Poll: How much is in your kitty for full time nanny and school age kids?

[AtheneNoctua]

I'm wondering if I should up the amount. Most things are paid for: dance lessons, bus travel, tennis, swimming, gym membership (where there are a variety of drop in activities for kids), mobile phone.

So, I'm not sure what she spends the £70 on. Maybe baby chinos drinks/snacks when out (though I prefer her to pack them from home but it's not always possible to plan ahead).

Anyway, I'm just wondering if £70/month is enough keeping in mind that there are quite a lot of things to do that are already paid for through gym/activity fees which I obviously pay separately.

I have two at school and one at home, and I spend around £20 a week - that's bus fares, toddler groups, odd bits of food shopping. I don't really spend any money on the school children - all their music lessons are paid for in advance, we walk to school, I make an after-school snack at home and take it with me.

It is more like £50 a week in the school holidays, because we do one day out a week - so that will include bus fares, buying food if we go somewhere you can't take a packed lunch etc.

There must be a very exciting thread elsewhere. This one is surely not it.

oh, sorry. There is a post (we crossed.).

when at school they prob dont have much time to do things after school - so would have thought £70 a month would cover it

but when on school holidays i would up it, or ask nanny what her plans are and to budget accordling

i get a credit card and put all exspenses on that - though also have cash kitty for small things/car parks etc and ask for it to be topped up as and when it runs out - prob get through maybe £30 cash a month, and most of that is spent on car park fees of £1.50 a time and use twice a week for swimming/music

I would do what you can afford and find reasonable. Leave it up to the nanny to budget it but make sure she understands that once it's gone there is no more until the next month. £70 a month sounds quite good considering everything else is paid for.

In my London position with two pre schoolers I was given £100 a week, way too much but if it wasn't spent the parents thought we hadn't done anything!

I'm actually not sure how much we end up putting in because we keep an eye on it and top it up if necessary.

If she's doing something major (like a day out in the holidays), normally I'll see how much there is left and add a sum to it.

Ours buys some food with the money (as I only internet shop once a week and the food tails off towards the end of the week), some activities (like swimming) but in the holidays, the need for cash is a lot higher than during the school week (when virtually none is needed).

I get through just under 100EUR a week in central Paris but here's the breakdown:

40EUR piano lesson
15EUR (approx) at the market
16EUR a fortnight on metro tickets
5EUR on a treat/snack
1.50EUR daily on bread

Other things that come out of kitty:
Library fines
Miscellaneous school stuff - supplies, outings, whatever else is needed
Milk (we run out a lot)
Dry cleaning occasionally

During school holidays it's more.

I keep an accounts book where I write down everything we've spent money on. Maybe you could ask yours to do the same (but IIRC she's been with you a while?) or start it when the new one starts with a new amount in the kitty so you can truthfully say you've just changed the amount and want to know if it's right.

as the euro is roughly a £1 - thats seems a lot to spend each week £100 but guess half of it is on piano etc

where as milk,bread, any shopping,petrol,dry cleaning etc is put on my card

and prob spend £150ish - but car is £80 to fill up and dry cleaning if i pick it up is £30ish - tho some weeks car is full and no dry cleaning needs to be picked up

but thats why i like a credit card as if mb needs something (ie dog food at £40 a bag) im happy to go and get and NEVER be out of pocket

Hi Athene, I give my nanny £50 each week and she rarely gets through more than half of that (I top each Monday morning), but I like to know that she has a buffer for emergencies. She keeps an accounts book and writes everything in and puts the receipts in there as well.

More in holidays than term times, that's for sure! £20 lasts ages in term time, but they can easily get through that in a day in the holiday. We just top it up as needed, so I don't have a fixed budget per month - my nanny is very good at avoiding babychinos.

keep hearing about babychinos

must go to SB during summer hols and try them

if we go to SB (rare) then they normally get an innocent smoothie and i get a chai lattee

always good to try new things- think they are warm milk dusted with chocolate - is that right?

tbh my dc HATE warm milk so wonder if they will like them

Paris is expensive though, Blondes.

Hideously so.

I think my £70 per month is reasonable, as most of the other expenses listed here are paid sepa rately.

bus travel paid for separately
all activities paid for by me separately
she has a credit card for miscellaneous expenses like birthday gifts.
I order / buy whatever food she puts on the list

The £70 is just for miscellaneous foood / activities not already covered by me.

But, I shall top up for some more exciting days out here and there over the summer.

if your nanny has a credit card athene - then why doesnt she use that for holiday trips - least you can see where/how money gets spent

but yes £70 seems very fair as you pay for all the big stuff

That is actually what she'll do. But, she has to seek my approval before she uses the card.

I have just handed my boss our expenses for the month, it was £1300!! But, I do all the food shopping for myself and the children, have just renewed various farm/zoo/soft play cards and also did some shopping (during shopping for the boys and myself) for my bosses this month as their computer has been down and so they couldn't do the ocado shop. It is usually around £600-£750 a month, I keep all receipts (and have a credit card) and write it all down in an accounts book but my boss never ever looks at it (even when it is a huge month!) just writes out a cheque for cash payments I have made. I did ask her if it was ok to renew all our memberships but she knows we go to them alot and so it saves them a lot, so said it was fine.

I will talk to her about big expenses we have but she always just says yes and don't worry about asking but still feel I should!

callaird - do you pay for all these things and then get the money back from your bosses??? I don't have £600 a month spare let alone £1300!!!

I have a credit card in my name but for their bank account. I usually only spend around £100/200 of my own money a month. Sometimes more as it feels like I get a huge pay cheque at the end of the month!

I'm live-in, have no bills apart from my mobile phone, get paid very well and so do have spare cash if I need to spend it!!

Ah - that sounds better.

My petrol money comes out of the kitty each week, but if I don't need the cash that week I take 2 weeks out the next week as it feels like I'm getting more

I was thinking some more about this. It is the normal activities which can cost more, or all start to add up in the holidays I think. So after school on a sunny day they might get an ice cream and go to the park. The ice cream is a mini milk sold by the PTA for 30p. In the holidays they still go to the park but they get the ice cream from a van when it is more like £1.50. Or if they go to the Science Museum, they will take sandwiches, but buy drinks and a small chocolate snack - the drinks because it's heavy to carry drinks for everyone all day, and the chocolate snack because it's more fun to choose something.