national living wage requirements, so the hours don't bring much respite. We waited until our daughter would be 3 thinking the hours would help more than they do :-/ but that's not an option for everyone- you can't plan how long it takes to get pregnant and I for one was not getting younger. With mortgage rates and cost of living its impossible and like you, I have a good job. I think we're going to muddle through with grandparents (which has its own complications and few people have as an option) and loans. It's such a shame because it really takes over family life, impacting how many kids you have and the experiences you would've otherwise had with your kids but can't afford to. (Rant over)

It's tough!! I did sooo many scenarios of working hours vs childcare costs to get the best version. I found working school hours sensible right now as paying for two sets of after school club cancels out most of the earnings anyway for the extra hour or two. We've cut back in a lot of areas. Once the 30 hours kicks in, it's more manageable but a long 3 years! Although funding has recently changed I believe. COL definitely hasn't helped. It isn't forever though. Also tax free childcare.

@Jf20
I worked to pay the childcare. Husband worked to pay the bills. Our income halved.

How did that work? Who paid your bills? Did you live with your parents?