CM CLUB - sick of the misconceptions - what did you earn last year??

[MissElleToe]

Am thoroughly sick of all the comments I see on MN about how we must be raking it in, so come on let's see how much you all earned 08/09.

My gross income was £12,000. Of that just over £8,500 was mine. For 45 hour weeks of contact time, more if you include cleaning up, paperwork etc.

Yup, raking it in

Please feel free to namechange as I have done

Um, would you not be saying to the parents this is my hourly rate, if you would like me to use local soft play/swimming groups etc the entry fees are charged back to you.

Everyone is struggling for work at the moment, not just childminders. I don't see anyone on this thread saying that childminders have loads of cash. I have stated that my childminder is doing well and another poster has said that as a childminder she is doing well.

I do think there is a bit of a "world is against us" kind of thing going on here.

Itsmeolord what if a parent says to me I'm not willing to pay entry fees? that means other children in my care would miss out on social activities because one parent refuses to pay, I can't increase fees anymore, because as you say everyone is struggling for work at the moment and I live in an underpriviledged area of high unemployment and all my parents claim child care element of tax credits.I wish parents had the same view as you and were willing to pay for extras

im lucky to get my fees on time, there is noway they will pay for extra's,,, you might say well dont give extras but is that fair on the child, we are here to give the children the best care possible and i think that includes extra activities,,, im not moaning just stating a fact

I earnt good money as a childminder in the last tax year, but I work hard to get that level of income. I have on average 14 children on my books and work approx 11 hours a day. If I was to work away from home I would need to earn virtually the same amount gross as I do now to maintain the same level of income & pay out for travelling costs & miss out on time spent with my 2 dd's.I am also in an area where my fees can be set higher than a lot of areas & if I was to move to somwhere cheaper I would expect my income to fall in comparison. I expect to pay a hefty tax bill twice a year but still pay less than I would if I was on PAYE because of the expenses I claim.

Maybe I am not on this board often enough but I have never seen people here saying that cms are raking it in.

I have no idea what my utterly wondeful and fabulous cm earns. Whatever it is, it isn't enough imo.

She constantly goes the extra mile for us. ( we don't take her for granted). We pay a token extra £1.50 per week towards activities/groups. Daily rate is £35. Lunch is not included. Snacks are and she is extremely generous. Beatiful selection of fruit, makes biscuits with the mindees etc.

She recently did a one off Saturday for us, as a big favour. I asked her what the rate was and it was only at my absolute insistence that she took time and a half. I told her truthfully that imo it was overtime and she was helping me out.

She admits that she is not particularly business minded, and it is clear she loves the mindees.

I'm not raking it in but I couldn't earn the amount I do by working for someone else.

I have 4 children of my own all now at school but I only want to work term time and only for 4 days, no job would pay me £12 per hour for these conditions.

I care for 3 under 2's at £4 per hour each, so yes a decent wage for now, but its never a long term arrangement so you have to enjoy the income while you have it, as the children are soon off to pre-school and school.

If you want a long term income guaranteed, childminding is not for you.

re activities, you don't have to do paid ones. There are free options as well.

My childminder belongs to a group set up by local childminders, they all meet up, have messy play etc and its free.
In the summer months its a picnic in the park type thing.

Also, I don't think its a case of parents not being willing to pay for extras, they can't always afford it.
If you are aware that the parents are on a low income then is it not better to find free things to do?

I could earn a lot more doing my old office based job. I used to car share with my husband (so no petrol costs) and my DD would not need childcare, because she can look after herself now. My income would be approx 4x as much, so I am definitely not raking it in at the moment. However ... I love my job, I love the mindees and would not want to give them notice, I love my home, I love being my own boss, etc, etc, so I have to consider that some things in life are worth more than money. (The bank manager does not seem to agree )

I'm with HSMM on this one. I took a huge cut in pay, even taking into account my own childcare, in order to look after my own children and other people's. I'm not whinging about that, but it is galling when others pass comments about how expensive childcare is. At the end of the day, however good I am at my job, what really limits my income is how good the parents whose children I care for are at theirs!

itsmeolord, I do plenty of free activities, like the ones you have mentioned, I also pay for some, I'm not moaning or begrudge that I'm paying for extra activities, I enjoy taking the children and enjoy myself while we are there, you questioned why anyones expenses would be 50% earlier in the thread, paying for activities is an expense.

HMRC allows certain expenses to be taken off Turnover. This is documented in BIM52751

A childminder needs to take account of bad debts (parents leaving without paying for example) plus fluctuations in occupancy (not really sure that's the right word to use in this case) as a childminder may not have filled all childcare places all year round.

When talking about figures, may be better to talk about:
Turnover - how much money is coming into the business.
Gross Profit - Turnover minus expenses.
Net Profit - Gross Profit minus tax.

Some childminders will make a fair amount of money, some won't. Even those who do make a fair bit can see their income change very quickly if several families leave in short period of time. So it's not a very stable income - like with a lot of businesses, income varies throughout the year and some years may be good, while others not so good.

When i worked fulltime with before and after schoolers i could earn up to 4K per month!!!! i now work part time and take home around 2700k per month. my tax bill is never more than 1000K and i have an accountant. i think the money is fab and i love being at home and with mindees. i could never ever earn this outside.
i also think, i earn every single penny lol

When I sent my accounts off in October my gross pay was terrible. I struggled to get a mortgage this year because of being s/e and had to get in a lot of debt.

That was when I decided to change a few things with my fees as I was definately not a charity. One mum didn't really appreciate it and at every chance she would tell me she struggled to pay me (I only wanted an extra £6 a week from her!). Yeah and I was struggling to pay my mortgage.

Sorry, but I have to take issue with the "no childcare costs" claim.

Childminders do have childcare costs. Unless their child is 8 or over, they count as one of the childminder's numbers and are effectively taking up a childcare place. AND we can't claim either vouchers or WFTC for them like all my parents do.

Sure our expenses can be offset against tax but we still have to pay for them in the first place! And it's absolutely right that they be offset since they're for the kids and not for us.

Hardly savings!

Getting paid 'loads and loads'

Sometimes I am lucky if I am paid at all - and we are legally unable to refuse care if we have an NCMA contract.

Booh that's not true any more, the NCMA are finally listening to the Cms they are supposed to be acting for and have said you can refuse care now as long as it's in your contracts/t&Cs.

There's more about this on the childminding help forum.