childcare costs once in primary school - how much to budget for?

[Fhlneihn1345]

DD is off to school in September which means that we won't be paying for her super expensive nursery - we are in the SE. But with all the after-school clubs, holiday clubs etc - I am having a hard time budgeting for our childcare costs.

On average, how much does everyone else budget for per month (if added up across a year?). We both work FT if that makes a difference.

Thank you

I am edge of London / Surrey and holiday clubs range from £30-£50 a day. Childminder would be more £60 based in hours I need.

Breakfast and after school £20-£25 a day again depending if club or childminder.

I’m also edge of London/Surrey and the childminder is £30 a day if pick up and after school only, £40 per day if you need before and after school, and £65 a day for a full time place during the holidays.

Thank you that's really helpful. How does it work - if we use a childminder for picks up can we just use them during term time and holiday clubs over the holidays?

We've never used a childminder and have only ever had DD in a nursery. Up to what age do kids usually go to a childminder after school?

By the looks of it, we might have to budget for more than we currently spend on a nursery. Crazy. We kind of thought that it would get cheparer but i guess not.

On-site after-school clubs often have limited numbers. I requested an extra day 3 years ago and it's just been accepted! (Although to be fair it has been shut since March last year but that was still nearly 2 years)

Hence why I mix with a childminder.

I prefer on-site as if there is then stuff like choir or dance clubs they can attend whereas with a childminder they probably couldn't.

cheaper holiday clubs are just onsite and don't offer outings. Will be more laid out selection of games / craft / sporty stuff.

Childminders may well have more day trips to farms / other places etc.

I tend to lix and match all sorts as I don't generally need a lot of childcare cover in holidays.

Whatever you decide it's wise to book up early - the cheaper holiday club I use would be quite booked up way in advance of the summer holidays (couple of months before sort of time!)

If i used before and after school club i would be paying £25 per child per day . I pay slightly less using a childminder.

Oh and just to add my eldest is 10 and will carry on going to the childminder until she starts secondary school.

Some go to childminders until they leave but I do find they are more weighted towards younger children.

My y5 is the oldest at her one on her days.

My DD goes to preschool but it’s school hours (30/hours a week) and holiday/after school club. I work part time so we pay £90/month term time for after school club 3 x a week. We take A/L for Christmas and Easter and for 4 x weeks of holiday club 3 days a week it was £240. The other two weeks I’m off/DC are with GP. It still works out way way way cheaper than nursery!

We will probably have to find a local childminder. But even so 2544.3=430 per month is quite a lot and the same as our current nursery per month. And if holiday clubs are £50 per day then that's 1k for 4 weeks over the summer which is still quite a lot. Gosh children are expensive ;-)

Childminder is £22 per day including dinner. Holiday club is around £45 per day. In the South East. So quick and very basic maths assuming 13 weeks of school holidays where your AL covers 5 that leaves 8 weeks of paying £45 per day so £1800 for holiday club plus £4,290 on childminder assuming 5 days per week so ~£6k per year. This assumes you don't split your holidays with a partner e.g. my DH takes Feb half term, I do May half term and DS does holiday club in October then over the summer we have a week off together and then odd days here and there.

It will depend where you are based. We are Worcestershire way and a very good holiday club is max 30 a day with the extended hours so 8ish until 6. We don't use after or before school clubs but pretty sure the one attached to our school who are actually a private nursery in our village charge 15 a day in total for before and after school club

I pay £6 a day for the breakfast club. After school club is £10.50 but I don't use it as I work PT and finish in time for the school run. Holiday club in school holidays is £20 for 8am-6pm.

@polexiaaphrodesia Thank you, that's super useful!! So basically £500 a month....thats still higher than our current nursery but will put that aside each month so we dont get any nasty surprises.

I'm in Hertfordshire. Holiday clubs tend to be around £25-30 per day, breakfast club at DS's school is £3.75 per day and he goes to a childminder after school - I pay her £16.25 per day for 2.5 hours including dinner.

We're in the SE - we pay £5/hr to our childminder, for wrap around care. It works out at about 4 hours a day (1hr in the morning, to drop off, 3 in the evening), so £20 per day per child. Our contract with her is term time only but she will also do full time care in the holidays if we need it.

Our school also offers an after school and breakfast club which is a bit cheaper, but finishes at 6 which doesn't give us much wiggle room to collect. Plus our childminder does hot dinners for the DC which means we don't have to feed them in the evening!

It's very locality based - were in leafy commuterville. Breakfast club £5.50, after school club £15. Short day (9-3) in school holidays is £30-35, or 8-6 £40-45.

We're in London so am assuming that everything is very very expensive. Our school is not even sure they'll be running an after-school club this September which isn't particularly helpful. We've only just moved to the area so dont know of any local childminders/holiday clubs but will start asking around. Very helpful to get everyone else's figures - thank you

Something I would think about is when is your DD 5? A lot of our holiday clubs won't take children under 5 which I didn't realise until I came to book them. It caused me no end of trouble for that first year as my DS is August born so was 4 for basically all the holidays in reception.

We are also SE. We have a Childminder who does school drop & pick ups in term time, then she does full days in the holidays.

Term time wraparound care is £105 per week. We drop off at 8am, and collect at 5.30pm.
Holiday cover is about £40 a day, same hours as above.

@BlueCarPinkShoes seriously...? DD is April so we might have to find something else until then.

Think I'll miss nursery days - so much easier and simpler

We allow £3000/year. That’s £1000 for two weeks of holiday camp each in the summer @ £50/day and then two evenings of after school club per week per child.

I paid my cm a fixed amount monthly to cover after school, hols and inset days, it was about £280 a month, breakfast club not included as was lucky that the school had a free one. I found the cm covering it all very useful, dc did attend a couple of afterschool clubs at points which cm picked him up from

If you want childminder, start looking NOW. My CM has been getting enquiries about September since last month. They are very busy with after school provision not being what it was.

We are in NE Wales. CM is £5 per hour in the mornings, £15 for after school and £40 per day school holidays. I was paying around £600 per month for two DC.

I WFH and my kids are older so thank god I no longer need wrap around care.

@fhbn2025 Yeah seriously! For me it meant we couldn't use the holiday club DS's classmates attended because he wasn't old enough even though he was in the same year group. That holiday club was far cheaper than the private nursery we'd been using before. I was gutted when I realised! When I looked elsewhere all the holiday clubs except one were for children aged 5-11. The one that would take him from 4 was just as costly as the private nursery and he hated it.

Term time only before and after school including breakfast and dinner is £18 per day in my area