AIBU regarding Nursery Fees

[SilentEm564]

DH and I recently went to view a nursery.
We were told it would be £250 per week for DS to attend 3 days a week.
We thought it sounded like a lot of money! I was more hoping for £200 for 4 days.
We picked it because it was the nearest one to our house, so nothing spectacular about it.
We live just outside of London.
Would some other posters mind sharing how much nursery costs for them please? I'm now left wondering if my original cost expectations were unreasonable? It's hard to judge because a lot of nurseries don't put fees on their websites.

widgetbeana .............Child-minders don't all work alone you can get co-minders (registered in their own right who can cover holidays and sickness ...if in ratio) assistants who can be left for up to 2 hours if first aided (again in ratio) and childcare on domestic premises which are like small nurseries with up to 4 other adults.
If your thinking safety pleases remember that their have been many safeguarding cases in nurseries where staff have kept quiet. The current thinking on grapes came about after chocking incidents including some in nurseries.
Self employed tend to have few days off sick and if you have a holiday allowance matching holidays with 6 to 12 months notice can be worth the cost saving, then again many cm's don't take a lot of holiday either.

I'm in outer London and it's £65-85 per day around here. Childminders seem to charge similar fees.

Its worth going outside your immediate area an crossing boroughs in London. In Ealing cost for a m can be £8 per hour in neighbouring Hillingdon between £4 (south) and £8 (north) so look on routes to work and if its worth changing the way you travel.

Ours used to be £500 per month for three mornings. Now it's £350 per month for four full days with 30 hours free. Nursery attached to a private school with average reputation.

London Zone 2. £1400pcm for 4 days. Totally not worth it but what can you do?

Very interesting thread. Like you, we just picked the closest. I also pay a friend's nanny £10 a day to give DD breakfast, dress her and drop her off in the mornings so we can leave for work without stress. That money is 100% worth it.

£80 per day in E4 (East London/Essex borders). That includes meals, but excludes nappies/wipes. The nursery is rated outstanding by Ofsted. Overall I'm extremely happy with the nursery, but it is so expensive!

Goes down to £70 per day for over 2s.

It is £64 a day here. My childminders are £4 which works out at £40 8-6pm whixh is much better

£43.50 full day 7.30-6 inc meals
Midlands

@thesaurusgirl You raise a good point regarding the nanny pick ups. The other concern I have is that the nursery shuts at 6:30pm. I finish work at 5:30pm and DH at 6pm. Commute is about an hour for both of us, so I'm slightly worried that if the trains have issues I'll miss pick-up. Not sure what happens then :s

£59 per day including pampers nappies and home cooked food. We cant afford it but will have to soon as pil who kindly do childcare have given us notice as quite rightly theyve got us through winter and want to enjoy the summer. Also they think dd is ready for nursery. We grateful for them as saved a fortune to now and dd has great bond with them now.

Forgot to add, mine is for 7am to 7pm, so there's massive flexibility on pick-up and drop-off times.

Silent, it'd be worth negotiating with your employers to see if you could start early or have a shorter lunch break and leave 15 mins early.

Mine is 7-7 in the NW £48 inclusive of everything (obviously we don't leave her there 12 hours a day!) ofsted rated "good". Went for one nearer my work rather than home (2 miles away) as up to £15 per day price variation!

Hampshire 50 quid a day for babies for the whole day.

I'm East Midlands and pay £180 a week for 5 full days (works out £36 a day - but that's discounted because DS is full-time) and I provide nappies, they provide everything else including proper cooked meals from scratch and wipes.
Didn't realise what a good deal I had until I read this And it's an Outstanding nursery. Some of the prices quoted on here are criminal - especially when they pay their staff minimum wage.

@JoJoSM2 Thank you for the suggestion. I will raise it with my line manager.

DD is 14. When she was in nursery I paid 1,000 a month. She was FT so it was a fixed/discounted fee compared to paying daily.

It was a nice nursery but not gold-plated or anything. We provided nappies, they provided food. I do know that they paid slightly above min. wage, and invested in lots of training for staff. The owners weren't getting rich quick, either.

Education/childcare/healthcare are expensive - staying alive costs a lot.

£5.25 an hour, food/nappies not included. Ofsted rated outstanding setting in the SW.

For 5 days a week, in SE London, I DH and I pay £13,450 after childcare vouchers. 7:30am to 18:00pm.

Eyewatering isn't it?!

Oh crap - not that eyewatering! Damn autocorrect! I meant £1,345 per month!

£65 a day here (southeast commuter land). That includes food, nappies, wipes, cream. We paid £900 a month for 3 days until the free hours kicked in. Full time would have been £1200 a month. Now we pay about £500 a month for 3 days with the 30 free hours (we don’t actually get all of the free hours as nursery only lets us use 6 free hours a day).

Oh yeah that’s for 07:30-18:30

Ba our three years ago, we were paying £58/day (no food or nappies) for 7.30-5.30. There were cheaper options locally, though, so you might find something closer to what you were hoping for.

South Manchester here, when DD finished nursery (5 years ago) were paying about £65 a day, so about £200 a week for a 3 day place. £250 therefore 5 years later isn't too far off. That was for a local family run nursery that has won awards for being the best nursery in the country a couple of times. It was expensive but worth it.

Some of the costs here are just staggering, I've no idea how an 'average' family would afford them.

We use a CM but the local nursery's charge about the same...£3.50 per hour, per child for older dc's after school care, which includes a cooked meal.

Dc3 will be charged at £35 a day, 8-6.30 but we provide all food, milk and snacks.