!!! POLL !!! How much does childcare cost you ?

[MamanFlo]

Hi Mums

I am a working mum in France, and DH has just been offered a position in London. We have 1 daughter and we will launch baby number two this spring (hopefully it will get to earth end of 2006). I have all sorts of questions, and specifically should I try to find a job in the UK or stay at home with my children?... and the cost of childcare is one major issue in the UK for working mums...

Can you help me to have an idea of how much it would cost me ? just let me know what childcare type you chose (nursery, childminder, nanny), for how many children, in which town and how much it costs you in a month all included.

thanks a lot for your help :)

mamanflo, back in the UK with a smile :)

Living in Kingston/Surbiton area

Childminder 3 full days a week costs £120 a week so approx £520 a month.

We used a nursery for a month and that cost £780 a month for 3 full days a week.

One thing though as a working parent if you can convince your company to take part in the Teds Scheme and the nursery does this too you can get a discount on your fees equivalent to the tax rate you pay. So 40% discount if you pay 40% tax or 22% discount if you pay 22% tax. I did this for the nursery - but changed to a childminder where you can't do this but the childminder is cheaper than the nursey anyway.

It is a tax avoidance scheme (note not tax evasion) but everyone in my company does it and it saves loads of money.

I live in south east London and pay £31 a day to a very good childminder.

Oh yes if your employer is any voucher scheme you will get £55/week tax and NI free, so potentially £110/week tax free if you both get the allowance.

Nursery in outer SE London: £786 per month
Combined Breakfast and Afterschool Club for schoolboy: £240 per month

West London.

Childminders tend to be £4 an hour but some are £5.
Nursery for under twos - £45.50 per day,
For over twos - £38.50 per day.

We have a nanny-share (although youngest child is also in part-time nursery) - share works out at about £1600 per month (but this is cheap for a nanny as ours brings her own baby with her).

Good luck

we are looking at this at the mo and live-out nanny rates here (sw london) are around £2000-£2500 per month (full time, tax inclusive).

Full time childminder rates for 2 children at school varies from around £10/15 per day (during term and only for after school not before) and then obviously more during the holiday (more like £30-60).

should have said per child for the childminder not for both

We're in Oxfordshire, and DS's nursery, open from 7.30am to 6pm (although he's not there all those hours!) 5 days a week, costs us £730/month. That includes all nappies, food etc.

£16 a day for the CM (Gwent)

(that's 9 until 2 btw)

Hi MamanFlo,

I send DS to a private nursery in a local college grounds. He is 2.6 yrs and its costs us £34 per day. He only goes two days a week as it is for his social benefit and so me and DS2 get some time together. We live in the London Borough of Havering. I think we are paying a good price, as some of the big private day nurseries around here charge £40 a day!

Good luck in your quest and with your baby launch!

£570 a month for full time nursery, meals included, in a fairly rural bit of the Midlands.

Asa Childminder in West Yorkshire - I charge £3.20 an hour.This includes all food, visits to toddlers and Soft play activities. I do however ask parents to provide nappies/wipes/spare clothes. Oh, and the child! :o

Hi there,

we are in greenwich, found that all nurseries there were full so I suggest to get on a list asap... consequently resulted in uber-expensive city nursery....eek, but then to be fair we looked into getting a nanny, this made the nursery look cheap!!!

I would recommend nanny share or childminder possibly?

Nurseries in reasonably central London you should count on about £1k per month for full time, a bit of a discount for 2 attending so perhaps £1800.
I have a live out nanny in Fulham which costs £1750 per month 0800-0630.

Also depends how old your dd is. If she is 3 + you should be able to get a free place at day nursery or certainly at a nursery school if there's one in your area.

You could always look

\link{http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp?cisid=&mapid=468here for info}

I've just picked London but it's covers the whole country.

sorry

\link{http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp?cisid=&mapid=468\here}

We're in Bristol

Ds, 8.5yo for after school club: £150 odd per month for 3.30pm - 6pm
dd, 2yo for full time, 5 days a week = £550 per month. When she was under 2 it was £750 I think.

Don't forget on all costings you need to earn more than you pay out because to actually pay £1000 a month you need to earn quite a bit more gross so i.e. £12000 gross a year wouldn't be enough for £1k a month childcare. Made up numbers and sorry if I'm stating the obvious but HTH.

Full-time live-out London nanny, approx £525 gross per week. We both work fulltime and are very broke...

ds 4 & dd 8 months at nursery 2 days a week, east london, approx £400/month. but that's a heavily subsidised nursery.

FT nanny in Kingston >2K a month all in. :(

that is for 3 kids tho' one is at school.....

West London - £55 for full day at nursery so with 2 at nursery 3 days a week it's just under £1300 a month ( incs sibling discount)

kateandfelicity, a friend of mine had the same problem. They moved to Greenwich in December and he hasn't been able to get his ds into a nursery and is now going to put his ds into the same nursery as my ds (near Canary Wharf). Not the most convenient but at least it's a nice nursery. South of the river seems to have a real shortage of spaces, another friend in Charlton is also having terrible trouble trying to find childcare.

Goodness, my sis (qualified NNEB for a decade and a bit) gets minimum wage in bridgwater for acting manager at a nursery.

She should move and be a Nanny.

Mind you everyone in bridgwater gets minimum wage