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.

That amount sounds typical - we are on edge of London (Surrey) and paid £84 per day for our place until she was 2. It is now £79.50 a day. So over £1000 per month for 3 days a week. Tax Free Childcare helps - this saves us £2000 per year.

For that we get childcare from 7am-6.30pm, all meals and snacks included (breakfast, lunch and tea), formula when she had it, nappies, suncream, all activities and outings. It’s brilliant and she loves it there!

We did look round another one that was cheaper but it was awful plus had very complicated charging structure (you paid for two sessions each day, plus a drop off extra, plus lunch cover, then an extension to 5.30pm) and they only provided lunch. All snacks and nappies and sun cream had to be sent in each far.

£65 8am-6pm food, nappies included. Just outside London but within the M25.

Believe it or not, nursery owners are not rolling in money. The overheads are high and they do need to make some profit after paying them! Especially if they want to pay their staff a decent living

I think it’s an excellent price! If toy liked the day care centre (most important thing really) then book it and budget, it’s pretty reasonable in my opinion! I’m a bit soft and was paying a girl 500 pounds a week plus petrol to do school drop off and pick up (each journey is an hours round trip) plus all after school hobbies while I was on clinical placement and although expensive was worth every penny for the total peace of mind I got. PS clinical placements, you don’t get paid....5the budget got very very tough...

We pay £38.50 a day, but we're in the highlands & a small town

£63 a day in Yorkshire. Includes a hot lunch and light afternoon tea and all activities.

Childminders are cheaper in my area (£55-60 per day compared to £75+ for nursery) but when I looked into it there weren’t any within walking distance of my house, which meant we couldn’t use one. Some childminders are lovely and my friends have been very happy with theirs but I’ve also come across a lot of CMs at toddler groups who sit gossiping with other CMs and ignoring their children (one escaped from the hall we were in). Also nursery is open every weekday except bank holidays so no need to worry about arranging holidays around a CM or finding cover if off sick (friend’s childminder had a sudden bereavement and closed for a fortnight, leaving her and husband having to take two weeks off work between them at short notice).

Wow!! Some are v expensive! Ours is 38quids per day approx and that's high enough! We are in the North West!
For 60-70+ a day I'd look into a nanny surely that works out best especially if more than 1 child!
Maybe move area altogether :) lol
If both of you work you can take advantage of the tax free government childcare thing!

£95/session, two sessions a week so £190/week. 20% then comes off of that through tax free childcare.

£30 for 10hrs, meals & snacks included. I'm in the North West & nursery is Ofsted Outstanding.
Some of the prices posted are crazy, certainly feel very lucky with what we have.

Circa £50/day
Includes lunch only
No nappies included
Cooking school/forest school all extra

@Mollieben Especially if they want to pay their staff a decent living

And then they still don’t. All nurseries I’ve ever been employed at or viewed for interview has only ever paid minimum wage or close to it. But obv that’s because they’re defo not rolling in it and parents begrudge paying any more.

I’m in the NW, we pay around £650 a month for four days per week, it’s worked out as cost per day x 52 weeks and divided by 12 so we always pay the same amount every month. We pay for bank holidays and when they are shut over Christmas. DD is no longer in nappies but previously we had to send our own nappies and wipes

Lol @Pluckedpencil I’m a childminder. I work 50 hour weeks and earned 11k last year (after expenses). Expenses are huge in childcare. I am also quite popular and full 75% of the time but also you never have 3 at the same times each day so it’s usually long long hours. Parents begrudge you every penny too and it’s prob the only job where you have to remind and beg for your wages to be on time. Not to mention the extras you spend on the little ones so they have a great time with you and the parents deduct a 40 min period you had to ask them to collect their child as your own child had vomited.

Full time 0700-1800 Monday to Friday in Scotland was £930 per month down to £750 when free hours kicked in

Lunch and everything was extra

For your area sounds the norm.

I pay £38 a day I need the NE, 8am until 6pm including 3 meals. It’s a great nursery, this thread makes me realise how lucky I am!

That should read I’m in the NE

DS1 abd his DP will, apparently, be paying £18,000 per year for DGS who will be 1 in July. I have no idea what this covers but assume it is five days a week. The nursery is in a fairly posh part of London, and is 'outstanding' according to Ofsted but for that price it damn well should be.

Ofstead outstanding, £60 a day, but no sibling discount. Greater London

£93 a day in SW London

£80 a day just outside M25. In my experience all private London nurseries charge about that. Though you do get cheaper council run and not for profit ones in some London boroughs. Makes me a bit cross that the carers are almost always paid minimum wage TBH.

We are in Kent. We pay 1020 per month.

We are in Kent. We pay 1020 per month

Should have mentioned

5 days a week, 07:30 - 18:30. Actually one of the few nurseries we could find with those hours, which we require due to commuting.
All food included
Nappies and wipes not included

There are slight discounts given the more you go (although we are talking £1ish between a full day and 2 half days)
2 is £55 per day based on 3 days.
Yours seems pretty standard. Nursery’s cost. They have a lot they need to factor in (workers (to include holiday and sickness pay), rent, business rates, food, equipment, risk assessments (and I’m sure a nursery will have to do really in-depth ones to include things like fire evacuation, pat testing, health and safety). They will also have to have the prices slightly higher as I don’t believe the government pay the actual fee cost in the 30 hours free the nursery give plus they will have to make a bit of profit and have an ‘emergency fund’ for things like boilers breaking.

Nursery’s are fab. I’m often amazed at the things DD learns (things I probably wouldn’t realise a child of her age could learn)