To wonder how the bloody hell people afford private education for their kids?

[HarderToKidnap]

Thinking about TTC and getting WAY ahead of myself I idly googled the local private schools. Bloody hell!! HOW do people afford this? My DH and I earn 100k between us every year so certainly not poor, but with a mortgage (on a two bed terrace) and other, what I consider to be reasonable, outgoings there is just not a way it could be done. So all these children being privately educated, do their parents earn masses and masses? Or am I missing a trick?

(Incidentally I wouldn't send my kid to private school - comprehensive was brilliant for me and if a child is going to do well they will do well, I believe. Was just wondering.)

I have worked out that private education for our two would cost £238k not inc uniforms etc over their school life. Although we too earn good salaries, I balk at paying that unless I absolutely have to.

pixie on a leaf how on earth do you afford school fees for that many?

I did go to private school myself, but I still won't be sending my children.

Private school is out of the reach of the vast majority of families.

stressheaderic We live in a two-bed terrace in SE London and our mortgage is £1000 per month and that has come down since the fixed rate has ended! So your £500 estimate is low if it is London (and even though we are in a nice neighbourhood, we are not near any train/tube hence our house is considered 'cheap-ish').

We are about to go on one salary (I am about to take redundancy) and DH's salary in a year combined with a bonus is about the same as Pixie's. At the moment, I have to admit we have a a nice lifestyle. We have nice holidays twice a year. I can go out and buy clothes etc without worrying too much about the cost (not that I ever do that, I only do it very rarely!). We have 2DCs and we don't spoil them in that I buy a lot of their clothes second-hand or toys (I go to a local toy library!). But they have a nice life in that we can take them to the zoo, they go on nice holidays with us, days out etc without having to save up for it. Private schools around here are about £8-£11k a year. DH wants to put our DCs in them, I don't! So we shall see nearer the time. But my point is that if we have both DCs in PE, the nice holidays etc will have to go. It's a balancing act, do I want my children to have PE or some life experience (they have family overseas so not going to see them is not an option!)?

In our area, there is a brilliant state school but it's a COE school and you literally have to go to church to get in, now don't get me started on that...

It's weird though because on MN so many people do seem to manage it!

we haven't decided yet wether to put DS into private school ( day only ) or not as we have a good comp round the corner, although 80% of my current wage goes into an account and doesn't get touched until we decide.
It may be just primary years private and go from there, but thats a few yrs away yet.

When my 2 were at playgroup age I looked into private schooling for them. The fees were £700 which I thought was quite reasonable...

until I read properly, it is £700 per MONTH!

Have to say that where we live the schools are fantastic, very very good for Primary and we have the 11+ for secondary schools - most are pretty good.

I think if I had to choose I would choose private secondary over prep in terms of financial priority.

Two bed terraces where I live cost over £600,000. So you'd be unlikely to have a mortgage of just £500 a month unless you were seriously cash rich.

Though of course I have no idea how much the OP's terrace cost.

but Jax- nursery is over 700 a month... so working parents are already used to forking out huge sums of money a month.

Where we live, people opt for private prep in order to get 7 'free' years of excellent grammar education at secondary age- 7 years prep works out cheaper.

Hardertokidnap, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw your income. I thought you were going to say 20K, not 100K. My DH and I earn 40K between us, and have a mortgage of 150K. We also have two children at private schools. We manage by not using a car, buying toys and clothes in charity shops, never going out, and so on, and so on. I am not grumbling - it's our choice to spend our money on education. But, yes, it's possible to do it on a reasonable-but-not-huge income if you want to enough. And on 100K, you are surely laughing.

Our 3 yo is FT at a private nursery and I worked out we are paying almost £10k a year for the privilege. Would probably be no hardship to just carry on once she started school. Hope we don't need to.

We have six in private schools. We can't really afford it and have had to put our summer holiday on the mortgage for the last couple of years. But this is DS1's final year, so things will start to get easier.

I am always a bit at people who say it "depends on your priorities". Most of the people I know, in good jobs - academic, creative and public sector, mainly - would have to re-adjust their lifestyle HUGELY to find an extra £10-20K a year. You might as well be asking them to acquire a private jet for all the good it will do.

Thankfully, I don't happen to believe private schools are necessary or desirable.

Army, Navy, Air Force

Our household income is close to yours and we couldn't afford it in a month of Sundays. We have two children for a start! Luckily, a private education for my dc is not something I yearn for so I don't lose any sleep over it. Although, bizarrely, I choose to live in a place which is absolutely riddled with top private schools.

Interestingly, my best friend, whose household income is below £40,000, can apply for a full scholarship to a much sought-after private school in my neighbourhood. So her ds might be travelling from his borough, to the borough I live in, to go to private school that I can't afford to send my children to, even though our income is more than twice hers .

DD1 goes to a private school which is very kindly funded by her GP's (my ex h's parents)

DH and I are about to put (next year) DD2 into the same private school and it is cheaper per month than a full time childminder! There is no way we could afford 2 sets of fees so if DD1 wasn't paid for we wouldn't be considering it for DD2 and I would have to delay my return to work as it wouldn't be financially viable to pay a childminder for the 2 of them. We're very lucky in that DH's family cover the school holiday care for us, if we had to pay for that as well we would be financially screwed!

I went to a rough, North London Comp and had a fantastic time, I also did very well academically so have nothing at all against state schools, I just think it's a great opportunity for the girls to have a private education.

Bibbity, are you talking primary or secondary? I'm not sure that we'll be able to afford secondary on 40K, but we can manage primary for two children. Just.

UQD, I can see your point - but it's rot in some cases. If we chose to prioritise holidays, nights out and cars, for instance, we couldn't afford school fees. Because we're willing to sacrifice pretty much everything, we can afford fees. We are both academics, so come into your 'good job' category. Yes, we have had to adjust our lifestyle hugely - but I hardly think it's akin to buying a private jet.

MaamRuby, I can see why you get peed off.

But in my case (and that of others), it is a question of priorites. Either we can buy and do things for ourselves and our children, or we can pay school fees. We can't do both. That is prioritising.

If we had three children, we wouldn't be able to afford it regardless. There is nothing more we can give up beside our house. That isn't prioritising: that's reality. When it comes to secondary, we won't be 'prioritising': either we can afford it by making sacrifices, or we can't.

surely 100k brings home more like 6 k a month two earnrs

2 bed terrace even in london cannot cost that much....i dont see why you cant afford this but dont have full picture

I'll say it again.
Army, Navy, Air Force.
Look at the subsidies.

Good questions, Maam. We've not yet said: you can't have x, y or z because we're prioritising education. The DCs are not yet of an age where it would mean anything to them. We do say they can't have stuff because we can't afford it. I do point out that other people have more stuff because their parents work full time; they do know they want me here more than they want Stuff! (well, at the moment, anyway ).