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?

Everyone I know either has free childcare from family members or doesn’t work until their kids go to school. Unless youre a high earner (£50k plus) then the cost of childcare will outweigh your earnings and you’ll be worse off for working (or maybe slightly better off but not enough to make it worthwhile). It’s only a small minority who earn enough to pay for childcare.

Some people do work and accept they’ll be worse off - they do it to keep their careers and boost their earnings in later years. But that only works if you have a good career with long term prospects, which again is only a minority of people.

I, like the majority, can’t afford childcare. I’m staying at home for a year and then I’ll be working part time while my retired DM babysits for free.

I don’t understand people who say childcare is a joint cost. It makes no difference! Let’s say DH and I both earn £1000 each and childcare costs £1000. It’s irrelevant whether we pay half each or whether I pay it all. Our situation either way is still Household Income £2000, Childcare £1000!

DHs work does the tax free childcare vouchers and DM looks after DS one day a week (1 day me, 3 days nursery)

Aiming to have no 2 when he's 3.5 so by the time I go back to work he'll be in reception.

Mary tax credits pay childcare costs in advance a week before your job starts.

a mix of childcare vouchers, spacing children around costs, saving up before hand, adjusting our hours (condensed or part time to minimise childcare) and grandparents helping.

I saved for four years before I got pregnant so I could take two years off work (I left one job and got another a couple of years later) then the free hours kicked in 3 so only properly paid for a years worth of nursery and with two of us on good incomes it wasn't that much. We only have one though and it's so much easier financially.

We have 14month old DD in nursery part time (mornings, 7:30-1pm mon-fri)
I either work from home in the afternoon or mum or mol have her from 1pm-4pm we don’t pay them.
We get tax free childcare but not entitled to tax credits. Cost is more than our mortgage but it is manageable.
IF we have another baby we will wait forDD to have some free hours. Couldn’t afford 2 lots!
We just don’t have as much. What we use to spend on meals/nights out, holidays etc we now spend on childcare!

We're both paid quite well, have weekly assistance from in-laws, maximise our childcare voucher purchases and will use an annual leave day each week as long as I can (like I did between maternity leaves) so that we need three days for each of them... going to have four months between me going back to work and eldest's free hours starting, those months are daunting!

I had no family help and we needed 2 incomes so I went back to teaching part time and dd went to day nursery. She's 13 now but we recently found all the bills and worked out it cost us £24k over 4 years for a 3 day a week nursery place back then. We had a child minder for before and after school once she was older which was cheaper and term time only but those early days were a bit of a killer.

That's why we only have one child. I guess you have to plan for these costs when planning a family. When you work it out hourly it really isn't unreasonable and it is a choice to have children or not. I'm afraid I have limited sympathy for those who have lots of children and then moan about the cost, my Facebook local feed seems to be largely made up of these people.

School holidays are the worst as I can't claim tax credits for that so it's a £60 a day credit card hit.

You can claim tax credits for school holiday childcare so long as it's with an approved provider, and all Ofsted registered providers are classed as approved.

I do shift work, so only need childcare for two days (I'm full time but do a shift at the weekend). We use the tax free childcare so get 20% contribution from government and the eldest one was getting 15 free hours, didn't use the 30 free hours as didn't need to plus costs more the more days they do. Eldest has started school. Middle one will get 15 hours free in April and I'll be back to work in sept, so youngest will start and we'll be paying more again!

I have compressed my hours/got flexible working arrangement with my employer so need nursery 4 days instead of 5. Childcare vouchers help a bit too. We work around each other with DH. I start work early and pick up DS and he starts a bit late and drop offs.

Can't wait for the 30 "free" hours..It should half our bill...Just want to point out that it doesn't necessarily start at 3. It starts the term after 3rd birthday so if your child was born in April it actually kicks in September..when they are 3,5.

In my experience you do the sums, work out you can just about manage it then find out it's twins..!

Because it is usually short term for 2-3 years.
But the British pay by far the most in European (knowing the French, Greek and Swedish systems vaguely). There are not enough state nurseries.

We both have fairly well paid jobs so whilst putting ds1 in nursery 4 days a week was a stretch when I went back to work I still had a bit if money left over.

However all that changed when ds2 came along 16 months later we decided to remortgage the house which has covered most of our fees for the next couple of years.

It's why sensible people leave a good gap between children

it's personal to individuals as well.
Some people are happy to work for nothing or pay to work short term because they feel they will be better off in the long run.

Some aren't prepared to do this, save the childcare money and are better off in the long run.

Some can easily afford it as they earn a small fortune, and others don't have any and can use family to provide childcare.

ewit I spoke to tax credits about it a few times and was always told I couldn't, apart from during summer holidays. The change to my regular childcare needed to be for more than four weeks before they would adjust the claim. I do use approved childcare though.

BigBlue totally agree that - especially in areas with high house prices or high rents - it's not easy to work unless you have family help, and with more GMs having to work later because they don't get state pension until 67 family help must be diminishing. And of course family have to live nearby which is also getting rarer, and be in good health. I take my hat off to the many couples round my way who alternate their shifts but I worry about how they manage as a couple. And it's only possible if you have time-limited shifts and aren't in a job where that idea is only nominal.

We live frugally. No budget for hobbies or nice holidays. It's temporary. People who earn a bit less than us would get child tax credits.

We have no family help and are medium earners.

I'm on maternity leave with my first baby at the moment. I'll be going back to work full time in January (early as I can't afford to go onto no pay). We don't qualify for any help just the new government tax free childcare scheme even though we only earn just over £50k jointly. Our DS will be with my mum 1 day a week and nursery for 4. It's £1000 a month for nursery which is more than our mortgage. We can just about manage but we won't have much disposable income until he's 3 and free hours kick in (if we qualify and it's still a thing then). We won't be having another child until this one goes to school and maybe not even then.

Live entirely off one income with the other income paying all the childcare.

This is what we did. We were brassic until the eldest started school. Then we had a bit more breathing room. Those first four years are tighter than a tight thing that’s really tight.

I can completely understand how the lower earner (which is nearly always the woman) ends up SAH. There were so many times where I thought it wasn’t worth it to keep working.

Childcare is our biggest bill incidentally, it's almost 1/3 of our post tax income and that's for just 2.5 days of care.

Our mortgage is almost the same.

Some aren't prepared to do this
It’s not that I’m not prepared to work for nothing, or even work for a loss. I’d happily do it if there was any long term benefit in it for me. But there isn’t.

We saved before having dc, so that I could be a sahp.