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?

6 year age gap, ds was at school by the time dd came along. Still spend upwards of £650pm but we both work ft and have combined income of £4.5k pm after tax, reasonable mortgage etc. In a year we'll get the 30 hours of free childcare too.

You plan. We have a 4 year age gap for this reason. Staying at home is false economy, as you will loose pension for later (and in many professions will loose the chance of a decent job if you are out for too long - many fields move so quickly that after 2-3 years out you pretty much know nothing anymore).
Plan, save, make sacrifices, only have as many children as you can afford (we have 2 - can’t afford anymore, so won’t have anymore)

I have 2 kids in nursery for 2 days a week and costs me £800 per month altogether. And my oldest gets 15 hrs free too. We couldn't afford for them to be in full time as that would be a lot more the my full time wage. It's not forever though, that's what I keep telling myself.

I worked four days a week and we used a childminder. My DM picked up from childminder early afternoon so she saved us quite a bit over the years.

If we'd have had to pay full time childcare it would've been very difficult.

We get childcare vouchers but not much else, I’m lucky that my job is flexible so I can work some hours around my husband and avoid childcare costs. We’ve also planned no.2 so that’s DS1 will be entitled to the free hours when I go back to work after may leave. If that scrap that in the mean time were fucked!
Oh and we’re both fairly well paid, not brilliantly but enough to make putting DS in childcare worthwhile.

We both work four days a week and DD goes to nursery three days a week. It costs about £800 a month. It's obviously a massive outgoing but not so huge that there's no point to it financially - we're still better off overall.

DD is nearly 2.5 now so if we have another, she'll already be eligible for 30 hours by the time I go back to work.

We have no help. I work part time 3 days and out bill is 400 for 1 dc and about 180 for wrap around for the other. So even when both are in school we will be around 400 a month until they're in secondary. We were playing a 1000 a month with nursery and preschool fees so it had to come down a bit! I earn 1200 so for a while it was equalizing my salary although obviously dh pays it as well

My childcare costs were the same as my wages. I looked at it as a long term investment not short term gain.