> £4,000pcm nursery fees

[MidnightPatrol]

For those of you paying this, how bad is it? How do you cope?

I am hoping to have a second baby but it’s going to cost ~£4,200pcm (ignoring any future fee increases…!) in childcare for a year or two.

Slightly terrifying, particularly in context of higher interest rates / higher cost of servicing a mortgage when I come off my low interest deal next year.

How much would a Nanny cost you all.in OP?

@SpidersAreShitheads Good Q.

So yes I ‘can’ afford it.

Everything else would need to be cut back, and there is the risk my mortgage repayments increase dramatically when I reach the end of my deal (see previous poster whose mortgage had increased by £1400 a month - that’s not an unrealistic possibility).

It’s just a lot. And if it goes wrong for
whatever reason… it’s a hell of a lot of committed outgoings to fund per month.

Its just crazy sums.

@SecondUsername4me I think anoit
£4,500pcm for a nanny.

including pension, employers NICs etc.

So same price as 2x nursery?

God help the minimum wage workers if apparently OP can't afford a second. Of course you can, OP. Just have to grin and bear it. Life is too short to not have another if you really want it.

Yes, indeed, lots of parents stop working because they cannot afford the nursery fees on their salary.

But it's not as simple as just childcare costs being more than one person's take-home pay. For higher earners particularly, taking that hit is likely to be short-term pain (loss) for long-term gain. The value of maintaining your pension contributions and other benefits you might build up at work (e.g. long-service leave, better sick-pay terms), together with continuing to build your career without a substantial break, can far outweigh the short-term loss. It won't work for anyone whose partner cannot absorb the shortfall in family finances, but it will work for many people on higher salaries. Especially if you have planned your second child and your finances accordingly (i.e. I saved when I only had one in childcare so that I could use that money to plug the gap for the 18 months that I had two because, like you I was 35 and didn't want to risk leaving it later to try for the second).

Minimum wage workers will get up to 85% of their childcare bills paid via UC.

@SecondUsername4me Yes nanny same as 2x nursery.

pros and cons to each option IMO.

Terribly poor planning on my part - or maybe I’m not a multi-millionaire? Who knows.

Or maybe you could have bought a place in an area that won't require millions to afford- they exist too you know.

One thing is clear: you are a lucky woman with choices- what choices you make, are entirely on you. If you choose a nice area but can't find childminders because of the 'area'= your choice. Others made different choices if childminders are what they wanted. But maybe that required proper planning on their part.

Countless women find themselves in worse positions as they lack choices. That's not you.

We accidentally managed to time it so second was born about a year before the first was due to start school. So for the 12mths of maternity leave the oldest went to the free nursery attached to the primary school (only 15hrs-3hrs a day). This helped her transition into school as well. We have timed our 3rd so that we can do the same and effectively save a year of nursery fees and only have one in nursery at once. Summer born child also helps with almost a year less at nursery!

Not the ones just above the threshold.

Even on a high salary you’ll get 15 hours from age 3. That means having baby number 2 when the eldest is 2, assuming a year’s mat leave. You’re only 35. You can wait 15 months to get pregnant after giving birth!!

Can you and your husband do 4 days per week and children 3 a nursery? Do you have family or relatives who can look after children one day per week. It really depends on your income

How about putting up to 60k each into your pensions to (hopefully) bring your net income down below 100k? Or dropping a day or two of work to again bring under 100k?
then youll be able to access the full free hours and tax free childcare too.

Understood.

it sounds like you went into this eyes open, fully aware of the difficulties. These are the decisions we need to make when we aren't wealthy.

You'll come out of it the other end somehow. When it gets financially hard lean on friends and family for the emotional support.

(I guess you don't need childcare whilst on mat leave, so think of how you can make an extra £1-2k per month). Good luck!

I haven’t read the full thread so sorry if someone has already mentioned this but with the expansion of “funded hours” coming this year it is likely going to raise the cost of childcare, as illogical as this seems - and those earning 100k+ are going to be disproportionately disadvantaged in a nursery setting.

The expansion is going to see the funded rate of around £11ph for a 9month-2 year old which is a higher rate than most nurseries charge so settings will be in completion with each other to get funded children of that age - it won’t be as financially rewarding to get non funded children in and then the funded rate is going to be term time only so settings (I bet) will increase fees in line with funded rates in holidays etc.

With all this coming you are so much better placed to get a nanny or nanny share - get her to go to children’s centres/ church playgroups etc to keep outing costs low if that works better for you.

good luck with it all.

Childminder or nanny it's cheaper

6 figure salary and you think this is a good idea to save a few years of nursery cost. That £120k cannot be extracted back at will.
I really do not understand why anyone would take such an extreme decision when nursery costs are only for a few years - after generous maternity leave is taken.

Alternatively you could go onto UC, give up you lucrative jobs and get 85% of the nursery cost - after of course having made sure you do not have > £16k in savings

@ruby1957

People salary sacrifice to get under £100k because the loss of childcare-related benefits at that point mean they often end up worse off / not much better off that if they earned £99,999.

So if you earn £130k - loss of tax free childcare (£2k per kid), loss of
15 hours (possibly £5k per kid), loss of tax free allowance… you might be worse off than earning £99,999k.

Brighton too, schools closing.

Can you over pay pensions or cut your working days so you're eligible for free hours?

Worldwide the birth rate is dropping by 2050 the figures will have reached tipping point.

"Population decline - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline

Financial squeeze is not the only reason for population decline.

One of the additional benefits of working 80% FTE and/or making larger pension contributions at these salary levels is taht it may drop you down to less than £100k taxable income and therefore you can still access tax free childcare. You also don't lose your entire personal allowance so the marginal tax rate (taking into account payback of HICBC) is something like 60% instead of more than 90% between 100k and 125k.

90%. Really??