Childminders club: expenditure!

[Tan1959]

Hi all

For those of you who provide food for mindees, what would you say your average shopping bill per week is for your mindees?

How many children do you have on your books?

How much do you think you spend per week on loo rolls, tissues, wipes, proportion of soap, washing powder if washing daily flannels/towels, cleaning materials/washing up sponges etc for minding?

Foodwise, I am beginning to get a rough idea of what I am using (don't put shopping on a separate bill for mindees) but I am almost finding it impossible to calculate what I use for mindees in respect of everything else - I have six mindees on my books.

I'll be watching this to get ideas as I find it hard too! At the mo I have 4 kids on my books but only 1 is using toilet roll and only 2 using hand wash etc. I've currently got a different coloured loo roll out for my mindee who uses it - been out since last Monday and when it's gone, I will look at how many rolls the family got through and work out roughly how much she uses. That's about as far as I have got Hard isn't it!

What a good idea Helly, hadn't thought of using different coloured loo roll!

It is hard, I think what I may have to do in as far as loo rolls, wipes, tissues, cleaning solutions, soap, soap powder, washing up sponges (I'm a bit neurotic about those, replace them every two weeks!) is to buy, label them (for mindees) and use during minding hours and change back to my stuff when last mindee goes home iyswim - although bit a a pallava though but cannot see how else I can work it out or is it just me being thick

for stuff we all use I think I calcualted 1/4...

to put this into perspective, for milk and stuff it's ds plus twin mindees drinking nearly 100% of it so I calculate it as 2/3 for expenditure.

For stuff like.. handwash, food we all eat, I estimate 1/4. Which covers both of them.

It's a bit more complicated now I have 5 mindees, and tbh I'm nowhere near up to do with accounts. I'd err on generous simply as any waste I put down to them too.

I have 14 mindies on my books and i tend to be quite rough with my toiletries calculations. I maybe put one purchase of toilet rolls a quarter down to the kids, and handwash i will occassionalyl claim for it, say i buy 4 a month then i claim for half of that being the mindies.
I do food more accurately, i have a menu set up on my pc and i've set it up to work out the daily charge, after i type in what i have given the children. very clever, saves loads of time.

oh diddle can you share that programme with me. it sounds great. im a terrible food shopper so that would be handy as it would keep me on track.

I don't put any of that through just £1 a meal, I've never even considered it.

Thanks for all replies - it's always helpful to know how you more experienced minders do things

Diddle - I too echo Isyhan - would you be willing to share your programme?

Jensmum - do you really think that it only costs you £1 per meal? I really wish my mindess food & toiletries cost me that - the fruit alone provided for snacks costs that per day! how many mindees do you care for during the week?

I only have two mindees for 4 half days a week and they only have one meal (usually breakfast) and 1 snack with me a day.

I've never put any thought into my accounts really I put through all the toys, craft materials books etc and toddler groups and then utilities.

I think if I start having more mindees or start doing it full time I'll definatley put through more