Childcare options

[Rainbowhairdontcare]

I'm not even on ML and I'm already stressed about childcare when I get back.

It looks like we actually can't afford it and I'm at a loss. We're both on lowish salaries (18k each) but we have high commuting costs.

We own our house but that's still cheaper than renting even with UC .

We have no help from relatives. Our options it looks like are either form my DH to go part time (although it doesn't look like we're actually better off just that it's exactly the same with bonus of our baby being looked after by his daddy) or him finding another job.

I could do some other bits here and there (like tutoring) but odd jobs like that one only bring unreliable income.

Any other suggestions?

Could you both condense your hours in to 4 long days and then just have childcare on the other 3?

Also you can use tax free childcare. Look at the childcare choices website for all the options there are for help with paying for care.

What childcare options are you looking at? Childminder is usually the most cost effective, but yes, childcare can often be a household’s biggest outgoing.

nursery/childminder? you will get help with childcare through UC at these salaries (I have put 2 DC through nursery without family support so not talking from hearsay). Once they turn 3, there will be 30 free hours for 38/weeks of the year so it won't be forever.

Even with the UC/ tax free help we're left with absolutely no money. (We only get about £300 a month, bill is about £900).

He can't do condensed hours as it's manual work. I'm talking to my employer for WFH with shifting my hours to the evening, but even that wouldn't be more than 2 days a week and he's unsure.

Our income after all deductions (and commuting costs) is shy of £1950. All our bills (without road tax and car insurance for my car) is £1600.

And we're only budgeting £430 for clothes, food, going our, vet bills, emergencies, etc.

Any scope for one of you to do nights or weekends?

My DH does weekends 5 months out of 12 , but unless our DS goes to two different childcare providers, most CM/nurseries wouldn't do the switch and keep his place for when we need it FT.

We thought of him going back into retail, but it tends to be shift pattern and thus very unreliable.

You say tutoring as an option, are you experienced with children? If so is becoming a nanny/childminder an option?

No I'm not really experienced with children. I'm bilingual Spanish/English being proficient in a couple of other languages. My job is the one with most earning potential so we can't afford for me.to leave it unless I find something better, but that's not that easy where we live.