Would anyone mind sharing how much their nursery fees are?

[ExcitingTimes2021]

I’m a very new first time mum and panicking about every little thing (breastfeeding/sleeping/future/work etc). Iv posted a lot this last week!!! This stuff pops into my head during the sleepless nights!

We have been trying to figure out what we are going to do when I’m due to go back to work. I work 12.5 hour shifts (days and nights) so only do 3 a week and in my current role there is no flexibility for doing shorter shifts. I would like to return to this job ideally full time but need to try to get an idea of how much it will cost childcare wise and if it will be worth going back full time. My partner works full time but hours over four shifts so we are hoping we can get some flexibility for days off so we don’t have to put her in nursery every day. But also don’t want to have no days off together as our shifts are so long we wouldn’t see each other. Pick up and drops offs would be tricky aswell as I start at 7am and partner sometime between 7.30-9am. We need to try to bribe grandparents to help us out but I feel cheeky bringing it up.

If anyone has any experiences to share, costs or how you juggled everything it would be greatly appreciated x

My daughters nursery fees are £900, she goes in from 7am to 5.30pm x 5 days a week. I'm in the south. I need early starts as I also do shifts and start from 7.30am onwards. I work in the NHS and some hospitals have specialist nurseries attached to them with extended hours.. It's v v expensive though.. If you don't work in the NHS then that's useless to you. You would be hard pushed to find a nursery that commences earlier than 7am..you'd be better off with a childminder.. Some of them do extended hours.

We are in the Midlands and pay £52 a day (8am till 5pm)

£56 a day including food.
Don’t forget to sign up for the tax free childcare scheme, you’ll get a max of £500 every 3 months towards it.

Can your husband not arrange to start work at 8/8:30 so he can drop the baby? I work a 4 cycle 12 hour shift and DH dropped the kids at the childminder on my working days so two days. On my nights I do the drop offs. I'm currently on maternity leave and hoping when I go back I can work 3 long days or do a 2 cycle shift. Keep looking and you will find childcare for around those hours, it is only 3 days so no need to change your shift just plan with your husband.

As someone said above getting by on those hours at nursery is one thing but when they start school it’s a bloomin nightmare as the days are a lot shorter and endless holidays/inset days. I got lucky with an amazing childminder who then did before and after school when my lo started.
Alternatively a nanny share maybe an option if you have very long shifts.

£800 per month for 3 days, East Anglia. It's a forest school. I can claim 30 hours free from next month and put her in full time but the cost to me will be £950 still . I don't know what I'm doing work wise and may need a full time role so having that in place is helping.

North West - Greater Manchester

£62 per day. We get 20% off that and pay for 3 days 8-5:30 per week.

There were some slightly cheaper in the area but not by much, more like £50-55 per day

I live on the south coast and pay £49 per day 7am-6pm all meals, nappies & wipes included.

We are lucky that we can still use childcare vouchers but definitely look into the tax free scheme as it saves you 20%.

Start ringing round & asking your local Facebook sites for recommendations before visiting. There are likely be some variations in cost for your local ones so you need to decide which one you want and then look at the cost.

Remember it's only for a short time overall but it feels like it will never end at the time!

Good luck

I'm in Germany, here it is Kindergarten, children go from 18 months to 6 years, they start school at 6. Ours is 150Euro a month, works out 128 pounds a month. This is for one child, 5 days a week, from 7AM to 2PM but you must provide breakfast and lunch 4 days a week. Some kindergartens are open until 5PM so these may be more expensive.

You’ve not said if you’ve already had your baby - but you need to look for a nursery ASAP. The best ones tend to be booked up well in advance! My dd sorted her nursery out when she was about 7 months pregnant and had to confirm a place for her youngest even earlier.

I have a full time childminder for my twins - £40 per day per child 8-5pm that includes lunch when they are old enough. - sign up to tax free childcare and you'll save 20% on the cost

Oxfordshire. £60 per day. 0730 until 1830. DD goes twice a week. I work 12.5 hour shifts twice a week on set days (hence the need for nursery). DH (full time 9-5) handles pick up and drop off. Going to be a bit more interesting when it comes time for school, but we've got 3 more years to figure it out. Good luck working it all out.

@ExcitingTimes2021 are you able to pinpoint which little town in the north west you’re in or close to? You may get people locally to share current costs as a lot of nurseries don’t have this on their sites.

I’m in Manchester and we pay £975 for a full time place. It’s 7.45-5.45 used to be 6, but they have more time for cleaning now.

Another thing to think of is to understand what this includes.

Our fees include breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks, plus milk/milk alternatives/water. You have to provide their own milk of formula or breast feeding.

We take in nappies, wipes creams etc. I know some places provide this.

Midlands, £54 a day meals included but not nappies or wipes. We get the 20% tax free childcare top-up from the government which actually has quite a low threshold for being eligible so that's worth a look. They also give you a healthy discount for going all five days, when DD went full time I think we only paid for four near enough and then got tax free too. So going four days a week was the worst financial decision rather than going full time!

She goes two days a week now and with tax free etc it costs us £360 a month on average, depends exactly how many days fall within each month of course.

Oh we'd have to pay a couple of quid a day extra for a 7.30 start but she could stay til 6pm if we wanted so it might be worth looking if you could start and finish a bit later?

Not that it helps this thread, but I am currently wishing I lived in the UK.
East-coast city, USA.
For an infant, we paid $4200 a month.
For our three year old, $2400 a month.
5 days a week, 8.30 am - 5 pm, no meals included.

And to get our place, we registered when he was a 12 week old fetus. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made the cut.

We are in Winchester- nursery was in southampton close to work- 4 full days incl all meals was £962.

We've just switch to childminder and is 720

£42 a day (7.30-5.30) with all food, nappies etc included. This is NI though! We use tax free childcare too so only pay 80% of the bill each month which helps!

OP do you work in a hospital? There is a nursery close to a hospital here that does flexible days and can accommodate early starts/late finishes. They even do overnight for shift workers. Not sure how common it is but might be something to look into close to you? They are expensive per hour but you only pay for what you need (as opposed to paying for days you won’t always need).

This is the north east xx

@Soontobe60 yes baby is here but o oh 12 days old. God I didn’t think about waiting lists and whatnot. Just feels so early to be arranging thing when I don’t know what will happen with work.
@Caffeinemonster yes we both work in the hospital. We have got one attached to the hospital, will have to maybe make an appointment to look around. X

I’m at the opposite end of the country to you but it’s around £90 for 7.30-19.30 here but it is a fraction cheaper after their second birthday. Includes all meals, nappies, wipes etc and also lots of external companies coming in to do sports, dance, yoga.

We paid £1,900 per month per child for 5 days per week. It's a little less now with some free hours but still £££. Can't wait to have both DC in school!

It might be worth approaching grandparents/other friends/relatives early on to see if they are able to offer any help.