How much do you charge a 3 year old for a cooked evening meal and pudding?

[CrazyBabies]

Hi there. I will be cooking an evening meal for a 3 year old one day a week. I am not sure how much to charge. I will be cooking pasta dishes, sausages(good quality), and mash veg, type thing. offering fuit/yoghurt for pudding.
Would love you to tell me what you would charge. Will have child with me till 7, so want to give substantial dinner.

Is this an informal arrangement or childminding? Personally not sure I would charge if you are just doing someone a favour....

Hi there, I am a registered childminder. I have been looking after mindee for about a year now but his hours are changing. He used to have a packed lunch, but his mum asked if I could cook a hot dinner each week and said she would pay.

I include meals in my hourly rate, however I used to do an extra hot meal for one parent to take home for another child and I used to charge £2 per meal for similar food to what you describe.

Can you work out how much it's going to cost you and charge that?

I don't charge any extra - I provide all food and snacks including cooked lunches, dinners and puddings and baby milk. I use this as a positive to promote my business and parents like it, and it really doesn't cost me much to feed them. Yes, it slightly cuts into profit, but I like providing a clear price which is all inclusive. It is then up to me to budget food costs etc and it has brought me more business.

I used to include all food but after 7+ years of cooking for lots of children, when I reviewed my prices last year I decided to charge £2 per evening meal (everything included in the price). Food had gone up a lot and I wanted to recover some of the costs but without making people who don't have a cooked meal have to pay extra. That and to deter (if I'm to be honest) everyone from wanting a meal and having 7 for dinner every night was getting harder to seat as they were getting older (was ok when had 3 highchairs, a bumbo seat and just a couple at a dining table!). Anyway, worked perfectly for me and all parents said they preferred this as it meant that they could choose whether or not they had a meal. I now love the fact I only cook for mindees 2 days a week, one other day I'm provided with meals to heat and the other day I don't cook at all as they leave early enough. And on the days I do cook, I have less children to feed so it's all much better. I decided on the £2 to be pretty much in line with the school dinner costs (although what I provide is a lot more than what they do).

HTH :)

I include meals as part of my hourly rate - there's no discount for not taking up the meal.

Hi. thanks for all your replies.

I, on the whole include everything too, mainly healthy snacks.
We also often make smoothies with fresh fruit , which isn't cheap and is included.
I used to mind a child after school for 2 hours, once a week, and worked out that it was working out really expensive - food is! I charged £4 per hour(included food in the hourly rate), drove to the school to collect, bring home and offer hot meal and pudding for £8. Some days I felt it wasn't worth my while, as I had a one year old mindee with me, who was taken to the school where my ds goes, then back in the car to another school to collect mindee. So lots of in and out of cars/prams.
I am collecting this mindee from nursery , and feel that as I am only having him for 3 hours, I need to charge for hot meal. I was thinking more like £1.25 or £1.50. So I think I am being really fair.
Food really is expensive, and I use good quality food for all the children/family.

Also, this is the only mindee who requires a hot meal, so it would be unfair on the other families if I put my hourly rate up.
£4 per hour is very reasonable here. Also the mother said she would pay for a hot meal!
On the other thread about charging for food, some charge for breakfast lunch and dinner.
I expect if you have several mindees it all adds up.

I agree with the £2 fee. Once a week it's reasonable and given that it's a new thing that's being added to an existing service it's fair enough to charge a bit extra.

Where we live it's £6-7 per hour fees. And generally £1 breakfast, lunch and £2 dinner

Only the higher end fees (£7+) include everything so I think it's v reasonable

As you say the price of food has gone and will continue to go up so it sounds fair all around

Based on your fees I would say £2 still ( especially if only cooking for one as will take time etc etc)

my CM charges £2 for a hot dinner - I think thats fair enough -

I charge the same as the school does for a lunch - that is 1.90 here - and I put it up when the school does.

I usually include meals but in your situation I would charge £2.50 which is slightly more than school dinners (£2.20) but I'm not mass catering.

My daycare (previously CM but expanded so much she reclassified as daycare) charges £2.75 per meal (not breakfast which is included). Meals are home cooked and extremely good quality. Usually 'roast' style. I'd be quite happy to pay them so I could have a meal there too! School charges £2 per meal. These are adequate but nowhere near as nice. Hourly fees are £4.75.

£2 is excellent value I would say.