Daycare costs - holy smokes!

[mousebandit]

I'm getting a crash course in daycare costs.  We have 4 young children, I'm a sahm mom, we homeschool.  My husband was told he'd be getting laid off from his job for 6 months, so I took a side gig doing tax return preparation through April.  Well, long story short, he didn't get laid off, we can't exactly ask if he will, lol.  And he works out of town 5 days a week. 

So I'm pricing dayscare for 4 kids, 10-12 hrs per day, and OMGoodness! 

All you working mamas have my undying sympathy.  There is no way the tax credits even come close to what you are paying!

[LadyMaWhiskers]

It's preposterous...

That said, I only have one kid. With 4, I can't imagine what you have to earn to make it worthwhile.

[boarder42]

5 is our breakeven number but we only plan to have 2.  Daycare like all costs can be controlled. Craigslist and ask friends to find a good in home daycare.

[FireHiker]

Yeah, daycare is pretty ridiculous! We were definitely underwater for a couple years when we had a nanny and were living off of savings, but with 2 in diapers it would have been just as expensive in a traditional daycare in our area. I got a big raise and it was an investment that seems to be paying off, finally. Boy are we counting down until the youngest gets to move from expensive preschool to the elementary school before/after/summer program (mid-June 2017, we are almost there). We are both engineers with 6 figure salaries, so it made financial sense to continue working, but I understand why SO many people I know (hmm, many teachers actually) end up with a SAHP after two kids!

[mousebandit]

We will be very close to breaking even, but on the downside, lol.  We planned on this to basically be an investment for me to eventually work from home doing seasonal tax prep.  In Oregon, you have to be licensed and work for a couple of years under another licensed preparer before you can go solo.  So, this is a means to a much more lucrative end.  It's just such a shock.  My husband is even more shocked, lol.  He can't understand why everyone isn't doing daycare as a home business, lol.

When we found out he wasn't laid off last Friday, the extended family all went silent as crickets, lol.  Which is ok, we are 40 miles from the city where they all live and another forty in the opposite direction from the city where I'll be working.  This is something we never would have set up if he wasn't going to get Laid off.  Prior to being told that, we were going to do 1 day a week, and had a babysitter lined up to come to our house.  When we got the husbands news, the office asked if I would go full time, and we let the other babysitter go.  Now we're floundering!  It still comes out better, by far, that he keeps working versus taking the layoff, even with added daycare costs, but it was just so surprising how much it costs.  It's been nearly 20 years since I had to pay for childcare. 

I am considering getting a deal on a vacation rental down there, at the town I'll be working in, and getting a babysitter there.  It's a small town, and the daycares cant take all four kids on the days I'll be working, nor can they do the long hours.  It comes out almost the same to rent a room or vrbo and have the sitter come there, because. I'll save three hours commuting time daily, not to mention it would be much easier on me and I get a lot more sleep, lol. 

Work starts next week, so we shall see how it plays out!

[nessness]

When #2 starts daycare in the spring my take home pay will pretty much exactly cover daycare (though I carry our health insurance benefits and contribute to retirement, so there's still a financial benefit to me working). In the unlikely event we decide to have a third, it won't be until #1 starts school.

[boarder42]

holy cow.  what do you guys pay... i have leads on 2 great in home daycare centers for 125 a week. 

[mousebandit]

With 4 kids, I am looking at a daycare option (limited hours and days) for a discount at $13/hr.  In-home care will run $15/hr.  I'll be working 10-12 hrs per day through the peak weeks of tax season.  UGH. 

[mm1970]

holy cow.  what do you guys pay... i have leads on 2 great in home daycare centers for 125 a week.

$320 a week.  It's about average.  You can find it for $250, but you can also find it for $450

[abhe8]

since you homeschool, I'm guessing some of the four children will go to public school? That should help some with the cost. Many public schools also have a TK or four year old class option. Ours also has some peer model spots in the esl preschool that I believe are free.

Can you flex any of your hours? 10 to 12 hour work days will be brutal, especially with four kids and a husband out of town. Could you work 8pm to midnight, on the paper work, and see clients six hours during the day?

[mousebandit]

This is just a temporary job during tax season, so we won't be putting any of the kids into public school.  Because it's Oregon and I am newly licensed, all my hours have to be in-office, with a higher-licensed supervisor onsite.  And during the peak weeks, they told me to expect back to back clients for 12 hours a day, plus 30 minutes in the morning before they open the door to get prepped!  It's going to be intense, but temporary.  The upside is I will probably get all my required hours done this year to be able to practice independently from home next tax season.  I also point-blank asked my mother in law if she would come out one day a week to help. 

At this point, I'm still not getting any calls back or responses to ads for sitters, either here in my home or in the city where I'm working.  It seems absurd, but I guess it's possible I might not find someone to watch them.  I am getting a little worried.

[boarder42]

This is just a temporary job during tax season, so we won't be putting any of the kids into public school.  Because it's Oregon and I am newly licensed, all my hours have to be in-office, with a higher-licensed supervisor onsite.  And during the peak weeks, they told me to expect back to back clients for 12 hours a day, plus 30 minutes in the morning before they open the door to get prepped!  It's going to be intense, but temporary.  The upside is I will probably get all my required hours done this year to be able to practice independently from home next tax season.  I also point-blank asked my mother in law if she would come out one day a week to help. 

At this point, I'm still not getting any calls back or responses to ads for sitters, either here in my home or in the city where I'm working.  It seems absurd, but I guess it's possible I might not find someone to watch them.  I am getting a little worried.

are the public schools bad in your area.  i've never quite understood apprehension to using public schools.

[mousebandit]

The public schools are beyond bad in my rural town.  However, even if they weren't, I wouldn't want to enroll the children just for 4 months.  We don't homeschool simply because we dislike the public schools.  There's a whole lot more that goes into that decision. 

[MrAlanBreck]

are the public schools bad in your area.  i've never quite understood apprehension to using public schools.

Speaking as an American, it seems there are substantially different ideologies in America than elsewhere.  Parents tend to have very strong political, religious, and sociological opinions that don't really fit the one-size-fits-all public school model that really satisfies no one.  My community, mostly devout Catholics, are very big into homeschooling and private schools.  However, even secular liberals don't like the box children are put into at public schools.

The reasons public schools are like that would be a contentious, multiple page discussion that I don't think anyone wants to deal with :).  Suffice to say, there are legitimate reasons, even for mustachians.

[boarder42]

are the public schools bad in your area.  i've never quite understood apprehension to using public schools.

Speaking as an American, it seems there are substantially different ideologies in America than elsewhere.  Parents tend to have very strong political, religious, and sociological opinions that don't really fit the one-size-fits-all public school model that really satisfies no one.  My community, mostly devout Catholics, are very big into homeschooling and private schools.  However, even secular liberals don't like the box children are put into at public schools.

The reasons public schools are like that would be a contentious, multiple page discussion that I don't think anyone wants to deal with :).  Suffice to say, there are legitimate reasons, even for mustachians.

i personally think its very strange but to each their own i guess.  sheltering children and putting them in "your Box" as you see the world seems backwards in this melting pot of a country.  and from my experience drugs were much more prevalent in private catholic schools around where i grew up than the public schools.

[MrAlanBreck]

i personally think its very strange but to each their own i guess.  sheltering children and putting them in "your Box" as you see the world seems backwards in this melting pot of a country.  and from my experience drugs were much more prevalent in private catholic schools around where i grew up than the public schools.

A lot of assumptions in there.

" sheltering children and putting them in "your Box""

With my children I can teach them in the most effective way for their personality and skills.  A public school has a much more stringent system, built more and more around tests.  Contrary to putting them in "my box", I can teach them according to their unique skills.  How is that done in a public school?

"seems backwards in this melting pot of a country"

You talk as if there is diversity of thought in schools.  There are very few places that are as dogmatic as a public school.  If it's a fault that I want to teach my children according to MY value system as opposed to the values of a bureaucrat that I will never meet, guilty as charged.  I know people on the other side of the ideological spectrum who feel the same way.

[Abe]

We have a full-time nanny and pay her $15/hr plus overtime. When we move to California, may put the boy in daycare so he can make some friends. Anyone have an idea how much it runs in the LA area?

[I'm a red panda]

So I'm pricing dayscare for 4 kids, 10-12 hrs per day, and OMGoodness! 

Are you able to find 12 hours a day? Most places around here have 10 hour maximums.

[Lagom]

We have a full-time nanny and pay her $15/hr plus overtime. When we move to California, may put the boy in daycare so he can make some friends. Anyone have an idea how much it runs in the LA area?

Not familiar with LA but in the Silicon Valley area (which is probably more expensive), it's ~$1800-$2k/month for infants, dropping down to ~$1200-1500/month for older preschoolers.

[mousebandit]

I couldn't find any daycare facilities that would do more than 10 hrs, and only one could handle all 4 of my kids, the rest were too full and didn't have enough staff.  But, I will be using that one for the first 2 weeks, since I will only be working 8.5 hrs /day those weeks, and they are charging $13/hr, which is a discount from $15/hr. 

For daycare after the first 2 weeks, I found a woman who is a pastors wife, and homeschool mom also, but her children still at home are all teenagers, and they are needing some supplemental income, so this will work well.  I'm going to either rent a vacation rental by the night, or potentially find a cheap apartment or something, and just stay down at the coast, in the work town, on the nights I work.  Babysitter will come to our "place" to watch them, and she's familiar with the curriculum I use, so that will all work out really awesome.  I offered her $15/hr and she said that would be great.  I'm still waiting for final confirmation after she talks to her husband, but I think it will be a go. 

After driving back tonight, after a long day down there meeting her and checking out potential rentals, I am SOOOO glad it's working out this way and I won't be making that drive every day!!  OMGOODNESS!  It was exhausting and stressful (VERY windy, narrow, cliff, hwy to the coast), and once it got dark, I was really stressing.  It's gorgeous, and I've driven it every so often since I was a teenager, but driving it twice a day, especially after a 12-hr workday, would have been horrendous and honestly, dangerous. 

[Metric Mouse]

holy cow.  what do you guys pay... i have leads on 2 great in home daycare centers for 125 a week.

This is about what it runs in my area. I'm glad we don't have to pay it every week, but it is sooo worth 1/5th of that for a day off to hike or surf or go to the range without lugging an infant around every now and then.

[mm1970]

We have a full-time nanny and pay her $15/hr plus overtime. When we move to California, may put the boy in daycare so he can make some friends. Anyone have an idea how much it runs in the LA area?

I dunno, but Santa Barbara -

Home daycares: $250/week to $350/week. (Full time/ 9-10 hrs/day)
*Most are going to be in the realm of $320 per week.

Preschools (age 3+): $950/month to $1500 a month.  (Full time/ 8-10 hrs/day)
*Most are going to be in the realm of $1200-$1300 a month.
*The cheaper ones are going to be church-based
*The more expensive ones are specifically secular, often Montessori.

If you can manage partial days, you can save money. There are some preschools that only go for 4-6 hours per day.  I don't know much about them.

[aprilchem]

When I had 3 kids in full-time daycare we paid $3500 a month for childcare.  It wasn't my entire salary, but I only ended up taking home about $500 a month that wasn't used to pay daycare, in addition to the benefits (like healthcare) that I get from my job.  We stuck it out because my job guarantees free college tuition for all the kids (I'm a professor) after a certain number of years of service, even if I FIRE before they're college-aged. 

[LadyFI]

holy cow.  what do you guys pay... i have leads on 2 great in home daycare centers for 125 a week.

Where we lived when DD was born (nearly 5 years ago), most places were ~$100 per DAY. I found one in-home center that was $80/day, but she obviously had a months-long wait list.

[Abe]

We have a full-time nanny and pay her $15/hr plus overtime. When we move to California, may put the boy in daycare so he can make some friends. Anyone have an idea how much it runs in the LA area?

I dunno, but Santa Barbara -

Home daycares: $250/week to $350/week. (Full time/ 9-10 hrs/day)
*Most are going to be in the realm of $320 per week.

Preschools (age 3+): $950/month to $1500 a month.  (Full time/ 8-10 hrs/day)
*Most are going to be in the realm of $1200-$1300 a month.
*The cheaper ones are going to be church-based
*The more expensive ones are specifically secular, often Montessori.

If you can manage partial days, you can save money. There are some preschools that only go for 4-6 hours per day.  I don't know much about them.

Thanks for the advice. The home daycare sounds a lot cheaper than what we're paying for now. Hopefully we can find one.

[CanuckExpat]

In Bay Area we paid $300 / week for care (consider it roughly home based) and that was certainly on the cheaper side of things from what I had heard. We lucked out
Some of the other options we looked at ran into the $1800 - $2400 / month range (non home based)