How much do you spend on childcare?

[SandysMam]

Thinking about when I return to work after maternity leave.
I am reducing my hours to pretty much half time and my take home should be about £1000 per month.
My childcare for the first 2 years (until free nursery hours kick in) will be around £450 per month.
I am so shocked that I have to work half a month just to pay for childcare.
Just wondering how other's balance out and how you get your head around it really! I feel so defeated by it all but don't have any family help.

we are lucky as MIL will have DC 4 days a week (I work 4 days) when born (march 2018) but otherwise would easily be 1k a month. OH and I were just having the convo about whether I should give up work when DC born. I'd love to and we could survive on OH wage but bang would go holidays, eating out and we would have to watch every penny. Plus we worry about the future if I gave up as obv pension contributions would stop. I've heard of people who are literally working to pay for the childcare which at first blush sounds silly, but then when they say that their careers can then continue when DC's going to school - makes total sense as 5 years out would probably impact negatively on career.

Daughter's nursery is £62 a day (2 days a week) and childminder for 3 days a week (£45 a day). After school club for older DD, roughly £350 a half term. About £1,400 a month. Completely horrific costs.

We pay £1100 a month for one child in nursery FT. Over a quarter of our combined take home income. Just had DC2 so we are moving quite far to cheaper childcare. Priced out of our current area by the nurseries!!

Childcare costs in the UK are absolutely awful. For 2 children at nursery 5 days a week I pay £2108 per month. Its an absolute joke.

It's all relative depending where you live. The nearest one to us is £1730 a month for 1 child Mon-Fri. Posh part of Zone 2 London.

That's more than what I take home at the end of each month so we have to travel further for cheaper options.

It's worth it, honestly it is! I love the balance part time gives me.
My daughter is just about to get her 30 free hours, and I am about to get a hefty pay rise! Suddenly all those years of working "for next to nothing" (2 kids in nursery at one stage) have come good.
I will shift fully to school hours when she starts school and then have nearly no child care costs (a couple of weeks of holiday clubs but they love them).
Plus even when I wasn't making much, I was paying into a pension, and so were my work. But most importantly I've pushed hard at work to grow my career and I think the lack of money I was making after childcare helped motivate me

Silky we get the second child at half rate. Also childminders are much cheaper than nurseries

£1200 for one child full time at private nursery. We are in the southeast. Thankfully we will get the 30 free hours in January. Can't afford to have another child.

Also childminders are much cheaper than nurseries

Not in my area of London they weren't. They were not only slightly more, I would have also had to pay extra for all of the playgroups and soft plays they wanted to take them to. Nursery was the cheaper option for me. It shocked me as I too thought childminders would be cheaper!

DC2 starts nursery at the end of the month and then it will be £1700 for two of them (4 days a week each). DC1 will get the 30 free hours from January which will obviously make a huge difference. We're in London.

It's eye-watering. DH and I both enjoy what we do and so it's just something we have to suck up. Appreciate we're lucky to have the choice; I know quite a few people who are SAHP's out of necessity rather than choice (I.e. It doesn't matter make financial sense for them to work and pay for childcare).

Completely agree with the PP that you need to think of the costs as family costs rather than just coming out of your salary.

My son is three, so we now pay about £750, but I previously paid just over £1000.

I am the greater wage earner, but I suppose you could say that it's not worth my husband's time going to work because nursery fees take up the majority of his wage. Except, I pay the nursery fees, and he's working on building his career. I wonder if it's because he's a man that no one would dream of expecting him to become a SAHP?

I wouldn't think about nursery fees in terms of what proportion of your (individual) salary they represent - instead about how you afford them as a household.

Nursery costs ARE expensive, but as others have said it's a relatively short time to pay them for.

All my wages go on childcare as I'm on living wage. I work so he can have a couple of days at nursery, I believe it's good for him as he's a sociable baby. Also I don't want a gap on my CV. Does seem pointless though, I'd be thrilled to have any money left from my wages!

I pay £850 a month for 2.5 days of childcare per week. I can't see how this will improve even when my kids are in school because I'll need before and after school care until bedtime. I think I'm in until secondary school age.

£0 (SAHM).

When working last year £1100 a month. I was only earning £900. I didn't last long before quitting.

For me, take home is about £1100. 2 days a week at nursery will be about £400 a month (lucky dh can condense hours and cover 1 of my shifts).