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Original poster

How do childcare costs go down when kids go to school?

90 replies

Yeahthatthing · 15/10/2019 12:05

We're doing DC1s school applications and I'm astounded at the number of people who assume we must be looking forward to it as our childcare costs will go down. They won't! When breakfast and after school club and holiday care is taken in to account the cost is the same or very slightly more than we are currently paying for nursery.

Do people's child care costs really go down? How?

OP posts:
reginafelangee · 15/10/2019 16:40
  • I went from paying £50 a day for childminder to £16 a day for breakfast and after school and £26 a day in holidays.

Other savings were that during holidays we only pay for days we use.

So we saved several thousand a year*

Sorry to add to my previous ^^ - I'm in Scotland so we got no free hours for first child and second child's free hours amounted to £200 a month so we still saved massively starting school.

Otter46 · 15/10/2019 16:41

Mine has gone up from this preschool as he got the 30 hrs free there but mainly because the school it was attached to had cheap breakfast and teatime club/wraparound care he could use. He’s now in reception at a different school and breakfast club is £5.50 and teatime club £13!!!

ODFOx · 15/10/2019 17:00

You haven't accounted for the fact that if you don't need it you don't have to book and pay for holiday care where nursery is fixed.
You are budgeting conservatively at 10 weeks but realistically it won't come to that. You and your DH will book odd days to spend with your DC and you will take time over Christmas or in the summer for some time together. You may well make a friend in the same boat and do some reciprocal days.
It will never be quite as grim as you are predicting.
Good luck!

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Childcare & nursery Families
Original poster
Yeahthatthing · 15/10/2019 17:03

ODFOx no it won't but we budget quite carefully so have factored in worst case scenario.

OP posts:
JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 15/10/2019 17:10

I think it depends entirely on the school and what’s provided.

My DCs last primary had breakfast club from 8am for 50p! And after school club was £1/hour 2-4pm for younger DC and 3-5pm for older DC. So if your work hours fitted in you could have wraparound care for £2.50 per day per child which was flipping amazing! Current primary school doesn’t offer any afterschool club though so it’s childminders at a rate of £3-£5 per hour or a flat rate of £15-£25.

mogtheexcellent · 15/10/2019 17:22

your nursery must be really cheap or very part time. My costs went down from 1200pcm to 800 when the 30 free hours kicked in. Once she started school it dropped further to 220 pcm during term time for breakfast and after school club. She does holiday club at 134 per weeik for about 5 of the school holiday weeks.

So basically I feel rich. Im not obviously but after earning 100pcm less than I paid for nursery when DD was 1 I feel very wealthy.

Verily1 · 15/10/2019 17:27

Mine went down massively years ago.

But this was before 30 hours childcare and before cuts to breakfast club funding.

It had been £30pd/£200 pwk nursery/ childminder.

When school started breakfast club was free then 50p then £1. After school was £7 and £16 for full days during the holidays.

So I was thousands better off per year.

But I do realise that after school has gone up a lot recently. Probably the minimum wage rise?

Original poster
Yeahthatthing · 15/10/2019 17:37

mogtheexcellent £27 per day for over 2s before free hours, and they don't charge for bank holidays. The 30 hours pro-rata over the year comes to £222 per month, just under half the total fees.

OP posts:
Skyejuly · 15/10/2019 17:41

Mine will because I work school hours x

Original poster
Yeahthatthing · 15/10/2019 18:04

I've just looked at the out of school club website again and the holiday club is £25 for school hours! With wrap around care needed either side. The private school really is the cheapest option!

OP posts:
reluctantbrit · 15/10/2019 18:33

We went from a £700 bill for nursery to a £400 bill for DD’s childminder for after school and 3 hours in the afternoon.

The amounts were for each months, so it covered holidays as well plus a bit extra for each day DD was with the CM for a full day, maybe another £70 per month.

But the CM didn’t work out well for holidays as DD got too bored so we put all available childcare vouchers per month into the account and what wasn’t used for the CM was used for holiday clubs. In most years we had money over.

You have a very cheap nursery.

sauvignonblancplz · 16/10/2019 07:11

@isabellerossignol What are you talking about? No childminder I’ve ever met charges a child at school for a full day, it’s before and after school. It doesn’t affect their ratios.

sauvignonblancplz · 16/10/2019 07:12

My bill went from £1300 to £500 when my children went from the crèche full time to full time education and we switched to a childminder .

BikeRunSki · 16/10/2019 07:22

@Yeahthatthing, you are right, wrap around care is not that much cheaper (and more complicated to arrange) than nursery in excess of the 15 funded hours. When DS started school, we paid for school dinners too (free dinners for KS1 didn’t come in until he was in Y1). Now that he has gone to middle school (Y6-8) we have no before/after school childcare costs, but he eats £4 of school dinners every day, has adult size shoes/football boots/trainers for school and foreign school trips are lurking!

Grobagsforever · 16/10/2019 07:31

Widowed parent here and no local
Grandparents. Pay around 300 per month for after school club, 80 for breakfast club and 400 for a babysitter to cover 8 hours as I can't manage pick up and drop off every day and still work.

Holidays are 200 per week.

That's for two kids though, so still cheaper than two nursery fees!!

isabellerossignol · 16/10/2019 07:46

@isabellerossignol What are you talking about? No childminder I’ve ever met charges a child at school for a full day, it’s before and after school. It doesn’t affect their ratios.

I have already explained that. I am not in England.

stucknoue · 16/10/2019 07:50

It's only cheaper because I (and other taxpayers) are subsidising your kids! I looked after my own, no free childcare. We took into account the true cost before having children, I stopped work until youngest was 6. I have no issues with working mums, just moaning about childcare costs and wanting others to pay for it when we can't even access support for our disabled adult children (I was prepared for being off work/pt when young but I don't think it's fair that the government won't give us support hours when she's 20!)

isabellerossignol · 16/10/2019 07:51

My childminder was allowed a maximum of 6 children, in total. She had two school age children of her own. If she then took on four school age children and only charged for before and after school then she was losing income because it prevented her from taking on pre schoolers where she could charge a full day. Therefore to secure a place I needed to pay for the full day. Otherwise she would ditch me and take on preschoolers instead.

TheClitterati · 16/10/2019 07:56

When Dd1 started school I had DD2 with childminder. My childcare costs were £14k a year for a couple of years.

I agree op the costs don't go Down and childcare can get a lot more complicated.

BellaBattenburg · 16/10/2019 08:03

They don't go down much if at all any more because pre-school parents are getting 30 hours paid for by the government. So current parents aren't paying anything like what parents paid a few years back. When you paid for all you pre-school childcare hours, the bill was MASSIVE so you did notice a drop in your costs when the child started school- even with holiday clubs and some before and after school care. Just for interest, calculate your pre-school costs as if you had to pay the 30 hours that are free.

sauvignonblancplz · 16/10/2019 08:13

@isabellerossignol I am not in England either so am really confused. Did you only speak to one childminder ? They were not being honest. That’s not how it works.

BillywigSting · 16/10/2019 08:13

Mine shot right down from around £50 a week for 8 hours (I was a sahm so it was for ds's benefit) to £14 a week.

His school provides wrap around care ftom 8am until 5:30am for £7 a day or £25 for the whole week (I only need two evenings as I'm part time and work mostly weekends). That includes food.

I think it's brilliant value and ds loves it, win win

notacooldad · 16/10/2019 08:14

It's been a while since we needed child care but costs significantly went down. We only neede two hours in the after school club rather than full day child care. I had three days off in a week but couldn't predict which days so had to pay the child minder for two children even on days I had the children to keep their place open.

I was so glad when they started reception from a financial point of view.

Kelsoooo · 16/10/2019 09:02

If you have a spare room an au pair is a good option.

BlueThursday · 16/10/2019 09:07

I went from £40 a day nursery fees to £85 a week for breakfast and after school care so a big saving for me

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