Dear childminders, how much do you make, and how much does it all cost?

[juniper44]

I know it's brash to discuss money, but I'm looking into becoming a childminder and would like to know, realistically, how much I'd make. The going rate in my area is between £40 and £70 a day.

I have a few questions:

1. How much do you charge per day, and what does it work out as per month / annum post tax and NI?

2. If you just do wrap around care, what is the normal pay?

3. What happens about sick pay or maternity pay? Am I right in assuming you'd get nothing but SMP?

4. What are your every day running costs? Ie nappies, food, activities etc? How much do you take home after factoring these in?

At present I am a teacher on maternity leave, so I don't have to worry about my income as it just happens- money goes into my account and I assume it's right. I've never been self employed.

The biggest cost is registration and the amount of time it takes. Also car insurance, contents insurance, liability insurance, data protection registration, Ofsted registration, buying contracts, etc.

Profit depends on what you provide (nappies, food, etc) and how you spend your days (home, park, soft play, zoo, etc).

At least 1/3 of my income goes on costs ... Sometimes more.

Oh ... And we don't get sick

It wouldn't help you to know how much I charge because from the figures you quote we are in a completely different area to me, it is much cheaper where we are. But I reckon I spend between a quarter and a third of what I earn on expenses. I consider myself a low paid worker, but I do know I save on childcare fees for my children. But because I have my own children the number of children I can take in is lower to reflect this.

My children have just been ill, which meant I had to take unpaid time off, when you are employed sometimes your employer will pay you for this time, when you are self employed there is nothing you can do apart from take the loss in income. If I am sick, I try to just keep going. I did get maternity allowance though and at the time it was more than I was earning each week.

I charge around £5 and hour. A the moment I have one full timer and one part timer, both under 5. I have found through trial and error that this is about as many children as I can realistically manage (in addition to my own 2) without going into stress overload. This gives me a gross income of about £390 a week. I don't charge for bank holidays, my holidays or sick days. So once I take into account the bank holidays, plus 4 weeks unpaid holiday each year, plus all of my expenses, plus tax and NI, I am left with a net income of around £1100 per month. However, in reality I don't earn that much every month as there are always gaps if one child leaves and I can't fill the space immediately. Also, the first year that I worked I virtually earned nothing as the start up costs were high. This was mainly due to the cost of training plus buying expensive equipment such as double buggies and car seats.

following with great interest as i'm considering this in the future :-)

Of course if the government push ahead with agencies, there will be agency fees to pay as well

Could the agencies genuinely help find children though? Could that outweigh extra costs? Does Ofsted charge anything?

I currently work 4 days a week with 2 pre-schoolers all day plus 2 wraparound (& my own DC). I find two little ones enough & it earns me an ok income considering I don't have to pay any childcare or commuting costs but far less than I used to in an office based role!

I charge £6/hr and after expenses & putting aside tax/NI, I usually have around £1,200pm left although this reduces to under £1k in the holidays as I have less children & always seem to spend more! I stopped doing all day rates & fixed wraparound care fees recently so now everyone pays hourly & I have minimum 2.5hrs charge for school children & 6 hours for pre-school unless it happens to fill a slot perfectly (eg I have a 3 yr old for just 3 hours 1 morning a week but this isnt blocking a FT space as I wouldn't want 3 children all day)

I charge for for holidays (BH & 4 weeks leave) but not if I'm sick or take any more than 4 weeks. Always charge in advance & preferably monthly IMO as it saves on paperwork! I think you can get maternity allowance if you've been paying in but don't quote me on that! I would also assume you won't make much if anything in the first year as there are start-up costs & it can take a while to get mindees (I started in the October got my first starting late November 2 days a week then didn't get any more until February & march)

Ofsted charge £35 a year at the moment, but that might go up. Agencies can only find children who are there, and I'm sure I'd rather find them myself.

My childminder recently quit because she wasn't getting enough mindees though I think she also didn't like it but used that as an excuse and possibly an agency like that could have helped her keep going. If you are good at getting them yourself then that's great.

I like that they are allowing both options.