Working full time with no childcare options please?

[PandaEyes2]

Hi everyone 👋🏼

So basically at the moment I work at McDonald’s part time from like 5pm-1am 2 nights a week and a Saturday all day to work around childcare. It’s perfect because it’s flexible and works around my partners mum and dad who work full time Monday-Friday. They have are able to have him from around 4pm and then my partner picks him up on his way back around 7pm.

However I’m a bit sick of working late evenings now and the job itself, although flexible isn’t the best at the moment.

I’ve been searching through indeed all day and can see job for visual merchandising etc that I used to it and it’s made me realise how much I miss working full time. My partner thinks it’s pointless for me to go back to work full time as money would have to go into childcare. But my question is, how much roughly would we be looking at for childcare, like a nursery etc? I know they get free hours at 3 but we arnt entitled to any support or financial help. I just miss earning proper money and being at work, don’t get my wrong I enjoy being with my son and and home but I just feel like I need more and I need my career back again. He’s 18 months old now.

Any advice or additional information would be much appreciated 😘

Why don't you research nurseries and childminder prices? Compare to what you could earn and see what you think?

Might help you figure out if it is worth it or not.

It's hard for us to answer your question OP, as prices vary from one area to another. But it definitely sounds as if you should think about going back to work. Remember to think about the long term, ie it may be barely worth it financially right now, but in a couple of years when you get the free hours you could be in a much better financial position if you go back now, rather than trying to find a new job with a long break on your CV. Good luck!

My DD is in full time childcare with a Childminder- £5 an hour for 7.30am to 5.30pm. Total for the month is approximately £1100 (depending on how many working days in that month).
I use the tax free child care now as DP’s Work does not offer childcare vouchers so we save more doing the Tax Free option. I pay in 80%of the costs and the government top it up with 20%. But they only pay up to £2000 a year (approx £166 a month). So I pay in £935 and they pay in £166.