To put DC3 in nursery 1 extra day to clean/save money ?

[specialk9]

DC3 (almost 3) is about to receive his 30 hours funding after Easter. This will save us £845 a month. He goes 3 days a week whilst we work. This money will go in to savings.

We pay a cleaner £60 a week / 3 hours. It takes 4 hours to clean our house.

On the 2 days I look after DC3 we go to a club, see family/friends and I do whatever cleaner doesn't finish, change the 4x beds and any other 'family' admin etc

Due to the funding we have the opportunity to put him in another day. We could cancel the cleaner and save approx £260 a month. I would then spend day 4 doing all the cleaning/changing beds etc. This money would go in to family pot for days out/treats etc.

We don't have the time / nor do we want to clean at the weekends. Saturdays are spent doing something together or with friends/family. Sundays DC1 (15) and DC2 (7) have sporting commitments.

Positives
All cleaning/beds done in one day
Save an extra £260 per month
I think I actually clean better 😆

Negatives
Lose 1 day a week with DC3 before he starts school (Sept 2025)

WWYD? Just feels a bit bad to put him in nursery another day to essentially clean !

If you wanted to do this to relax, get in exercise, get in admin tasks, I would say go do it - I have a day a week when mine are in school for this and, while it is not necessary it's very nice to have.

But I don't understand why you would give up a day with your child to clean your house rather than have a cleaner do it - but I hate cleaning!

Unless you really need the money saved from.the cleaner, I would enjoy the last year before they start school. I really enjoyed that final preschool year with mine

Also - I agree with you about cleaning with toddlers around, it's doesn't work for me either. I do it now my youngest is 4 but when mine were toddlers more than just the basics like loading the dishwasher just didn't work. But mine were very high energy

We need to stop the never ending decline towards being a society of dependents. It won’t end well otherwise.

You mentioned the 20% net contributors but how much do they earn in total compared to the other 80%. Your salary alone is 5 times mine and I don't claim any benefits but did claim the 30 hours a week. Most people work and pay tax and although most are non net contributors their tax all counts towards the pot.

It's bad luck that you can't claim anything but direct your anger towards the government instead.

@Charlie2121 are you also angry at parents who still work part time when their kid goes to school? As it’s the same thing.

Oh and we are in London and pay £15/hr for a cleaner which is fairly standard around here - I still see some cleaners advertising at £13/14 an hour so I think you're paying a lot especially if they aren't all that good.

I really think you need to see about changing to a new cleaner.

My cleaner comes for 2 hours a week to a 2 bed 1 bathroom house. She cleans the house, hands a load of washing up and changes the sheets once every 2 weeks (she has time to iron a few bits and bobs the other week).

If I also wanted her to empty the bins, dishwasher etc, clean the outside of the front door, inside the fridge and thumbs I would need to add at least another hour, maybe 2 per week.

I definitely wouldn't need to pay for ten hours a week.

I would up the cleaner’s hours with the savings from nursery and have the day with DC. But then, in 33 weeks time my beautiful boy is off to Uni and I’d do anything to have that pre-schooler back for a few more days.

Do whatever you like, it’s your life!

Would another option be putting your toddler in for a half day instead of a full day? I think is possible to change four beds and clean the house in half a day.

Actually everyone gets 15 hours, whether they work or not. The "system" was "designed" so that all 3 and 4 year olds get some time at nursery or preschool.

By your logic, working parents should be at work for 15 hours, which is the extra they get because they are working - not the full 30 hours.

In any case, it's not actually 15/30 hours because it's term time only, and some childcare providers allow you to stretch the funding over the year, so it works out as fewer hours per week.

You'll never get this time back, I'd personally carry on paying the cleaner and spend the time with your son whilst you can.

The funding only covers the childcare element of the nursery’s costs I think around £5 an hour and only for 38 weeks.

When our little one gets her 30 free hours we won’t be saving anywhere near £800ish a month? I think we’re going from £950 to £550 or something. The £800 seems massive especially if you aren’t doing a full 30 hours a week.

Keep the cleaner.

Other than that, do whatever you want to do. Do you want to keep the two days with your toddler or do you want a bit of time to yourself? Your choice!

Mine are a bit older now and whilst it was hard at times I really enjoyed the time I spent with them. However, they remember none of it. None of the play groups, bike rides, park trips. 🤣

It's what I did, but not to have a day for cleaning the house. Just a day to get things done for myself, inside or outside the house. Then one day a week of really lovely quality time and our weekly mum and child activity. It seemed a good balance to me. Cleaning with a toddler around is hard work, I've never felt bad about using some of the nursery hours (funded or otherwise!) for that purpose. Now my kids are at school I don't feel the need to justify every hour of their school day. If I'm tired and run down, then I might spend the school day watching Netflix. If I'm feeling lonely or down in the dumps I will go out and meet a friend, or book a hair appointment. If I finish early I don't pick my kids up early, I go for a mooch in the shops instead. 6 hours a day is not that many.

No it isn’t. What a ridiculous assertion.

Are the funded hours not term time? They defo used to be.

So only paid 38 weeks of the year, working out as 22 hours ish a week..

She already answered this, click to see all OPs posts

Some really interesting replies. Thanks all.

Off the back of this we're not going to start this in April and revisit for September.

To answer some more questions. Sorry if I miss any!

Yes, term time only, my error. So it's a saving of £640 per month on nursery. We will pay £2 per day consumables (which we pay now on top of the hourly rate).

Would I feel bad taking the hours for not working? Honestly, no. My husband has been a high rate tax payer for 12y. We own a business that pays cooperation tax. I've worked since I was 16, apart from my 3x maternity leaves. We don't take child benefit. And also, we never knew we were entitled to tax free childcare for our 2 youngest DC so god knows how much money we could have saved !!! The hours are there for us to take in full, if we so wished.

Yes, my cleaner is £20ph. We live in a fairly affluent village outside of London. It's standard prices. I've seen some advertise for £25ph if including ironing. And I never said she was bad. She's great but I'm very particular when I clean so probably do a more thorough clean, and probs takes me longer ! I enjoy cleaning, if I have the time, so that's not an issue. I think a PP asked me if I feel like I should be? No not really, I suppose sometimes I do as I only 'work' part time but I quickly forget that 😆

I don't want to clean in the evenings. I sit down around 8.30pm. I understand some people don't have a choice, but gratefully, I do. Same with weekends. My DH works around 50-60 hours a week depending on time of year, so he also doesn't want to spend his evenings or weekends cleaning.

Yes, we're fortunate enough to have a holiday home in Europe so we are out of the country most school holidays. My Dad lives out the country so we visit him as well, and then we do one other holiday - normally something different like an A/I / long haul. So it's mainly only for term time.

Oh, and he's almost 3 so probs not a toddler any more?! I don't know, what's the terminology. Pre schooler ? He's my third and last though so to me he's still a baby 😆

really think you need to see about changing to a new cleaner.

My cleaner comes for 2 hours a week to a 2 bed 1 bathroom house. She cleans the house, hands a load of washing up and changes the sheets once every 2 weeks (she has time to iron a few bits and bobs the other week).

If I also wanted her to empty the bins, dishwasher etc, clean the outside of the front door, inside the fridge and thumbs I would need to add at least another hour, maybe 2 per week.

I definitely wouldn't need to pay for ten hours a week.

You might be comfortable with only having your house vacuumed, dusted, toilet cleaned and your kitchen floor mopped once a week. I like having all that done 5 times a week, and I certainly don't leave my bedding on for 2 weeks! My cleaner does all of my laundry, all my recycling, bins, dishes.

Also 10 hours a week to clean a small house ?! What on earth. Assume that poster was being sarcastic?!

Isn’t a cleaner who does all laundry and dishes more of a housekeeper?

Given that the council funds several of those hours, I'm guessing that poster has a disability which makes it significantly harder for her to clean the house herself. So I expect a cleaner does a lot of things that most people would do themselves; I'm guessing that by the time you do tidying, washing up, cleaning, emptying bins, changing bed(s), and maybe some laundry, it easily takes 10 hours a week.

And yes, I'd call it housekeeping and not just cleaning.

Ahh okay. But that's quite different from cleaning a house. My cleaners doesn't do any emptying bins, laundry, bed changing, ironing etc

Given that the council funds several of those hours, I'm guessing that poster has a disability which makes it significantly harder for her to clean the house herself. So I expect a cleaner does a lot of things that most people would do themselves; I'm guessing that by the time you do tidying, washing up, cleaning, emptying bins, changing bed(s), and maybe some laundry, it easily takes 10 hours a week.

Correct. My cleaner literally does everything, including:
All tidying
All dishes
Laundry 3 times a week
Hoovering and mopping 5 times a week
Dusting twice a week
Hoovering under all of my furniture once a week
Changing my bedding once a week
Emptying bins, recycling
Unpacking my shopping
Cleaning my bathroom once a week
Cleaning both toilets 3 times a week.

My house is absolutely spotless, just the way it was before I became disabled, thanks to her hard work.

🤔 maybe housekeeping is a better term on reflection!