Think you can’t afford child care? Think again. You may believe it’s too expensive for your family, but once you explore your options and check out the many resources available, you might be surprised.
The first step to take before looking into your child care options is figuring out how much money you can afford to spend. Knowing your budget will give you a great starting point for evaluating your options. And when you actually start crunching numbers, you may find you’re able to afford more than you think.
Once you know your budget, it’s time to start your research. With a little planning and investigating, you can find the most affordable and trustworthy options near you. To kickstart your search, we’ve highlighted several of the most affordable child care options and offered numerous strategies to assist you in saving money along the way.
12 more affordable child care options
The more affordable child care options aren’t always the easiest to find. Take the time to get to know what’s available for your family. To get you started, check out these lesser-known and lower cost options you may not have considered in your search.
1. Find family child care
In-home child care (also known as family daycare) takes place in a caregiver’s home and, while the amenities may not be as fancy, the money you save can be significant. Just make sure whatever child care you choose is licensed by the state so you know you’re getting the best care possible.
Find in-home child care or family daycare near you
2. Use on-site child care
If your company has an on-site daycare, it can save your family money while offering you peace of mind. Generally, on-site day care is more affordable than a daycare center in your community. And, best of all, your kids are nearby when you’re at work.
3. Hire a part-time nanny or a part-time babysitter
Your kids get out of school at 3 p.m., but you don’t get home from work until 6 p.m. What do you do? Hire a part-time nanny or part-time babysitter to help with after-school pickup, homework, driving kids to extracurricular activities and maybe even dinner prep and basic tidying up.
Find a part-time nanny or a part-time babysitter near you.
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4. Hire a teen for after-school child care
If hiring part-time help is still too expensive, another great cost-effective option for after-school hours can be hiring a responsible teenage babysitter to help out. Teens typically get out of school before younger children and are great for keeping younger kids occupied or prodding school-aged kids to get homework done.
5. Share child care
If you have friends or neighbors who are also looking for child care, get together and form a nanny share. You hire one nanny to watch the kids from both families and share the cost — including the taxes.
Find a nanny near you.
6. Arrange a child care swap
If schedules and parenting styles allow, parents can also share child care by swapping with friends or neighbors. Money doesn’t change hands at all — the big investment here is time. If you take all the kids for three days and your neighbor or friend takes them for two (and maybe you reverse it every week), you can both have reliable, cost-free child care.
7. Host an au pair
Au pairs are young people from different countries who are looking to come to a new country for one year as a part of an au pair program. Families host au pairs, who care for your children and, in return, you provide room, board and a stipend. They’re usually less expensive than a nanny but also have less training. It’s like they’re one-part nanny and one-part exchange student.
8. Check out state assistance child care subsidies
Each state has a child care assistance program, funded by the federal government. This program is for eligible low-income parents and primary caregivers with children under the age of 13, or under 19 if incapable of self-care or under court supervision, who need access to child care due to work — or, in some states, enrollment in a training or education program — but cannot afford it. Learn more about the Child Care and Development Fund.
Find your state’s child care assistance resources page
9. Look into Early Head Start and Head Start
Look into Early Head Start (for infants and toddlers under age 3) and Head Start (for 3- and 4-year-old kids), which are federally funded preschool programs, available primarily for kids from eligible, low-income families.
Find a Head Start program near you
10. Know if your city or state offers free pre-K
If you live in a city or state that offers free preschool programs (for kids between 3 and 5), this can be an enormously helpful way to afford care — and set your child up for kindergarten. Free programs, if available, are typically available to low-income families.
Find your state’s early learning resources page
11. Explore assistance for Military and Department of Defense
Discover government programs and assistance that help Military and Department of Defense families pay for child care where you are stationed.
12. Ask around about nonprofit options
You may find low- or no-cost child care options at a local church, YMCA, community center or another nonprofit establishment in your community. Oftentimes these facilities offer affordable child care options to working parents. Nonprofit child care facilities are able to receive federal, state and private grants. The extra funding allows these centers to accommodate those who are unable to afford child care at a for-profit facility.
13 smart tips for making child care more affordable
1. Start looking early
Most families look for care several months in advance; however, expecting parents who need infant care are often getting on waitlists before their child is even born. If you need toddler care, start looking about a year before your desired start date. Same goes for lining up a full-time nanny or nabbing a spot in the after-school program. Beyond that, make sure you’re seasonally prepared in advance, too. Need school-year care? Start looking no later than early summer. Looking for summer child care? Start looking in early spring or sooner. Generally, the more affordable options get grabbed early. Start your search early and don’t wait until the last minute.
Read more: Stuck on a daycare waitlist? Try these tips for securing a spot
2. Research your child care options
Depending on your budget, you may want to choose an in-home child care or a part-time babysitter. Or a nanny share could be the perfect fit for your care needs. Get to know all the types of child care available and how much they cost.
3. Know the going rates in your area
The cost of child care varies widely from one community to the next. Those living in areas with a higher cost of living generally pay more for child care than in lower-priced areas. And you definitely want to make sure you’re not paying too much for where you live. To find out the going rate for all kinds of child care where you live, try the cost of child care calculator.
4. Sign up for a Dependent Care Account
If your employer offers a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), you can set aside up to $5,000 tax-free to pay for child care. You can save around $2,000, depending on your marginal tax rate, says Tom Breedlove, Senior Director of Care HomePay.
The FSA covers expenses for daycare, preschool and even summer day camps (although not overnight camp) — anything that’s needed so you can go to work or attend school.
Set aside the amount you truly need because funds in the account at the end of the year will be forfeited. And keep good records, as you must submit reimbursement requests to get the money back. For married couples, generally only one spouse can contribute to an FSA account. The only exception is if both you and your spouse file a separate tax return. Then, it’s OK for both of you to put $2,500 in a Dependent Care Account.
If you’re enrolling for the first time because a baby is on the way, you don’t have to wait until open enrollment, says Breedlove. For a “life-changing event,” you only have 30 days after the baby’s birth to enroll. Other examples of life-changing events can be a change in child care needs, such as hiring a summer nanny or getting married.
5. Take the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
The EITC is a tax credit available to eligible low- to moderate-income wage earners with qualifying children. The credit can range from a few hundred to several thousand, depending upon how many children you have and what your filing status is. Visit the IRS website to see if you qualify for EITC and how to file.
6. Apply your child care tax credit
If your employer doesn’t offer an FSA, you can take full advantage of the child care tax credit, says Breedlove. This credit allows you to itemize up to $3,000 in expenses per child per year, up to a $6,000 annual cap per family. Once you’ve itemized the expenses, you can take a percentage of that and apply the tax credit. Most families will see a 20% savings, which means you’ll save up to $600 if you have one child and up to $1,200 if you have two or more children.
You can use an FSA and a tax credit, but if you do, any FSA money is applied to the tax credit cap first. So if you use $5,000 from an FSA, you can then itemize only $1,000 for the child care tax credit.
This nanny tax calculator will also tell you how much money you can save from these tax breaks.
7. Strategically structure your nanny’s payroll
There are certain benefits you can offer your nanny that are considered non-taxable forms of compensation. That means the value of these benefits are not counted toward the part of their pay that has Social Security, Medicare or income taxes withheld.
2024 IRS-approved non-taxable compensation benefits for household employers
- Health Insurance premiums from a state-licensed insurance provider. Note: If you have multiple employees, you must set up an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA), Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA) or purchase a policy through SHOP (Small Business Health Options Program) to gain this benefit.
- Up to $315 per month toward public transportation to and from the worksite.
- Up to $315 per month toward parking at the jobsite and/or at the public transportation facility.
- Cell phone service reimbursement, provided that using the phone is a necessary requirement of the job.
- Up to $5,250 per year towards tuition and books for an accredited college or university.
8. Talk to HR
Companies are starting to recognize the burden that working parents face when it comes to child care — and they’re creating benefits to help.
What benefits does your company offer? Some businesses offer child care reimbursements for working parents. Others offer work-sponsored, backup care programs, such as the ones offered through Care for Business, which connect employees to in-center child care, as well as in-home options at low or no cost.
Check in with your human resources department so you don’t miss out on these money-saving benefits. You may even want to consider advocating for a backup care program or other benefits in your workplace.
9. Shift your work schedule
If you can’t afford to stay at home full time, what about part time? Many employers now offer more flexible schedules, and then you only have to cover child care costs for part of the week.
If part-time work isn’t an option, what about talking to your employer about a flexible schedule? Can you work only a few days a week but put in longer hours per day?
10. Stagger work schedules
Partnered parents may consider coordinating flexible work schedules so that one parent is always available to watch your kids. If each parent can take a different shift, you can reduce the overall need for child care.
11. Request to work remotely from home
If you’re currently employed, consider asking your manager if you could work from home a couple times a week (or more, if necessary). While you will still have daily work responsibilities that require your full attention, working from home could save you money on gas, clothing and other typical in-office expenses. Depending on the job, you may also be able to stagger your workload in such a way that you only need to pay for part-time care instead of full-time care.
12. Ask family members for help
If you happen to live nearby grandparents or aunts and uncles, ask family members if they would be willing to care for your children while you’re away at work. This could be a part-time or full-time arrangement, depending on the willingness of the family member. Be open, understanding and flexible when asking them about the possibility. You may want to consider offering a small amount of money to the family member for their services. Take into account any transportation and food costs for each child that the family member may expect you to cover.
13. Have kids close together or far apart
Obviously, this is only really relevant to those who may be in the family planning stages of parenting. That said, timing can be crucial when it comes to the cost of child care.
Children born close together or further apart may help reduce your overall child care costs, and there are pros and cons either way. Some daycare centers or sitters may offer a sibling discount rate for the second child if both are enrolled at the same time. On the other hand, waiting a few years in between each child allows you to save, plan and perhaps just pay for care for the youngest child right when the other is old enough to be enrolled in school.
The bottom line
Everybody’s child care situation is different, and it’s important to remember that being flexible and open to a variety of options will yield the best returns for your family.
Above all, remember that child care is not an expense you want to scrimp on. You should invest in the highest quality child care you can afford to make sure your children are taken care of by someone who is experienced, nurturing, responsible and dependable.
