Saving for nursery fees

[Margo2023]

I will soon be TTC as a lone parent. The biggest worry I have if successful in conceiving is cost of nursery due to working full time without much support locally. I have done some research and understand the average daily fee is 70-80 per full day, in Scotland. This is just based on Google so far.

I suppose my question is, what does a monthly nursery fee look like if your child is in 4 full days per week? And did you consider a childminder?

From September this year working parents will get 15 hours free childcare from 9 months. I qualify now (2 year old) and mine attends 4 days, monthly bill is about £550 but I can also do it through tax free childcare so I'm only paying £440 of that.

That's not the case in Scotland sadly.

Thanks that is helpful and I will need to look at the Scotland position. What have gotten me worried is that £1500-2000 a month seems quite normal for monthly fees which I would really struggle with and hence I am trying to save as much as I can

@LoopyGremlin oh no, that's rubbish! 

@Margo2023 pre my 15 hours free my fees were around £1000 per month which is more than my mortgage. I'm fortunate to have my DH's income too. Would have been very tight on a single salary...

Remember you get 20% off with the tax free childcare www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare it has a cap though so check how much that would help

We found a lovely childminder and put our son to her rather than a nursery. It feels more personal as she only has 3-4 kids at a time and its £5 per hour rather than the £70 per day that the nursery were charging. She also only charges for the hours we agree rather than paying 7-6 or whatever the nursery were open. We have him in one full day and 2 days 9:30-2:30 and we're only £280 after the 20% tax free bit