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

Yeah I said whatever day would be the most convenient for the business and team, it’s not an employer moan, i totally get it just doesn’t work for every business/team

What would you all do?

lower paid job and ability to do 5 in 4 but knowing it’s going to take longer to move up

higher paid job and be reliant on parents to muddle through with childcare (MIL not great with kids but ok, it’s sort of a bare minimum thing with her, she doesn’t work) or my mother who lives far but is much better with children but who still works but has more flexibility to jig her hours… both have volunteered)

I would stay where you are, better protection from redundancy, future earnings and pension etc.

You could use unpaid parental leave when you actually want a week off with the DC then take a day off every 3 or 4 weeks to alternate with the parents/DH etc.

Yes for sure on redundancy although both roles are pretty damn secure, but my current role is (almost) bullet proof. Pension contributions are the same although future earnings a bit less I’d say.

maybe an upfront convo with current employer and say I’ve been offered this role at this salary, I really want to stay here but COL is making it diifuclt is there anything you can do? That’s fair enough isn’t jt? My current manager is lovely, such a good soul

Maybe wait a bit longer until your eldest is in school? (If you’re not already pregnant).

And I don’t agree with the point about giving up work for affordability reasons. Fine if you want to but on a financial basis it doesn’t necessarily make sense because you’ll likely have to re-enter the job market on a lower salary.

I have friends who've taken kids out of nursery on Mondays knowing they'll be at least 4 bank hols you probably pay for, then got grandparents down once a month and cover other Mondays with annual leave between them. Bit stressful but they made it work, if even one of you could get get compressed hours for 9 in 10 (or 19 in 20!?) it would be easier to manage.

I think full time childcare always maxes out the tax free amount permitted so we avoided that by me dropping a day. Though some nurseries do offer a full time place discount so check that too

I’ve already got the 2 dcs although I don’t think school will make it cheaper, because the 30 free hrs covers 9/3 5 days a week as it is, only thing is she’s not eligible for holiday club until 4 and lucky she’s early in the yr

do you pay for lunchtime supervision as part of lunch in school? Her future nursery are £5 for the supervision and then a further £2.10 for the food so if she has a hot meal it’s £7.10 per day for lunch, would it be the same at school? Ie having to pay for lunch time supervision?

We checked, no full time or sibling discount.

current nursery do a sibling discount but it’s still more pricey

@Lalalalawhitenoise you don't pay for anything between 9 and 3 when they're at school apart from hot dinners

I think full time childcare always maxes out the tax free amount permitted so we avoided that by me dropping a day.

It won't max it if you're using two accounts generally, as they'll be eligible to use it for both children individually

That’s good to know, thanks for the clarification! Really helpful :)

I've gone part time, and basically accepted that it's an investment in my future career and earning power rather than increasing our take home pay. I'm still on the childcare voucher scheme which helps and DD1 is at school so it is easier, but it was a really hard stretch with them both at nursery. I sympathize, especially with the cost of living going up so much. Its so shit and I found myself so jealous of people who had family helping out as that has never been an option for us.

I thought over £192ish per week childcare spend meant no more top up, so 3-4 days per week?
Good that both parents can do it though

Sorry @QuiltedHippo it's that you're eligible for both children. You can get £500 top up per child per quarter.

My friend just told me that all school meals up to year 3 are free, is that true? I’ve never heard this before but she said you don’t pay school lunch until y3 or above?

We went interest only on mortage until they started school.

As things stand that is correct, at least it is in England.

@lalalalawhitenoise nursery children aren’t part of the infant free meals. It’s reception, y1 and y2

i figured as it’s not compulsory education at that point but I didn’t even know R, y1 and 2 had infant free meals (for now)

Part time, compressed hours and help from my mum.

Agree.

So important to understand, you will need to pay a decent amount per hour for childcare per child. I don’t understand how it comes as such a shock to anyone.

I work currently night shifts and previously worked weekends so I don't have to pay it.

Over the years I've been self employed and brought my kids with me, or had 3 or more part time jobs together to avoid the need for it.

I understand that nursery is typically around £50-£60 a day (outside of london or city centres) BUT what I think, was that 30 free hrs, meant that, 30free hrs year round, which for us would mean 3 free days, i hadn’t realised it was term time only (found that out later) but still thought ok, well thats 22. Something year around, so only 6 or so hrs to pay a week… wrong. On a 3 day week private nursery still charge £90, inflating costs for half days to get around numbers and food. That I hadn’t anticipated.

i also hadn’t anticipated that both hubby and I request for flex working to be denied (Both started new roles and flex working for agreed in the interview, so that was a big big shock)

I think the half day thing is, that the place is taken for a whole day as they can’t then give it to someone else so it has a higher hourly rate.

I do think the whole 30 hour thing isn’t clear enough for parents to know exactly what they’ll get. I had also thought the funding was only for people on lower incomes.

The rent is definitely taking up far too much money and most don’t pay that much even to a mortgage so that’s how others can manage the childcare costs too.