Author Topic: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings  (Read 2748 times)

ChairmanKaga

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One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« on: August 19, 2016, 10:58:36 AM »
Today is the last day of daycare for our oldest. She starts kinder on Monday, which will save us $750 a month. We do have to drop $120 each month into afterschool care since both my wife and I work until 5:00, but that's still $530 saved each month. We increased our monthly automatic draft into savings by $600 beginning with the next paycheck.

WE WILL NOT TOUCH THIS MONEY.

In one more year our youngest will start pre-k (we've opted to send her to tuition-based pre-K instead of keeping her in daycare, partly because of saving $$$ but also because our oldest was so bored her final year that we think a more academically-focused day will better suit her natural curiosity), saving us another $530.

We have a few months of rainy day funds saved, but we want to have a full year. Once we hit that mark we'll start really dumping surplus into long-term investments.

We're grateful to have been able to send the girls to a Methodist daycare center, non-profit, that was TRULY affordable for us (most for-profit kiddie farms cost more than $1,000 a month around here), but man, having that money back is no joke.

So, we're pledging to not go nuts, not make unnecessary purchases big or small, and to not live beyond the modest lifestyle we've trained ourselves to enjoy, but to save this money. Every cent.

KCM5

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2016, 11:09:51 AM »
Joining!

Our only child is moving from private daycare to public preschool at the beginning of next month. Savings? $57.50/week. By flexing out hours and not using before and after care we're also saving $80/week. But we weren't spending that to begin with, so it doesn't count.

I'm filling out the forms to increase my not yet maxed out pre-tax savings tonight!

tonysemail

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2016, 11:30:17 AM »
me too!  my youngest started K this month.
I'm dropping from $1364/mo to $585/mo.  yay!
my wife wanted to allocate some of this money to karate lessons.
But so far, she has been too lazy/exhausted to sign up ;P


hucktard

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2016, 12:09:52 PM »
We spend ~1,800/month on daycare right now. It is absurd. And one of our kids is already in Kindergarten. However, his Kindergarten plus before school care costs $600/month. The younger one is 1,200/month for daycare. Its crazy. We could save $400 a month by putting the younger one in an in home daycare, but we would have to drive across town twice a day. Its just crazy that there are not cheaper/better options. I suppose the other option is my wife not working, but she makes $60K/yr so it doesn't really make sense. I can't wait until they are both in school full time.

Tjat

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2016, 05:59:08 PM »
My first daughter started daycare recently. We have a second on the way, so it'll be very $$$ when they're both in. Part-time at least, but man...


zephyr911

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2016, 09:23:42 AM »
$750 - $120 should be $630, not $530... am I missing something?

Lunasol

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #6 on: August 25, 2016, 09:29:32 AM »
I don't have kids yet but, would parents out there consider having kids with a 4-5 year difference a wiser move?

As in, only having one kid at daycare at a time is much better? one at daycare and one in school.

I'm too scared of not being able to provide which makes me think it'd be better to have just one kid, but if there's a gap between their ages it could be more doable??

KCM5

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2016, 09:35:41 AM »
I don't have kids yet but, would parents out there consider having kids with a 4-5 year difference a wiser move?

As in, only having one kid at daycare at a time is much better? one at daycare and one in school.

I'm too scared of not being able to provide which makes me think it'd be better to have just one kid, but if there's a gap between their ages it could be more doable??

If you decide to have two kids, you're going to be spending the money at some point and if you're able to save the amount of money it takes to retire early you'll be able to afford two kids in daycare at once. Unless you plan on waiting until one/both of you aren't working, I wouldn't put daycare costs on the list of reasons to only have one/space out their ages/etc.

Personally, I'm only having one kid. But if I wanted a second, daycare costs would not deter me.

Lunasol

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2016, 09:37:59 AM »
I don't have kids yet but, would parents out there consider having kids with a 4-5 year difference a wiser move?

As in, only having one kid at daycare at a time is much better? one at daycare and one in school.

I'm too scared of not being able to provide which makes me think it'd be better to have just one kid, but if there's a gap between their ages it could be more doable??

If you decide to have two kids, you're going to be spending the money at some point and if you're able to save the amount of money it takes to retire early you'll be able to afford two kids in daycare at once. Unless you plan on waiting until one/both of you aren't working, I wouldn't put daycare costs on the list of reasons to only have one/space out their ages/etc.

Personally, I'm only having one kid. But if I wanted a second, daycare costs would not deter me.

Thanks! we're not even close to having one let alone two haha, I just like to plan ahead and at this point in my life we're not ready for babies money-wise, I appreciate your post :)

hunniebun

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2016, 09:40:20 AM »
That is an excellent plan. I have two more years until my daycare costs go down by any significant amount and I hope when the time comes, we will be able to just roll it over into savings. However, I am find with my older ds that the cost of sports/activities/field trips etc. has increased by the amount that his daycare bill has decreased.  So it hasn't really been a savings, rather than a shift of how the money is spent...but it depends on what they are into and how many 'extras' your school requires money for.

tonysemail

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #10 on: August 25, 2016, 09:44:00 AM »
agreed that spreading out daycare costs should not be a consideration.
losing sibling discounts to improve cashflow sounds like a bad deal.

Lunasol

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #11 on: August 25, 2016, 09:50:48 AM »
agreed that spreading out daycare costs should not be a consideration.
losing sibling discounts to improve cashflow sounds like a bad deal.

Wasn't aware of that discount, see, I know nothing about kids haha

thanks

StarBright

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Re: One kid out of daycare - don't touch the savings
« Reply #12 on: August 25, 2016, 10:04:24 AM »
Good for you! We just did this last week too.

Our oldest was going to move to a new and (cheaper) pre-k at his dad's school since he missed kindergarten cut-off by a week. The new facility changed their hours at the last minute so we ended putting him back in his expensive, original facility.

But I had already told my boss to increase my 401k deduction so we're going to try and save the extra money anyway :)

Our school system charges a fairly pricey semester fee for full-day kindergarten but once our littles get to first grade we should save thousands a month - whoo hoo!