To think it'll get cheaper once ds is in school?

[CaveMaman]

We currently pay for our ds to be in full-time day care, it costs around a third of our monthly take home pay (between us). We're struggling financially. Living hand-to-mouth, but not without essentials. We don't take holidays. We do have occasional nights out etc, but nothing extravagant.

AIBU to think once he's in school we'll be able to save a bit? Surely school uniforms, trips, lunches etc won't be as expensive as nursery fees?

You need to plan for holidays. Holiday club for our DS for every school holiday apart from about 4 weeks cost about £1000 a year.

It is cheaper. If you're getting tax credits though, you will lose the childcare element so you might not have as much extra aanyou expect.

Uniform- I spent about £120 per child per year (we have to order from the school; can't buy supermarket stiff other than white shirts).

Trips/discos etc - around £30-40 a year. That will increase when they get to high school I think!

I still pay for after school care as well though; but not holiday care. I run my business so I plan for holidays etc and work nights during that time. Not much sleep, but it works.

The cost of childcare will likely go down (though you'll still potentially have breakfast club, after school club and holiday clubs to pay for).

But everything else goes up ... as well as school uniform, clothes get more expensive and you potentially need more of them for different things (for years my DC managed with 1 pair of shoes, then with 2, , then that no longer cut it ...). there will be school trips and extra curricular activities, they stop being free as an under 5, they eat more ...

(and then a bit later on they become teenagers and it gets even worse).

But, in answer to your question, yes, you should have a window to start saving!

Breakfast club is £6 and after school club £12 here, so £18 per day. Lots cheaper than the £40 for nursery but it still adds up.

Holiday club can be anything from £60 - £200 a week depending on if its council run or not. Over 12 weeks of holidays again it adds up.

We don't get tax credits, so that won't affect us.

We pay upwards of £1000 a month in nursery fees... so from the sounds of things it will get much cheaper. That's great, we'll manage for the next few years (ds is 2.5) but it's not really sustainable for long-term because we literally have no savings (ds has more in his savings account than we do, thanks to very generous great grandparents).

Thanks for the replies, it sounds like it'll get better.

Will you be paying for wrap around care? That is still a big expense to us (about £12/day per child for breakfast and after school club)
Are you in England? School dinners are currently free up to and including Y2. Not sure about elsewhere in the U.K.

Other things I pay extra for (state primary) - school trips (£16 or so for a day trip once a term, £170 for a residential in Y4 so far); school uniform obviously, school jumpers far pricier than plain supermarket jumpers; music lessons via school music service; football club afte school (although this is proper FA coaches); milk; various other activity clubs after school (some are free); holiday club; bloody school shoes, bane of my life; trainers to keep at school (because otherwise we never remember to bring them home when we need them); school play avd concert tickets, and the inevitable raffles; PTFA fundraising stuff - book sales, “fayres” in Autumn, Christmas, Easter and Summer; holiday club.

I do seem to be constantly paying out to school. I think i’d rather just give the PTFA £100 at the start of each year and be done with the baking, books and fayres.

Charity non-uniform day about once a term.

Swimming lessons are free in Y4 though!

I’m not moaning honest,, it’s a great wee school, and the PTFA do good work, but don’t by mistaken into thinking that you’ll suddenly be loaded!! School is cheaper than paying for private nursery , but the savings are not as big as you think they’ll be.

Then there’s holidays during school holidays.... 😃

We pay about £700-800 a month for 2, 1 gets the 30 hours & we do have gp that help. I expect that once both are in school it will probably be approx £200 a month which is much better as you need to budget for hols, wraparound etc.

We are in England. We will need wrap-around care.

And we'll need holiday club, so will plan for that. My worry is that it'll be as expensive... I want ds to do activities (not sure what because I want him to have a choice, thinking cubs or karate or something like that... football maybe... possibly a musical instrument).

You will make savings on the childcare bill but will find a whole load of new expenses! School uniform, wrap around care, school trips / residential, clubs, equipment and uniforms for clubs, swimming lessons, music lessons, ski lessons, bake sales, expensive trainers, phone contracts......the list is never ending!

Once he is 3 do you qualify for 30 free hours and does his current childcare offer it? Our term-time bill has fallen from about £250 a week to £50 a week for her. So you might be in a better position before he goes to school.

Are you in the UK? School lunches are free for infants.

Sorry, just saw you said you are in England.

I actually did the maths, and for us, nursery is currently £900pcm, wrap around + holiday club will be £550 ish pcm but the uniform, clothes, parties and activities are likely to come to around £200pcm so a slight saving but I suspect that'll be offset by more expensive Christmas and birthdays! We should be marginally better off.

Depends what wrap-around care is available. On-site breakfast and after school clubs are fairly cheap but I have to use an outside provider and it's really expensive -£10 for breakfast and £20 for after-school. More if you need to pay until 6.30. I have managed to find a childminder now who is cheaper but still use the club for some of the time as they accept childcare vouchers.

Do you know which school he will go to? Then you can plan the cost of wraparound care. Childcare costs do seem to vary wildly, for instance you would pay £12 a day in our school for wraparound care compared to the £18 mentioned by a previous poster. Our council do holiday care in all the local leisure centres/museum for £35 a day and the activities are really good and varied.

Extracurricular also varies a lot in cost. Swimming for us is £23 a month. Music lessons are quite costly, dd does a 20 min private lesson for £12, group lessons obviously are cheaper. Scouts and guides are usually pretty cheap apart from the initial uniform outlay. Our school offers quite a lot of clubs, quite a few of which only cost £10 a term.

It is likely you will save money compared to what you are spending now, definitely on childcare. Extracurricular is as expensive as you want to be, there are lots which are good value for money.

The 30 free hours is a godsend. I'm dreading DS starting school in 2019 because childcare will get so much more complex, albeit less expensive.

But I am already noticing how much more it costs to keep DS clothed, fed and occupied at 3 compared to when he was 2 and could still be fobbed off with free activities. Once they start taking note of what their friends have and do, you are basically screwed.

Don't worry about PTA, bake sales and all that shizzle, it is optional! No one will hold a gun to your head.

School trips tend to be half termly and are reasonably priced so everyone can afford them. Most schools will do one residential in y6, ours costs £250 approx.

Lots of schools do second hand uniform sales, good for picking up spare logoed items. We go for a mix of logo and supermarket stuff. Shoes can be a PITA, but Tesco Direct do a good range if you find the nice Clarks ones you bought at the start of the school year outgrown or trashed towards the end of the year. Don't forget, boys often can wear sensible black trainers which can sometimes be cheaper.

There are still costs but nowhere near nursery fees. Holiday club round here is £26 for a full 8-6 day - that's half the price of nursery. Even if he had brand new uniform every day I think you'd struggle to spend nursery fees équivalent !

I think when they're bigger and have residential trips the cost will start going up again but Reception is very cheap