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

Have I misunderstood? Is your Dh earning 450 per month? Why can't he stay at home and you work then?

Apologies if I have misread.

NotHerRealName makes a very good point.

As an idea , a nanny without child is approx £12.50 gross ph, based on 10 hr day that's £125 a day

Nanny with child might accept £10 gross ph. £100 a day

Saving you £125 a week/ £500 a month

Presumably because her DH earns more.

(but would be a good point otherwise)

Presumably with a 3 month old you're on ML, so you don't need to go back to work till September, by which time your oldest will be just 3. So oldest will start school September 2014, so you have one year of struggle, then it starts to be OK. In fact as you're both teachers you could take your oldest out of nursery next July, leaving you 10 months of being £450 a month short.

Go interest only for a year? Save like mad now?

I do think it's worth going back, you get your pension conts paid for a start.

Have I misunderstood? Is your Dh earning 450 per month? Why can't he stay at home and you work then?

You've misunderstood.

I assume you mean this sentence
ruby, I'm not, I'm working it out on family income; DH salary-£450=not enough to live on.

DH's salary minus 450 per month is not enough to live on.

Because childcare costs her salary PLUS £450.

So if she worked all of the extra income would be taken up with childcare costs, and they would still have to use some of DH's income for childcare. They would be worse off overall.

DH earns a little more and has better opportunity for promotion right now, in family interests it would be my job that went.

forever geek, I'm on childcare.co.uk and £13-15 has been quoted so far for a nanny. I am looking though....

Have you investigated all the nursery options, I know north London is more expensive but here in zone 2 SE London a full time place at ds1's nursery costs about £890 for an under 2 and a bit less over 2. I would have thought you'd be able to find something at about £1000 a month each and ask about a sibling discount (we'll get a 10% discount on ds1's fees when ds2 starts) which might help. Perhaps look at nurseries on your/dh's commute to work/near work (assuming not central if you're driving to work) to see if there are more affordable options.

But if her DH earns £450, and she earns £2,100 then clearly she earns more than he does.

OP, are you entitled to claim any tax credits by working?

titchy- I'm determined to find a way. So far I've worked out working 3 days would bring me to only £200 over my salary, I don't know if work will say yes but it's option 1 so far.

Cinnabar - her DH doesn't earn £450.

ha, xposts - there you go.

Most childminders in this area charge less for siblings so it would be worth checking that. I pay 30% less for first sibling and 50% less for second sibling. I have also used term time only with the childminder - she found someone with older children who wanted holiday time only.

cassell

the range here is from about 2100 for both (but awful place) to £2900 for both. The £2400 one is were I'd be happy to leave them without crying all day but with some discount! I've viewed all 15 nurseries near enough!!!

cinnabar, entitled to nowt, good salaries, just mega childcare

Some CMs offer discount on more kids. My DM charges X for the youngest child and 1/2 of X for any other kids in tge same family.

Also, term time only CMs may split the costs equally so you pay them 12 months but use a lot less and charged term time.

Have you thought about international school positions?

Cecelia have you checked out the CMs? We have had two excellent CMs via Childcare.co.uk and you may be able to find one who will offer term-time only / discounts for siblings.

£15 is fairly high

Just go onto nannyjob and place an add yourself for what you can afford a week. To make people interested in lower salary you can offer all school holidays off for example/ accept a nanny bringing own child etc etc

£500 gross a week is a low nanny wage but if you are offering 12 weeks off ( fully paid) then it might appeal to someone ( maybe someone with family abroad who wants to travel home for the summer etc)

I'm just rung a parent who I know who is a local childminder, very few in area but have 2 numbers

Could you or DH work through the summer holidays to increase income (Clearly wouldn't cover the whole year, but would help?

For example The Challenge Network, are looking for youth and community leaders for their summer schemes and pay up to £1840 for a 3 week scheme. (www.the-challenge.org/jobs). Or if you have friends with school age children, they might be really chuffed for one of you to be their 'nanny' in school holidays?

Nanny share is usually the best bet.

Fair enough, Cecilia. I just asked because some people's idea of scraping by is not the same as mine! I'm looking at you, DH.

The only options I can think of are:

1. Cheaper childcare. Not related to the financial side of things at all, but if I was looking for childcare for two little ones, I'd prefer a childminder as it would mean they would spend more time together. In a nursery, they'd probably be in different classes all day every day.

and/or

1. It might seem a bit extreme, but if you can't persuade your mortgage company to reduce your payments to interest only, could you extend your mortgage by £10-£15k to cover your additional outgoings for the next three years? Not sure if you're allowed to do that, though.

It's taken ages to type this on my iPod, so sorry if I'vd cross posted with everyone!

OK, I don't know if this is near you, but here's a CM in Camden just to show you it's possible!

She's got an Outstanding Ofsted rating and does term time only as specifically looks after teachers' DCs.

What borough are you & your workplace in?

When I lived in London, our CM was on my way to work, not near our house. (She was great, worth travelling for!)

YY to interest-only mortgage btw. I did this while studying, made a massive difference.

Also, if you're on Mat leave, your mortgage provider may give you a mortgage holiday, so you simply don't pay at all for 6 months or whatever.

I did this when I was on Mat leave and it was great.

au pair, OK live in but costs £700 pcm

go on find a bay sitter/gumtree, get a nice and well referenced young girl, alot of my mates have FT nannies from EE for £1500 pcm

Nanny share?