Help me figure out what to charge parents in our nanny share for food! And other questions...

[SycamoretreeIsVile]

Evening All,

Looks like we may (finally!) be entering into a nanny share for three days a week with another family. They have one little girl who is 16 months old. She'll only be staying for lunch I think, although not clear yet whether she will have breakfast at ours but I can't believe she won't have that at home before she leaves. I suppose there are also fruit/snacks to consider.

What's fair to charge do you think? She has previously been at a childminder but not sure whether the price was all in there, or if meals were a separate expense.

On some level I hardly think it's worth charging, but I want this to be a professional arrangement, and we aren't charging the other family for stuff like nanny's car insurance, petrol etc. We are also providing car seat, buggy, highchair etc as we still have everything from when both ours were that age.

Also, is there anything else we need to consider? I've suggested families have separate kitty purses for the nanny.

TIA

Separate kitty purses could be a PITA. Why don't you suggest they pick up the cost of the kitty because you're doing meals, heating, lighting, car insurance, petrol etc?

Sorry, that wasn't terribly helpful. Depending on what they want their DD to eat, and how much she eats, whether she has any special snacks, maybe £10 a week?

Thanks Frakkin' - she's only coming Mon,Tues, Weds.

I really don't want to share a kitty purse, as I'm going to be asking the nanny to get stuff like nappies, kids shampoo etc out of it when that stuff is running low. Also, they'll be parking for my kids swim lessons etc and I don't think it's fair to ask the other family to be paying for that.

With the shared kitty, what will you do if the other family haven't given enough money for their child to join in an activity yours has got money for?

I wouldn't do anything IWantTo - that's up to my nanny to decide. She is being employed by the other family to look after their child three days a week. That's why I DON'T want a shared kitty. I want separate. The nanny would have to decide whether to dip into her own money and claim back from the other family. I'd also hope the nanny was on the ball enough to let the other family know if their kitty was down to under 5 pounds lets say.

I just mean your child might miss out on stuff as she hasn't got money to pay for both of them.

Maybe say you'll pick up all the costs and they give you a fixed contribution to cover nanny's wage, work out what it would cost you full-time, divide by 5 and multiply by 3?

I think that's what a lot of other nanny sharers do, at least that's the way that mine worked!

Ah, just read your post above - not a classic nanny share then.

Iwant - I've got two kids, one at school and one still at home. I see what you are saying, but I won't let the kitty get that low, and I expect my nanny to tell me if it does. TBH, if a nanny ever lets a situation like that arise, she's not doing her job and she's not very sensitive is she lol! She should do something that costs nothing instead.

Oh gosh, I think I've managed to make this all sound much more complicated that it is - sorry.

The cash part for the actual care/nanny's salary is all agreed. We have FT care and the other family want about 25 hours a week. For those shared hours, the nanny naturally gets a higher hourly rate.

It was really just any other issues that might arise in the share that I was wondering if I was missing...the kitty being just one and cost of meals being another since they are being catered for out of our fridge.

When I was a shared nanny the costs were split 60/40 with the host family paying the 40% share to cover the wear and tear of hosting the nanny. I think they each put the same amount into the kitty, and certainly if one employer wanted me to do something extra they left extra cash, such as book swimming IYSWIM but normally the kitty was for outings, food the children would eat etc.

Ah, I see what you mean. So the kitty covers food too? I was thinking more that the nanny would cook from our stocks but I can see how that system can work.

I suppose I just don't want to seem unfair since I have 2 children and she only has one. Was thinking it might just be easier to charge a set price for three meals a week. I was thinking 1.50 per day? That would be plenty for a good hot meal like fish pie, bananas, a yoghurt and milk/rice cakes, the odd biscuit etc.

Hi Sycamore
Dont underestimate the cost of food!! £1.50 for 3 meals is not much at all. If you think of Jamie's feed your family for a fiver adverts, and that they are menat to be a real result then for nanny to feed herself, your 2 and the extra one would be £1.25 each (for example) then you have breakfast, snacks, drinks and tea all coming out of your cupboards ... Maybe £4.00 a day would be closer?