Childminder Club: Help re food

[JELLYJELLY]

Ok ladies you lot are a helpful bunch. Just spoken to one of my new parents, she was shocked at my charges for food
25p breakfast
50p lunch
150 for dinner

she was unhappy that i gave a marmite brown sandwhich, fruit and vegetables, yoghurt for 50p on one of the lunches. She would like a cooked lunch for this amount. i have told her that i will not cook value or low meat content sausages/burgers etc which would easily come into this price bracket.

Can anyone else suggest what i could supply for this amount? and do you think that this is shocking for food.

I donot supply or cook eggs/nuts.

Thanks

I agree with Crazymama - parents often want to know how much their childcare will cost, and I feel it is just easier to have a set hourly rate.

I know minders who also charge extra for petrol and activities, which may change week to week, and may also depend on which other children are present, and it's just so complicated!!

Some parents have told me that they've chosen a "cheaper" minder (ie. hourly rate), only to discover all the "hidden extras".

Me too...only I pride myself on being very expensive after all you pay for what you get

or do you get what you pay for...it is late after all

And then you have the problem of explaining to parents that, yes - the hourly rate might be more than other minders, but that there are no extra charges ... which just sounds as though you are putting down other minders!

Even amongst other minders who are friends of mine, we all have totally different arrangements - charges for food, outings, sickness (theirs and yours!), bank holidays, occasional days off, retainers/deposits, late charges, notice periods, danger money ... oh, when will it ever end???

Yes, it is late ... I'm rambling again (it's been a long day with lots of small children!)

I think I appeal to the 'snob' factor

I say I'm very epensive, go and look at the other local childminders. Then you can make a decision about whether I'm worth the extra money - lots of mums go and look and then come back and book me

I cahrge £10 per week per child on top of my fees and this provides the children with Milk, fruit, yoghurts and snacks etc as well as Cooked lunch (pasta, chicken, veg, rice etc..) and a snack tea (crackers and cheese, sausage roll and crisps, beans on toast etc) Sometimes this cost covers the mindees food bill no problem and other times it does not! Parents have never questioned this cost and know that the children can helkp themselves to fruit and milk and fruit juice at all times in my home.
Also by doing my charge like this i can just claim all £10 against my tax and dont have all the fiddly working out of how much each meal costs as that is what the parents pay me specifically for food!

50p for lunch sounds fine i would say this is my fee and this is what i provide, vary sandwich fillings easy to do, just need to have things like ham, turkey, salad, cheese spread (my ds2 favourite sandwiches are marmite and cream cheese and ham and creamcheese), vary the bready aprt, so pittas, rolls, wraps, white, brown, nut free granary.
if the mum still doesn't like it then say that she is welcome to provide a packed lunch as long as it doesn't have eggs or nuts in. i'm surre that it won't be long before she realises that you cannot provide a healthy and nutritious packed lunch for less than 50p a day.

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here are some ideas for lunches

I have the children bring their own lunches and cook them or reheat as nesscary

This is cos they all want different things

One parent wanted everything organic another everyhthing comes from M & S

Thanks for everyones thoughts. She was unhappy with the amount (5.80) that i charge for groups each week, and that i had to send her child home today (being paid) for being ill and not able to do anything and the cost of the food per day. (2.00) I dont think i could have won with her at all.

She has gone with someone that charges £3 all in oer hour and that can do 9-3 after weeks of changing her hours with me.

Seem to certainly get them, as a result i hacve changed my policies to protect myself.

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Just want to point out you meant JellyJelly when you were talking about groups (not HellyBelly ), I don't charge but then again, we don't go to that many groups at the moment as the weather is too nice - do messy play in the morning when my mindee first gets here (8.30) and then we play outside after 9.30 until 11ish when the sun gets too hot.

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i had originally budgeted for 580 but it has gone down
tues 1.90
wed 1.50
thurs 80p
fri 1.50

Alot of other miders i knwo take them to dance classes for over £4 each.

So now alot cheaper

I pride myself on offering a good, reliable and caring service (as we all do!) with a fairly high hourly rate compared to other local minders.

I pay out nearly £10/week per child on out-of-home activities, one of which we attend most mornings - toddler group, music group, soft play sessions etc. If parents pay you this money themselves, then you can't include it on your tax return.

I don't charge parents for these as the amount would differ each week depending on how many children I had (if toddler group costs £1, do you divide it by 3 one week, but charge the full amount another week if the other children don't attend?)

I feel it is my choice to attend the groups - often for my own sanity!

Parents supply meals, I will supply snacks/drinks for free - I prefer to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible!

Do those of you who provide home-cooked meals cook stuff in advance or on the day?

Theprisoner - as I am a newish childminder and therefore haven't completed a tax return yet, you've just highlighted something for me which I would like clarifying if possible.

I provide meals here as I have to cook for my own ds so I may as well make double if the parents want (same age). I don't charge for breakfast, lunch or snacks, drinks but I do charge £1.50 per day for an evening meal, if required.

My question - presuming you enter an income amount aswell as expenses, wouldn't you show the £1.50 as income and then show food etc consumed as expenses? I don't charge extra for any activities so will put those as expenses.

Would appreciate any help to confirm this.

Thanks

As an individual minder, you don't want to make it look as though you have a higher income than you actually have (in case you end up "earning" more than £15,000 which entails filling in a more detailed tax return).

If your £1.50 charge for meals is cancelled out by putting exactly £1.50 as an expense, then I would think of a different way of doing this.

I assume your expenses for food will be more than this if it includes other meals, snacks and drinks that you don't charge for anyway.

I personally would not want to put down any extra "income" (albeit only £1.50) as it isn't really a payment for your minding services.

Not sure if any of that makes sense??

So are you saying that if you charge say 100 per week for minding and ten for food, trips etc you dont put the 10 on the receipts? therefore when you calculate the books at tax time you can just use the recpeipt book? Does that make sense?

I charge parents for childminding hours only (including sickness, holidays or whatever contract arrangements are), and issue a bill each week for parents to pay.

When I do a monthly accounts sheet, I record costs of food, drink, outings, petrol etc. I do not charge parents any extra for these.

Parents don't particularly know how much I've spent on outings, unless I moan about the local sports centre putting its rates up!

Sorry if it seems really silly but would i just take the groups and what i charge for food(dont charge for petrol)and then devide it by the amount of hours they work to get an all inclusive rate. I thought i would be honest with my prices and be upfront so the parents can see what i charge.

Competition is very fierce here with over 70 in a very small area. I havent had any calls from cis since i have been registered (feb)so i cant put upmy fees to much.

what do you charge each hour if you dont mind me asking prisoner?

£3.50/hour, and although I live in a town, we have almost zero phone calls via the childrens information service.

I've been registered for several years, and I've got my work mostly through recommendations or being really really scary at people at toddler group.

I couldn't be bothered to do all the maths involved with charging/not charging for groups - it would change on a weekly basis as some of my mindees do different days each week, so would therefore not necessarily attend the same groups.

When I first started minding, I listened to the older, wiser minders - they advised me to charge for this, charge for that, and don't forget to charge for the rest of it too. I just felt that this was unfair to parents to offer a lower hourly rate (which the others did), but then throw all the other stuff at them. I just wanted an easy life!

Do you have the same rates as other minders in your area?

I think that as long as you are honest with parents about anything you charge for over the normal hourly rate, then that's OK.

I know of a minder who charged each individual parent the petrol costs to collect their child from school. She would collect several children, and each parent paid the full whack as if it was just their child. And then she'd walk anyway, AND claim petrol on her expenses. That's just taking the michael.