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Original poster

Thinking now of getting live-out nanny but they seem to earn more than I do!

34 replies

BoffinMum · 13/02/2009 18:44

I am in Cambridgeshire and currently have an AP - there has been a thread on this as it has been a bit of a saga all round, but suffice it to say I have now had enough. I have a new baby due quite soon.

Nannynick, Blondes and others have very kindly given me a lot of top notch advice on how to recruit a live-in nanny with appropriate salary rates and so on, but after a lot of thought and soul searching, I have decided that best of all would be a live out nanny, because I am now quite bruised from having someone live in my house, and frankly going absolutely nuts from the lack of privacy.

However, having asked around, it seems nannies are asking for £8ph net locally. I grossed this up on Nannytax for the 2 hours a week I am working or commuting, and horrifically, this works out at more than my entire take-home pay, so after paying transport costs to work I will be earning minus £400 a month, which is obviously not an option if I want to stay solvent.

Does anyone have any useful suggestions as to a solution? I have thought about a nanny share, for example, but I don't know much about them.

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Tryharder · 13/02/2009 19:50

Tax credits? I employ a live-in nanny and because my salary isnt that fantastic, I can claim almost half of her salary back.

Original poster
BoffinMum · 13/02/2009 19:36

xposts

That was harsh, having to pay the higher rate when the other family had reneged. But these things happen.

We were thinking of saying 2 weeks off at Xmas, 2 at Easter, and the whole of August off. Because I'm a lecturer I need to do it this way to fit in with the academic timetable. Do you think another family would go for that?

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Original poster
BoffinMum · 13/02/2009 19:32

Oooh, Millarkie, I am so glad you posted, these salaries sound a bit more what I was expecting. Phew. I am panicking a bit less now.

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Millarkie · 13/02/2009 19:30

Nannysharing - does cut costs but the pitfalls are (in my experience - we have nannyshared with 2 different families at different times) :1) arranging holidays - you get less choice over holiday when nanny is on leave too (ie. you might get a situation where you choose a couple of week, other family chooses a couple of weeks (which you get no say in and might be difficult for you to find cover for) and nanny chooses a couple of weeks (make sure it is written down and both families know exactly when nanny is off (sounds silly but in our case nanny had much better communication with one family and relied on them to inform other family which was not ideal!)
2) Respect of the other families child's requirements -eg. our dd did not go to ballet class because other child would be too young to join in ..but when other child was old enough her mum booked her for ballet (and told nanny to take them) and didn't tell us, so my dd ended up having to go along and hang around waiting for the duration of the class..little things like that need to be sorted out at the start.
3) most importantly - finding another family! You could try netmums, or thenannysharers.co.uk

There are also the issue of what happens if one family wants to leave the share - we ended up having to employ nanny by ourselves for a couple of months (on her nannyshare salary, so more expensive than a standard nanny) due to her having an argument with the share family and them terminating without notice! (Yes there was a contract but god knows how to enforce it, and we needed childcare so took the hit and looked for another share family).

Millarkie · 13/02/2009 19:19

Just found a couple on nannyjob.

  1. live-out fulltime nanny 8am-6pm for 300net (300/50=6 pounds net per hour) - Angels Childcare, and 2)£300 net for full time 8-7pm (300/55=5.45 net per hour) - TInies.

Also a live-in job 7am-7pm, 5 days a week for £266 gross..

I have to admit when I saw the first couple of adverts t'other day I was not convinced but those jobs are with 3 different agencies so it does look like nannys salaries are taking a drop these days!

Could you work out what your top limit for childcare spending is and put on an advert and see if you get any applicants?

Millarkie · 13/02/2009 18:53

I'm near Cambridge and was on nannyjob looking for some adverts for nannies to get an idea of current salaries (same reason as you, but I'm not pg) and they weren't £8net per hour. Only found 2 adverts that actually stated salaries (both agency) and they were more like £7 gross!

Original poster
BoffinMum · 13/02/2009 18:51

I commute from Cambridge to Norwich (1 hr 20 minutes). I really need to be there by 10am at the latest and I get home at 7pm if I leave around 5.30pm. I can work from home on Fridays. But I am a lecturer so can flex the timetable a little bit - there's still a load of work to get through though.

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WobblyPig · 13/02/2009 18:47

How flexible are your hours? I work for example 30 hours in 3 days which is almost 4 days pay but without the 4th day's expenses. In the longer days DP takes over at 5pm.

Original poster
BoffinMum · 13/02/2009 18:45

Sorry, I meant to type 52 hours a week.

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