cm club - i made no money last tax year.........what a total waste of working 60hours a week

[Booh]

i made a total pittance last year.....

all of my profit was eaten up with expenses, such as food, fuel, outings and insurance etc.

is it really worth it? DH thinks i am bonkers for doing it

Really? Then yes you are bonkers . I thought you child minders were raking it in

Not at all, I made just over £7K, and i work 66 hours a week.

Join the club

£181 loss last year

Won't tell you about the year before it was horrendous

Booh, I know you are working a lot of hours but how many children do you look after?

I work on average 50 hours per weekand and my earnings (before expenses) was just over 10k but I do have 3 children 4 days per week and 2 the other day plus before and after schoolers.

Its such a lot of work and hours to earn such a small amount isnt it and I do sympathise with you. I dont have much choice about changing my job cos i am a single mum and would end up paying for childcare if I didnt childmind so probably would be worse off.

i have two under the age of five full time, and four before and after school........maybe
i should make them east less

Isn't it the case that a business doesn't tend to make profit until year 3. I know some make profit from the start but it would be quite usual for profits to be ploughed back into the business in the initial few years.

Take a look at your costs and your fees. Can you decrease costs and increase fees? Are you including things in your hourly fee that you could charge for - some of the outings, food.

Booh do you have your own children? The way I look at it is if i had a 'normal' job i would have to pay for childcare, so at least i am my own boss this way.

omg, i have just registered and dint think I would make a loss. What expenses are there that cost that much?

It is frustrating - due to restrictions on numbers we will never make "loadsa" money. Every little helps but I also work 50 hours a week, and lots of extra hours with paperwork and college work, I would probably feel better if I thought that after a few years my "career" would flourish, expand and grow, making all the hard work worthwhile, but it isn't that type of job, so it will never really get much better.

I have been a childminder for 17 years and in that time have averaged a salary of £5,000 after ligitimate expences. I have always had a lot of children on role, which is why my expenses have been high.

This is the first year where i am due to have vacancies when some of my kids start high school, some didnt get into my local primary and one mum has been made redundant. I am a bit worried that I havent had any calls for months.

If I lose any more in september I will have to do some hard advertising to make up my numbers.

I have never expected to make more than £5000 a year and wanted to stay at home to look after my boys. They are now independent and I still enjoy working from home and being my own boss.

I have been minding for 5 years so I have most of the things I need, this year I did have to replace my double buggy as the last one fell apart!

I have to use my car a lot as I can't walk to anything as I am in a tiny rural hamlet.

I doubt I could up my fees in the current climate, and if I turned around to parents and told them that food would be on top they wouldn't be happy at all.

I don't know what to do.

yes i have my own children

Can I ask what hourly rate those of you who are losing money charge? Where I am a childminder costs £6.50 per hour per child. Cheaper to have a live in nanny for two kids. But, I think rates outside of London can be a lot cheaper.

£5 per hour here

I must admit from he taxman's point of view I am not raking it in, but the money I earn is really useful and helpful. If I went back to teaching I would bring home about £1700 a month. Childcare for my two children would be £1200 a month (or more) then I'd have to pay for travelling, lunch etc so I think I'd bring home after everything about £300, and I wouldn't see my children. Childminding for me has meant that I can bring home about £600 a month, after everything, and see my kids, it is working out to be brilliant and I love it!!!!!!

I charge £3.50 per hour, which is high in our area, most charge £3, or £20 per day or £100 per week (usually that includes everything too)

This week alone I have spent £14 on just grapes!

Where are you sillymilly?

Booh, if you have 4 kids at £5 per hour for say 50 hours a week, that's £1000 a week. How on earth can tax and expenses eat all that up?

I'm in London and I charge 6 pounds an hour, 55 pounds per day but I have been bad at keeping my account, I expect a big tax bill :-(

I charge £3.50 an hour which means even IF I managed to fill up with full timers, (never happend) 3 under 5 makes £10.50 per hour, which after expenses still isn't a large amount of money to look after the most valuable thing that someone can ever have. (I also give a reduction for siblings, which most of mine have - I am so stupid generous) Instead I have lots of part timers which averages at about £5 per hour.

p.s I am in rural Suffolk/N Essex

Athene, that is in the ideal world, but we are limited to 3 under-5s - including our own children - and there are very few people out there actually looking for 50hrs pw. Going rate where I am varies from 2.75 to 4.00ph - I'm at the higher end, including meals, but can guarantee I've never grossed more than 10k per year since I started, and that was my best year. Last year I grossed less than 5k Expenses can be high - we need a lot of equipment to cater for children of every age group.

I've never even had an enquiry for a full timer in 4yrs of minding . So if anyone looking for childcare in NE12........... [GRIN]

underpaid - you are exactly right.....i have one child who comes at 9.30am and leaves at 2.30pm, so not a full day..........but i took him on as i needed the work and parents look for the flexibility.

another child is a teachers child, so she is finished by 4pm, but as i have after schoolers i don't finish until6.30pm.

Am actually looking into live-out nannying now - get a wage, someone else pays the tax and NI, and I can turn my house back into a home instead of it resembling a nursery/community centre . A cm I know did this and has never looked back.

Booh, the other point is cms have to be competitive in their area - unfortunately there are still a lot of parents out there whose first question is 'How much do you charge' [prepares to get flamed for that, but have had some phonecalls cut short when have quoted my hourly rate ]

I am in north east - sunderland