Not able to have child due to childcare costs? HELP

[ohdearohdearwhatsnext101]

We're looking at having a baby in the near future. The only thing thing that riddles me with worry is childcare costs!

How do people manage?
Me and my DH have average jobs, for context our combined salary is about 45k, take home each month around £3200.

Our bills and everything come up to about £1800. Then there's food and petrol and day to day life. Mortgage to renew soon so another chunk gone.

We only work term time so lucky in that regard. We have no family that could help us regularly with childcare.

How on earth are we going to manage to have a child and pay for it to be in nursery for 4 years before the child goes to school?

4 days a week each so you only need three days of nursery?

Reciprocal childcare arrangements with another local family can work well.

Good luck, it's not easy.

It's a sacrifice a lot of people have to make. Could you extend you mortgage?

It’s something you just have to get through for a bit. You also have room for extra earnings, you both only work term time and your combined income is quite low. One of you could work during the holidays to bring in more money during the nursery years.

Tax free childcare from the government will reduce the bill by 20%, then when they're 3 they get free hours. If child doesn't start nursery until 1, then in theory you have 2 tough years before the free hours kicks in. We had 2 overlapping for a while on 4 days a week which wasn't fun.

You cut your cloth, begin by writing down every single expense even if minuscule such as a bar of chocolate.

Look for better deals, I haggle with everyone, tv, mobile phone, buying goods and services. I have even haggled in John Lewis and received 10% off due to slight damage on the box of the deluxe scrabble set I was buying, it was the last one. We are looking to buy a motorhome soon, they don’t do discounts. They will do extras. That salesman is going to wonder what happened to him.

You will have no school holiday childcare that’s the absolute worst avoided. I did babysitting swaps with friends. I also worked Compressed hours for a few years and negotiated starting really early but if you are teachers I assume that’s not possible.

Good luck, you won’t have a luxurious life but it is doable.

Reduce your outgoings as far as possible. The first 3 years are hard. Between mat leave and up to child turning 3 when they get nursery funding.
Although there was discussion about changing that so funding started at 2.

Use the government childcare scheme that tops up by 20%.

I'll assume in your bills you have cars on lease type deals, is it possible to keep them longer and pay them off. Means your running older cars but effectively free.
Same with phones you don't need a new phone every 2 years, go to sim only.
Look at what you are subscribing too, Netflix, Spotify, Sky, etc

Can one/both of you get a job in some of the school holidays to save up? I used to work on playschemes over the summer holiday. You reduce your spending in other area, use tax free childcare, a child minder can be cheaper, lots of places will over term time only childcare, child benefit, and from 3 you will get 30 free hours term time so you need to save up to cover childcare costs from maternity leave until they’re 3.

Both of you only working term time is a huge luxury. 13 weeks of the year are going unpaid, one of you (at least) really needs to work full time.

DH took on a second weekend job (he could earn more than me). We didn’t go out and bought all equipment for the baby second hand . Clothes from charity shops. No one ever said having children was easy but it’s worth it.

Some nurseries are term time only (or offer term time only places). That would make it cheaper.

Check if you’re eligible for tax free childcare.

Child benefit is not much but every little helps.

“Free hours” (not free but discounted) should have been extended to children over 9 months by the time you get there.

Look at extending your mortgage term. You can reduce it back or overpay later if when DC is in school.

Be careful with the presumption that tax free childcare gives you 20% off. It does, up to a maximum per quarter, and if your childcare costs are above that then you will pay full price for the difference.

If you earn under 100k then at age 3 they get 30 funded hours.
Some places do term time spaces but you have to look around.

Our nursery bill + wrap around for school aged child is £1800 a month. We absolutely cannot afford it but we aim to borrow over a longer period to ensure I can stay in work. It's shit, honestly.

From what you've said I think you can't afford it right now.

We take home over 4k and still struggle and I think we'd be fucked if we were on less tbh. No holidays, absolutely nothing new. In fact we've had to rely on cashing in shares to avoid debt.

Our children go three days a week and it's costs around 1k a month for nursery.

You need to earn more for a while and save save save to cover the extra until the child is 3

I’m not sure they are really average incomes at £22.5k each it’s definitely on the low side. Why term time only? Assuming if teachers you’d be earning more so apologies if it’s a stupid question.

realistically term time only on those incomes is a choice that you may need to reconsider.

could you take a second job?

you will also get tax free childcare and child benefit but it by no means covers the costs of care when they are v little

You need to be saving money now, at least £500 per month. Do that for a year, then whilst TTC, then whilst pregnant and whilst on 90% pay for first 6 weeks of mat leave and you’ll be going into your lower paid mat leave period with an £11k+ buffer. Depending on when you conceive (these things can’t really be planned) you could aim your return to work date to be just before the summer holidays start so that you’ll be paid but not working for the last 6 weeks, save then too.

Childminders are usually cheaper than nurseries and you will get 20% off the cost if you use tax free childcare up to a certain amount. You might be able to find one willing to do term time only (on the basis that in the summer they’ll have school aged kids needing full day places), start looking into this as soon as the baby is born. This would dramatically reduce your costs over the year.

All baby stuff can be bought second hand except car seats and cot mattresses and I see a lot of it given away for free, also there’s a lot of free baby classes and groups in my area to do on mat leave, hopefully that’s the same where you are so other than childcare you hopefully won’t have to spend a lot in the first few years.

You will get child benefit of £90ish per month.

Even with all of that unfortunately I think one of you is going to have to do some kind of work at weekends or in the holidays unless you can dramatically reduce your other outgoings.

People can claim substantial amounts of Universal Credit to help with childcare costs. Do a calculation, you may be surprised. Don't forget that pension contributions are disregarded in full, plenty of claimants in the public sector manipulating that fact when they actually earn very substantial incomes

You'd probably need to switch things up, work opposite eachother so there's no paid for childcare, or increase your earnings.

Your salaries are quite low- you’d probably be entitled to some UC with a child. Can one of you try and earn more?

Both work 4 days a week. You don't lose as much as you think due to the tax etc. Also there is tax free childcare if you both work so that's 20% of the cost for the 3 days you need childcare. You just have to accept for those childcare years that holidays etc are on hold.

Find a childminder who will do you a term time only contract but splits your bill into 12x equal monthly payments.

Use the tax free childcare option.

Once baby turns 3, they can access 30 free term time hours per week so then swap to a childminder who does wrap around care from the local primary and send them to the attached Preschool.

One or both of you pick up work in the 6 weeks holidays and bank the money into an account to pay the childminder.

How old are you now? Can you try to save up to cushion the cost, perhaps try living like you're paying it for a while?

Also, what are you doing to work term time only but only bring in £45k? Assuming not teaching. That's quite an expensive luxury you're choosing there, you may need to pick up extra work in those 13 weeks, different jobs or qualifying in something to earn more in term time. You say average jobs but for 2 x full time working adults you're earning less than average there.

Unless you're straight out of university those are low salaries, term time only is a luxury most can't afford unless on a higher salary then still many need to take extra work in the school holidays eg with a holiday club. What potential for extra work and increased salaries are there?

I think the key is acknowledging you need to save as much as possible in advance and that lifestyle changes have to happen. If you are getting all school holidays off that’s a huge advantage , then the period between the end of maternity pay and your child starting school is very small in the grand scheme of things .
I’d say we honestly went without any kind of “extra” in those years , but it was all so worth it .
Also you have the opportunity now to take on second jobs and really boost your savings , I know it’s not ideal , but I guess it just comes down to prioritising.

I think both of you working term time roles with no children is a bit of a luxury. You won’t have children full time in school for at least 5 years.
You could both work full time and one of you go back to TT when you have a child.
Schools pay badly for pastoral/support roles as they take advantage of the fact that staff need holidays off, you’re not in that position.

You’re both on relatively low salaries. You should do a calculation to see whether you’d be able to receive UC top ups which you probably would be once you have a child. UC pay 85% of childcare costs

I also think one of you is going to have a to get a job to cover the summer months