To ask you how you manage childcare costs?

[Lalalalawhitenoise]

Specifically with 2 nursery aged kids and both parents working.

my eldest has 30 free hrs but with the wrap around care and then the out of term costs, it is eye wateringly expensive, roughly £2k per month full time. I earn just shy of 40k and take home shy of £2300 per month and with the rises in everything (we’re expecting £500+ extra on our mortgage if things stay as is, mortgage is up end of next year). I’m freaking out. No childminders in the area with spaces either and this is one of the cheaper nurseries

My little one went into nursery at 11 months old, 3 days a week (£700 a month approximately). I was a full time student studying for my undergrad. I used my student maintenance loan to pay for the nursery fees. I wasn't entitled to the childcare grant as my partner earned more than £18,000 a year.

During my last year of uni, I increased his nursery days to 4 and continued to pay for this using my maintenance loan.

My son is three now. He goes to nursery 4 full days a week, and 1 day with granny. I work 30 hours a week and 2/3 of my salary goes on his nursery fees (approx £700 a month which includes the tax free childcare scheme help otherwise it would be £900). In January I'll receive the 30 free hours, spread over the year which brings it down to about £400ish a month with the free hours and childcare grant.

I don't want any more kids and honestly, I'm really looking forward to when they start school so there's only wrap around fees to pay. No idea how anyone affords more than 1 child on less than £50,000 a year (total household income). Tell me your secrets.

im not being defensive but they definitely aren’t on the lower side for working in finance, it’s just like any other industry, we’ve climbed from entry level to middle management which is where we sit now, and no real chance to move or get a promotion (maybe a marginal pay increase ) because they’re new jobs.
hubs is applying for new roles but it’s a bit of an ‘if’ due to experience at this stage tbh. We’re early 30s

So basically mine have given the top reason and it’s a small team, hubbys manager is a canny one and is saying negative business impact too (although I’d dispute this, so he’s challenging it) but it’s a tbc

1. reframing my thoughts, think of childcare as an investment for the long term, don't get bogged down in the short term impact (unless you literally can't afford it obviously)
2. claiming what you can eg tax free childcare
3. adjusting hours to work flexibility between you both, but not in a way that restricts career prospects and development. That will depend on your circumstances, points in career, sector etc.
4. massive spreadsheet as has been stated!

While we had 2 in nursery the equivalent of almost all of my take-home pay went on fees. No free hours, no tax breaks back then. Like some others, we did it so that I could maintain my career and we lived within our limited means for a few years.

And what does your partner do?

I managed by having kids 4 years apart.

It's absolutely diabolical and in the current climate we are lucky to even have a nursery place. Everyone should be outraged about childcare cost and provision. I think like pp said we have accepted that it is what it is for now. We are slipping more and more into debt but not working is not an option. I just couldn't cope with feeling like it was the 1950s and I had to stay at home, I would be too angry. Would rather be in debt. Sorry if not helpful .. I suggest revolt!

Not sure how it’s useful telling someone they should have saved more earlier (especially when you have no idea what their financial circumstances were) or should have had a bigger age gap. Everyone doesn’t have the luxury of conceiving exactly when they want to🙄

I cut down my hours to be very part time (around 2 days/week) for the period of needing childcare for 2 and neither yet eligible for 30hrs. I would have stopped work but wanted to keep a foot in my career so I wouldn’t have to go down a grade to start again. Since eldest was eligible, I slowly increased hours at work and once youngest eligible, I moved roles to one that was more demanding (still pt, but more hours). It is still a juggle as the funding only really covers school timings in term time. I can’t see myself being able to work full time until both in secondary if I’m honest.

I really would not give up work: the nursery years are brutal but brief in the scheme of things. Yes, sometimes people end up working to pay for childcare but if you need two incomes in the long term, it doesn't make sense to me to torpedo one person's career.

I'd sooner go interest only on the mortgage for a year if it came to it, than throw away my income for nursery fees.

We had a very similar situation before my two started school . Two sets of nursery fees and wrap around care.

We used tax free childcare which saved us 20% and I also worked extended hours so I squashed my full time hours into 4 days meaning we only had to pay 4 days of childcare rather then 5 which really helped.

I completely agree, this is madness, it shouldn’t be this difficult to this financially detrimental to work with children

So the nursery dc2 is chargeable at about £55 a day no matter what.

dc1 at her current nursery (which we’re thinking of moving her out of to a new nursery attached to the school) 30 free hrs is spread across the year, so it’s 22.3 or something a week, but they charge £16 a day for food so it only reduces the weekly bill by about £75, so for a 5 day week there it’s still just shy of £200 (prior to TF childcare)

nursery number 2: they use it as term time only, (hubby and I get 30 days of AL each so we can manage it and then put her in for the full week at full cost some weeks) so if she was in classic school hrs it would be 8:45-3 (with £5 chargeable for lunch with a packed lunch) and and after school club until 6 is £12 per day. So is about £85 a week. No childminders to do the pickup and wrap around, ive checked :(

you reckon would be better off taking a lower paid job where I can do 5 in 4, but then I feel like it’s pressing pause on my career and still doing a job I’m underpaid in

they charge £16 a day for food

Give her breakfast before and send in a packed lunch maybe? £16 is a lot!

Are you sure you need to pay off your HTB? It's more than likely the interest rate will be lower than whatever rate you get on your mortgage...

(Missing the point of the thread slightly but it could help keep costs down)

This is what I’m freaking out over. I am pregnant and earn more money than DP. We take home £3765 a month between us. I pay over £6k in tax, NI and student loans a year (he pays nearly £4K) and taxes are expected to rise😭 I can’t give up my career but I’m not sure I’m entitled to childcare help because we both work full time.

They have to charge highly for food and nappies because it's essentially subsidising the woefully inadequate funding from the government.

They won’t let you, I asked if we can bring food in and was told no, she has breakfast at home anyway, the breakfast they give is only a small bowl of cereal anyway so £16 is a joke

I managed to negotiate compressed hours and cut my hours slightly so went in really early and left so I could collect DS from school. Ultimately my pension scheme had changed to career average and I didn’t do it for very long. It just made life so much more pleasant, I worked 30 hours.

I had to leave my job when I had DD, after childcare costs I would have been left with £150 a month then after fuel costs to ferry her to and from I'd have been left with pennies. I got an evening job when DD was 2 and we're actually better off than if I was full time because we don't spend anything on childcare. It's hard when they are young.

Htb is a bit of a ticking time bomb though isn’t it, the interest rate increases every year after the first 5, and it’s tied to the value of the property. We’d likely need to add it to the mortgage at some point it’s just when?

im really hoping rates will come back down, because for the vast majority of home owners 6% is unaffordable. Repossession is always the banks last last resort, my feeling is if people can’t pay they’ll offer discounted SVR

dc1 is potty trained and has been for a while but we had to provide our own nappies wipes and milk the whole time

I know you work in a small team which does make FWA more difficult if the job involves someone being present...but did you apply to take a realistic (less popular for leave) day off like Tuesdays?

It is utterly horrendous and we were in the same boat but we saw it as a long term investment. So we cut back on everything and kept working… it’s not for ever, once they start school it gets easier and now ten years down the road it’s far more manageable and we both kept our jobs. So I suppose what I’m saying is, it’s not for ever. Also local minders can be more affordable than nurseries once they get a big bigger

I do an 86% week over 4 days, DH does a 9 day fortnight and my parents do a day every fortnight (driving 200 mile round trip every time, god love them) so they're only in 3 days. Had a 3 year gap so older one has her 30 hours and only one year with them both there, but I imagine wraparound/afterschool club wont be much cheaper. Terrified about the mortgage increase we are expecting in June.