LBJR07

Hello all, it's been a good while since I last posted....

Me and the other half are expecting our first baby and are still recovering from shock at the cost of daycares in our area (and I'm sure in general).

We're looking at roughly $240-250 a week for an infant which is going to eat most of my paycheck but not enough to justify quitting work unfortunately

How do people do it?! I would love to hear if anyone has any money saving tips or stories of your experiences with childcare and being working parents.

Thanks in advance!

Michael

If both parents are working, 20%-35% of the cost of child care (depending on income) or a maximum of $3,000 ($6,000 if more than 1 child) is a tax credit. It is a tax credit against taxes owed and not a deduction. That should help a little.

Bob

Up in Maine, cousin was paying $400 full time a month.

Down or way, $1250-1500 a month full time, extra for infants. Our previous town, $1400-1500 for 2-3 half days a week, per month, with you bringing food/drink.

8 year waiting list to get on state subsidised care... Most people seem to rely on grandparents or other family who aren't working... Or getting a nanny in from Brazil via an agency type of thing.... Or a stay at home parent, is what I've been doing, not having family in the area.

sir_eccles

The numbers sound about right. If you are flexible with work, look and see if they do 3day or short day, maybe until 3pm instead of 5pm.

I put it on the credit card so I'm at least getting the airmiles.

I recall there was a study done recently that said average daycare costs exceed in-state college tuition.

Uncle_Bob

Congratualtions on the news

My wife worked at a daycare center for a while while waiting for the nursing license to go through.

Based on what she has seen there is no way any child of mine is going to daycare. We were lucky in that my wife could be a stay at home mum and then go back to work when the boys are at school.

Is pre-school an option?

Bob

If your child care includes to 5pm, you've got a bargain!

All my costs were till 3pm... it costs extra for that, so most people use a school baby sitter for a couple hours down my way.

Lbjen

I ended up staying home after I had my second because the cost of daycare, combined with commuting costs and other working expenses were as much as I earned, and then we were paying more taxes on our other income because our total income took us into the higher bracket.

Either try to find a job with an onsite (or at least subsidized) daycare, or consider having grandma move over. The good news is it gets slightly cheaper as they get older, but then they start elementary school and you have to figure out what you're going to do while they're home for 3 months in the summer.

Lbjen

I ended up staying home after I had my second because the cost of daycare, combined with commuting costs and other working expenses were as much as I earned, and then we were paying more taxes on our other income because our total income took us into the higher bracket.

Either try to find a job with an onsite (or at least subsidized) daycare, or consider having grandma move over. The good news is it gets slightly cheaper as they get older, but then they start elementary school and you have to figure out what you're going to do while they're home for 3 months in the summer.

sir_eccles

Ours has a whole range of options at different price points. We currently do 9-3 5day but there are options for earlier and later pick up for more money of course and also mon-wed-fri 3day.

Their latest thing is you have a ten minute window at the end of the day for pick up after which it's a penalty fee. They just had to raise it because some parents were taking the piss. I think it's $10 per minute now.

I bitch about the cost but they are very good though, it's definitely money well spent.

Pulaski

We were able to put part of the cost of little Miss P's daycare through our paycheck as a pretax deduction. If you're really hard up, you could look for "in home daycare" which is permitted in many states, but is very obviously of lesser quality, though still state registered and inspected. The cost, around here at least, is a little more than half the cost of a standalone day care.

What we found for little Miss P's daycare, was an excellent "5 star" program, which provided progressive and seamless transition into a kindergarten school day. Her last year especially, dubbed a "pre-k" program, was focussed on doing all the sorts of things that would be expected of a child in kindergarten, including gathering for "circle time" in front of the teacher, sitting cross-legged and listening to stories or instructions, and taking an object of interest once a week and talking about it to the class as a "show and tell", she also brought a book home every day (except Fridays) to read with Mrs P or me. When she transitioned to kindergarten she was a model student, as she already knew the ropes.

NatashaB

Congratulations!

We pay 245 per week for my 2-year old in Michigan at a daycare. It's open from 6am to 6pm and you can leave your child there for 12 hours for that fee if needed, although thankfully I work a lot less hours than that. I prefer the idea of in-home daycare, but I wouldn't be happy going with one that hadn't been personally recommended by someone who'd used them. In-home seems to be a lot cheaper too, $150 ish per week, but of course if it's a one-person business then you have to take time off to cover their sick days at short notice. We pay into a flexible spending account which allows you to deduct 5k a year from your pre-tax earnings to pay towards dependent care. This worked better than the tax credit for us, as the credit is applied on a sliding scale.

We may look at transitioning my son into the early years center at the school district he will eventually go to, so he knows some other kids when he starts school. That looks a lot cheaper at around $540 per month, but the days are shorter than the daycare so my husband and I would have to stagger our working hours so that I started earlier so I could pick him up.

AmerLisa

"focused" or "focussed"

Alan17

Check and see if your work has a Dependent Care Account program. That let's you put pre tax dollars away to help pay for this type of expense. It's a use it or lose it account though, so you have to fund it and use it in each financial year.

You can put up to $5000 per year away. That's total, not per child. So if you have 5 kids its still only 5 grand which makes no sense to me.

N1cky

Congratulations on the pregnancy.

TBH That doesn't seem too bad to me. I can only compare to the UK, as my daughter was of school age when we moved to the US. But we were just below 200 pounds per week, at the two different nurseries she attended. 1 in Yorkshire, 1 in Buckinghamshire, and the last time we paid nursery fees was 8 years ago.

When you break the cost down, if it's for 8 hours per day, 5 days a week, you are only paying $6 per hour, doesn't seem too unreasonable.

Pulaski

Android finds both spellings acceptable. The double S is a predominantly British variation.