How does anyone afford childcare!!

IME - 1 of 3 ways

1. Mum compromises career/reducing work hours/taking lower paid job owing to flexibility need
2. Help from GP (when I went out with my kids during the week I saw a lot of GPs, can't deny I felt a bit jealous at this, especially after talking to GPs and some providing so much help).
3. Getting into debt

Family help 2 days a week and tax credit help for the other 3 days. Although a miscalculation led us to a £4k tax credit overpayment that took us 3yrs to pay off. We had saved for maternity leaves and were frugal throughout but when the kids were young we were at our poorest.

I can't afford it so I am a SAHM and we budget for one income only, which isn't easy but luckily we manage

We have a small age gap and I had to go part time and also rely on family help with one day of childcare. Financially it’s a bit of a slog we haven’t holidayed abroad while they were in nursery because of fees but you do come out the other side.

Both parents Compress you hours at work if you can, get a tax free childcare account if you earn under 100k

I had mine close together and stayed at home. You make financial sacrifices to do this - 2 bed maisonette, one old car, one shared payg mobile, no pay tv or subscriptions, no gym ... it was worth it though

We planned ahead. I was due to sit a professional exam a month before I was due which would have significantly increased my earnings in time for maternity… baby then decided to come a month early, the day before my exam!!! Our plan then had to change. Luckily I hadn’t taken any holiday the year I was pregnant, so with accrued holiday I could go back to work 3 days a week and still be paid for full time for about 7 months. My in-laws have him once a week and he goes to a childminder 2 days a week… which is still £720 a month!!!! I’ll probably stay part time and take the pay cut until September when he should qualify for free hours.
I’m concerned though that there’ll be a general election and Labour will scratch the new childcare funding pledge… I’m hoping they’ll offer some sort of alternative though that at least makes it financially easier. Whether we have a second child really depends on it.

1. Want a kid
2. Plan for a kid
3. Research cost of kid
4. Add 25% contingency to factor in cost of living, dad leaving etc.
5. Build up those funds and keep secure.
6. Congrats, you're ready for a kid :)

When I had two in nursery I worked for £50 a week! Luckily it was for a short time. There was less help then than there is now but it's still awful. Even those on a decent salary struggle.

I essentially paid to go to work until the funded hours kicked in. Think I worked out roughly working cost me about £50 a month but it was worth it for my sanity. Now the kids are older and it’s just wrap around care the bill is much less. Though still significant and I have a job I love

Its more than many

i was the higher earner. We saved my entire salary and lived just on Dh’s income for a year before having a baby. We got used to have less money and built up a significant nest egg that helped with childcare bills.

Three kids, life in different end of UK to family so our only option was full time nursery. Flipping expensive!!!

We have decent age gaps to help, so never more than two in nursery. We try and be a bit savvy with money (batch meals that we can easily reheat; don't buy fancy food- we go to Aldi; we plan things in advance to get good deals; we drive a reliable but not fancy car etc). Bonus is that when the youngest goes to cook... will be the best payrise ever!

I got pregnant on the pill in the last year of my degree. So zero savings and no family help what so ever. We've never been able to afford full time nursery only when funded hours have kicked in. So I set up my own business working opposite my husband. We have sacrificed a lot in terms of lifestyle savings and my earning potential. Career wise I will have to start from the bottom again. There was just no option to afford both.
If its possible to play the long game and keep your career I'd definitely do that. If you can live as frugally as possible for a few years.The cost of living now is ridiculous everyone needs wages to go up to make life doable again. They also need to look at wraparound childcare for schools and sen childcare. For some these issues don't go away when they get to school.

Well yeah it’s hard, that’s not news to you surely. I had twins first and had to leave work as couldn’t afford childcare. This time round I work two jobs (one when kids are sleeping) to make it work, but pretty much all my salary goes on childcare.

Yes it's a joint cost, but I always remember a friend of mine saying that as a family they were only £50 better off a month for her working full time and paying nursery fees, than they would have been if she didn't work at all (teacher).She only kept working because the school was convenient and she wanted to be able to work there when the kids were in school themselves

but that’s such a short term view. And says nothing for her pension or the fact the kids are soon enough in school and costs ramp down. And out her salary they pay half.

I really dislike folks who compare it to thr woman’s wages, like her career is worth nothing, and say well it’s not worth it, or we get nothing much over and above like it’s the woman’s cost. It isn’t. Compare it to the husbands.

2k A month is low for two adults and a child to live off though, average salary full time in the uk is 38k each, so the op is below average but looking at her child care costs she’s not in a cheap area.

so she needs to pay rent /mortgage, all bills, food , clothes toiletries etc from that, plus commute costs, insurance etc . Nearly 50 percent of their joint income is going on childcare. Yes it’s for a short period. But wow. It’s a huge percentage of their income.

We didn’t really register how challenging this would be until I was on maternity with my first. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to downsize and move close to work at the same time which enabled us to reduce our hours - both of us worked 4 days but my hours were compressed into three days so only two days childcare (no support).

With number 2, DS1 was only 15 months when I fell pregnant, so when I went on maternity, I took a year off and pulled him out of childcare, sold the second car and walked everywhere, took picnics and flasks of coffee and generally minimised spending. After ML was over, they both went to child care for 2 days each, and we juggled madly but came out of it without debt.

It’s very tough for the majority of families. All good now, it passes!

Some friends of mine both did compressed working hours, so a full working week in 4 days. He worked Monday to Thursday, she worked Tuesday to Friday, so they only had to have childcare Tuesday to Thursday. Not an option for everyone of course.

They also staggered their work days so that one of them did the drop off and the other the pick up so that they could minimise the childminder time as much as possible.

Yes it's a joint cost, but I always remember a friend of mine saying that as a family they were only £50 better off a month for her working full time and paying nursery fees, than they would have been if she didn't work at all (teacher).

She only kept working because the school was convenient and she wanted to be able to work there when the kids were in school themselves.

I'm a childcare provider, I know how it works.

If you have a spare room in your house, an au pair would work very well.

I don’t know how you do it. Where I live we pay £80 a month for two children, including 3 meals.

im Currently on maternity leave. We are planning on me going to 4 days a week, my parents will have baby one day and then three days nursery which is £965 a month which is affordable for us but we’ll have to make cutbacks.

She’ll be 9 months when she goes to nursery in October so hoping the childcare funding goes ahead and then we will get 15 free hours so it’ll be a bit cheaper I think around £700ish then when she gets 30 hours the following year it’ll go down to £560ish a month. I feel so so so fortunate that we have had a baby and these extra funded hours have been announced. £965 a month until she is three would’ve hit us quite hard financially.

Its hugely frustrating that whilst our childcare fees have duly increased by at leasty 100pm every year, its still only 2K a year help from the gov! No increase in assistance at all.

FT fees for ONE child where I am are a min 1800 a month.

Its a joint cost that comes out of the bills just like the rent or groceries so that helps you not to think of it as 'A whole salary.' DHs salary is only just above thus amount so it still made sense for him to stay in work (I am the higher earner) rather than stay home with DD as it would hurt him to pause his career now, especially as we both have such flexible and understanding jobs,

Truthfully? We did go into debt by quite a bit because as much as we try and reduce bills, there were still things we spent money on like once in a lifetime trips of relatives visiting from Australia, for example. We took the risk that our circumstances wouldnt change and debt could be relatively quickly repaid once free hours started.