How to afford childcare?

[user1467403859]

Hubby earns £8.70 ph. I earn £7.95 ph. 3 primary age school kids. 13 weeks school holidays. Childcare costs will be £87 a day. Tax credits can contribute but still not enough. I can't afford to not work. Can someone tell me what others do? We earn just above the £16k so don't get the full 70% tax credits. Help?

Childcare swap with other families?
Some leisure centres offer low cost camps over the holidays.
Holiday au pair will work out considerably cheaper and a lot quieter enjoy coming for a short period of time, although you'll need them to do a map one day a week or pay extra.

Can you try to find a (like gold dust!) term time job then in the summer hols get some seasonal work in the evenings or something? Take in foreign students over the long hols to earn some extra cash. It’s bloody hard OP.

Shop around - there are lots of different holiday clubs - sports camps, drama clubs, art clubs, generic school playschemes.

How old are they? Possibility of either of you working from home at all?

Other than Xmas week, you both take your annual leave to cover different weeks of school holiday (7, assuming 4 weeks holiday each and both take one week over xmas) leaving 6 to cover, not 13.
Depending what you earn (how many hours a day), unpaid leave might make more sense than paying out.

I found a school friend whose mum worked 3 days a week and was happy to take ds for the other 2 most weeks to keep her ds company and if I returned the favour by covering 3 days a couple of weeks for her out of dh or my annual leave.

Leisure centre club was cheap and also the after school summer care both were less that £10 a day.

Add on a couple of trips to gps/relatives and we managed.

In a previous life, 5 weeks holiday each. One week overlapping, and 7 separate covers 8 weeks (one week leave saved for illness and school plays etc). PiL came up for a week to stay, my parents hosted them for a week. 10 weeks. Paid for 3 weeks care.

Now, DH has a new job, and we live in a country most hated be nearly everyone on MN. So I don't work, and get to look after the kids for their 12 weeks summer holiday, plus Xmas and Easter too.

Take annual leave in the holidays? DH and I have been doing this to save our childcare bill. We got a term time only contract with our CM.

I know its not ideal but a lot of companies offer unpaid parent leave - sometimes upto 6 weeks- do you have an option to work from home at all?

Thanks for everyones replies. Unfortunatly we work/live in a tourist town so we can't take leave over half terms/summer. We are both also working over xmas. Think I've managed to juggle this holiday and feb half term we are on holiday (booked before we started these jobs!) But jeez its hard. Childcare costs more then a days wage. Thank you everyone xxx

What's your long term plan for at least one of you to earn more? Evening education, in work training etc?