yay I earn £2100 per month...

[CeceliaStrange]

into London, better paid job.

Nursery costs for 2= £2400 (£2600 at another)
Travel to work=£146

AIBU to be upset that the only option may be leaving a well paid job because whilst we can just scrape by on DH salary with certainly can't afford for me to pay £450 to work :-(

How do people do it? I'm proud of my job

Can you cut your housing costs? Look into cheaper childcare?

Does your calculation take the childcare vouchers into consideration when they're 3?

We've struggled with childcare costs, but now we get 5 x 2.5 hours care for free, its back to making better financial sense to work.

thanks for so much advice

-childcare vouchers used, but now reduced in our new jobs (factored in to cost)
-we have no flexibility around ft school hours as we are teachers in leadership -positions, no chance of time off either
-the 15 free hours strangely barely seem to dent private fees the way they -work it out with wrap round and meals

-where to find nanny shares? plus with a young baby?

Don't forget when your eldest is 3, you'll get 15 hours free childcare. Does this make any difference?

Might be worth having a look at www.childcare.co.uk for CMs in your area.

Cross posts!

housing costs are down to minimum realistic for our family

Have you looked at using a CM?

Nanny share if possible. Will be cheaper. Where are you (roughly) in London?

Do you have a room for a live in? Our childcare is much cheaper atm as we offset the low salary with bed and board.

Career break for a year? Our childminder (when we had just DC1) was cheaper than nursery at around £200 a week FT, so both F/T cost about £1600 a month.

Do you want to nanny share with us ;) Nanny share.co.uk or childcare.co.uk both good.

Family? You could pay someone £1,800 a month to look after your DC. Do you have anyone who would consider that as an option?

This is exactly why I gave up work.
£1800 per month for childcare.

This is now why I am stuck in the awful position of my twins going to school in September and having no clue how to increase our incomings whilst still paying before and after school childcare for 3.
My husband is also management in school which is about to become academy so won't be able to do the "sick" days unless they are in the holidays.

Am I fucked off? Yep.
Sorry rang over. Just be very aware of how difficult it is to get back into earning money even when kids go to school.

So it's only for a year until you get funding? Or two years until he/she starts school? It's worth the hit. Just for two years.
What will you earn if you take two years off? What will you earn in two years if you don't?

Have you approached the head about taking a sabbatical?

That way, you could take a year off and have a job to return to. it's unlikely, but it does happen.

I agree with others that you need to think long term- especially in teaching where it is very hard to get back in at the same level once you leave.

A nanny would come in at about your salary based on an 8 hour working day. As the kids get older it will get easier. Finding a job after 3-4 years out can be really tough

Poor you, I would be gutted. I have always worked at home around the children to avoid childcare costs but I realise I have been lucky to have this option.

Could you condense your hours so you are doing more hours in less days?
A friend of mine works (7-4.30) for 4 days a week (for full time pay), her husband drops kids at nursery and she picks them up.

Or could you work some flexi hours at home at all so you don't have to go in everyday? In which you could use Sat or evenings/ or nap times to work.

Are you employed by LA or Academy? SIL is Head of Department in a secondary school, and job & childcare shares with a colleague. I know that's pretty fortunate, but your employer would be on very sticky ground if they refused to consider a job share or part time hours request.

Are those fees term time only? Nurseries are not keen to offer this I know, but can often be persuaded if they have holiday clubs, as they can take lots of extra older children with staff they use for younger ones. Some childminders are also keen on term time only contracts for the same reason.

PM me if you're anywhere near Richmond - I can recommend a childminder there but don't know if they have any availability atm.

Feel your pain. In London my salary only covers childcare and train cost, I wouldn't want to "pay" to work. Saving grace for us is DD's nursery costs reduce at age 2 and again at 3 - the 15 hours doesn't get applied in entirety as it's private but it will help. I don't really know the solution - we are going to wait until DD is older to have a second to avoid exactly the situation you are in. I value working too much to have to give it up.

When you say 'scrape by', have you seriously trimmed the meat from the bones completely, e.g. no alcohol, car (unless your DH needs one for work) pension contributions, Sky, meals out etc? Obviously living without the 'extras' that make life more pleasurable isn't good, but in the long term would be worth it financially. You'd only be living like paupers for 2 or 3 years .

If you absolutely can't cut back any further, then the reality is that as you have 2 DCs so close in age (not judging BTW, we do too!), one of you can't afford to work at the moment.

Yes, OP should work it out on just her salary because it makes economic sense. It's the increments and their marginal effects she is interested in, so she needs to figure out what would be the effect of incremental change of action to her total income. It does not mean that OP's DH would not contribute toward childcare costs, it just means that her work would not have any impact on her DH's salary, so that salary stays out of equation.
.

You are not out of the woods even if you have no childcare. I work from home and I earn around £500 per month. dh earns around £1,400 per month after tax. We regularly spend over this each month.

We regularly switch utilities to get a better deal. We have no Sky or cable supscriptions. We don't buy take-aways or eat out unless it's a special occasion. We sell things on ebay and we are always careful with budgeting, but still we struggle. Dh pays around £80pw on petrol. I have a car for emergencies (we live out in the sticks) which I hardly use but it's necessary for dentist/doctors/orthodontist/picking kids up etc so we have to factor in road tax and insurance.

I've been doing the sums just this morning and I really can't see where we can save. We go over every month by around £250 on average.

I'm now using a weekly meal planner to help me save costs on grocercies and I've cut down on how much I drink, choosing ginger beer instead of wine at the weekends which saves around a tenner a week.

If I had to pay for childcare - well I just couldn't. Only last night I was asking dh how on earth other people manage to get the time off to take their kids to the dentist/orthdontist and the various clubs they go to. dd is signed up for a climbing wall course during half term, I'm taking her and a friend because it's presumed that as I work from home I can do that. How on earth would I have managed if I didn't?

Is there anyone who manages to have money in the bank still at the end of every month?

Do you own your house - could you switch to interest only for a couple of years? Can your DH reduce his hours a little?

We had similar, but cuoldn't reduce the mortgage at the time, and we just had to swallow it and go into debt a little bit. Long term gain was more important for us personally, and I couldn't leave my job at the time.

ms V
-no sky etc
-no mobile contracts
-1 old banger car (commutes, less to run than train costs)
-no main phone line
-no meals out
-all hand me down/ second hand clothes
-utilities etc kept an eye for cost
-no debt payments apart from mortgage to play with

could go on but you get the idea! Been like this since we met in order to buy (cheaper than renting)

I'm NE London

I'd LOVE term time only fees but there is no interest here for nurseries to provide it.

I'm doing lots of sums right now, which is why I'm taking a while...

As your in teaching I'm assuming it's term time only?

Many childminders ( and some nannies ) offer term time only contacts. So if you work if out over the year you shouldnt be at a loss. The main people who offer this are those with their own school age children

What about a nanny with own child. Generally a reduction in hourly fee in exchange for bringing their child with them. Find someone with similar age child and they have a permenant playmate too.

Just rung a friend, she says a CM near my school charges £6.50 p/h so on the same hours a CM is more!