To wonder how people afford childcare costs.

[Orangeblossom1976]

Childcare costs seem so high, how do people afford it? What kind of jobs are there which pay so much as to be able to afford thousands in costs per month?

I don’t!

Luckily for us, my dh works weekdays only, so I have taken a hospitality job with only evening and weekend hours. It’s the only way I can afford to work! Otherwise it would most likely cost me money.

We don't pay childcare except the occasional breakfast/afterschool club. We now both work full time shifts around each other. I was part time until my son started school. The cost of full time childcare would have negated my working.

You make sacrifices in other areas, you budget and save before having a child usually and often have different types of child care arrangement depending on the day. My childcare was always more then our mortgage a month so I stuck with one child.

The government helps with things like Tax Credits, childcare vouchers, tax free childcare, and funded hours for those who meet the qualifying criteria.

Some employers help with costs as an employee benefit.

Some working parents cut their hours base don how much childcare they can afford.

Some people don't work because the cost would outweigh their income.

Some people work at a loss or live entirely off one income with the other income paying all the childcare.

At one stage we were paying £1800 a month as we had 2 in full time nursery. It was more than I was bringing home. Luckily, we’d had 18 months to ‘plan’ for it and saved up all that we could (not easy on mat leave and during pregnancy). It was only for 7 months.

Average for us was about £800 a month for about 7 years. We benefitted from about £350 coming from gross salary via childcare vouchers. What can I say - money was tight.

We felt loaded when DD started school.

I work shifts so im workinv more hours over less days to afford it. And shop in Aldi. You do get tax free vouchers for many which helps.

This is why so many grandparents do childcare these days - go to a playground (in Greater London at least) during the week and it’s full of grandparents looking after their grandkids. I know a family who have paid for the mother’s mother and father to come over from Australia for two years as it works out cheaper than paying for childcare for their kids...

We have one child in nursery half the week, and with one grandparent for one day a week. We get the 20% contribution from the government which helps but it's still more than our mortgage a month. We won't have another child until the free hours kick in for our eldest as it's just too expensive. That's if we even have another - not sure we want to be stretched further financially with two which seems ridiculous considering we both have relatively decent jobs so should be able to have two comfortably.

The 30 hours free for my 3 year old has been a life saver...I also use childcare vouchers.

I'm very lucky that both my DH and I are in good paying jobs and we have no debts (except for mortgage) I realise I'm very lucky to be in this strong position too

You have to pay the long game. Childcare costs are at their peak when your child is little, until free hours kick in. So you save during pregnancy, economise when they are little and spread your hours with your DP/DH (if you have one) as much as possible.
You also have to accept that as a family you may be no better off in the short term with both of you working and paying childcare, but the benefits will come longer term.

Its one fo the reasons why many many many parents choose just to have one parent working for the younger years.

Works brilliantly while theyre little to have a sahp but is v difficult later on to return to work.

thankfully I get tax credits if I didn't I simply couldn't work

but I still have to add around £350 sometimes more a month it is a real struggle

We simply couldn't make it work.

A variety of tactics.

Tax credits, UC, vouchers and tax free childcare can all provide quite substantial childcare assistance, particularly the first two. Shift work. Family and friends and reciprocal arrangements. Parents work around each other. Compress hours. Drop hours, because the 5th day of the week is worst paid. Make sure they only have one preschool aged child at a time. A SAHP is sometimes the cost effective option, if there are a lot of children and/or a low earning parent.

Plus, childcare costs vary nationally. I have never needed full time childcare but if I did, a place with a CM is in the 3 figures monthly where I am.

It’s about planning and the jobs/careers you choose. I earn quite well as does DH but we couldn’t afford two in childcare so we have a 5 year gap. I work 3 days as a Finance Manager (on mat leave currently).

I know that sounds obvious but I think some people don’t really think about and check out costs before doing it. We aren’t entitled to any assistance so this was the way to make it work for us.

We used childcare vouchers and waited till dd1 no longer required childcare before having dd2. (There were other reasons for a large gap but affording childcare was a big reason)

Amongst my friends some people have benefited from grandparents doing childcare, others claim tax credits for childcare, some use childcare vouchers. Most of us have chosen to space our children so we never pay full time childcare for more than one child at a time.

Professional services jobs in the city pay the sort of money you’re asking about- consulting, banking etc. I saw the other thread on childcare costs, I thought the national disparity was crazy.

We're using some savings, cut down on any luxuries, and I've reduced my hours to go part time including a Saturday where DH can care for DS. DH tried to reduce his too, but his request was declined. I'm also doing freelance work in the evenings as of October to try to rebuild our savings.

We planned our children carefully and I personally ensured I was earning enough to spare £1k a month on my salary before we had children. This took a professional qualification and I was 35 before we were able to have children (we married at 24)

You can’t do it unless you are medium to high earners

We also pay more in childcare than our mortgage! The 30 hours have been a God send tbh. We made sure we had a gap which meant our eldest would get his pre school hours when I went back to work after youngest mat leave.

We have been mega lucky to find a nursery where we only pay term time plus a small retainer, that's reduced costs a lot.

We are playing the long game I guess, we feel that we might not be benefiting much at the mo, but when the children are older we'll be in a better situation financially.

Oh can anyone please link to the other thread on the national disparity?

I work part time
Husband is a teacher so we have a term time only contract with nursery
Childcare vouchers
Grandparent care
15 free hours now DS1 is 3

We are both civil servants and earn around 60k each - which comfortably covers nursery costs. We both work 4 days a week but that is to spend time with our son, we would be financially better off playing for more childcare and working full time

I think the tax credits is a massive help to a lot, but I struggle with how it works initially. Say you start a new job on 1st September. You need to somehow find the money for a month of childcare without yet having a wage packet todo this. Tax credits will be reimbursed but if you don’t have the available cash for that first month for nursery etc., what do you do? This genuinely perplexes me.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3358283-how-much-do-you-pay-for-childcare

@SuckOnTHATRyan, here you go :)