You want to work, so does your spouse or partner, you just don’t have much money left over at the end of the month when you have paid for your children to get looked after.
A friend of mine, Siobhan, is a consultant radiologist at a large teaching hospital. Her husband Adam works in IT. They found that after season ticket prices, mortgage and all the usual bills were taken into account, they had a smaller pot of money than they had at first hoped they might, for childcare. “I wanted two things for Finlay when we chose our childcare options – quality, reliability and plenty of fun and love. When we made our childcare cost calculations, we were surprised at just how expensive a full-time nanny was. Juggling our working days so that each of us worked from home one day per week, we saw that we could manage two days per week of a nanny full-time, and two days per week at nursery. That way Finlay gets plenty of down-time and cuddles at home, as well as all the great activities and socialization at nursery that he enjoys.”
What’s the best way to make your budget stretch further?
First, work out exactly how much you can afford, then keep these tips in mind when you start to look at care options for your children:
1. Free care for under 5’s.
This free care is available at the moment for all 3 and 4 year olds, and will extend in some cases to 2 year olds for 15 hours per week, 38 weeks per year. Make sure that the provision you organize will allow easy or automatic transition onto free care, and allows you to take the free allocation at a time that is suitable or convenient for you. See this Daycare Trust article on free childcare for more details. Don’t forget it is not means tested for 3 and 4 year olds, so be sure to take advantage of it.
2. The commute from your house.
This is often overlooked – make sure you tot up the extra petrol or public transport costs to get to and from your care provision, and the additional commute time, and factor this into your decision. Also consider mileage costs for activities, if a nanny is looking after your children.
3. Is a nanny share possible?
This is a great solution if you live within easy reach of like-minded families. A nanny share can take many different shapes or forms – all children cared for under one roof, or dividing up the nanny’s week so that, for example, you employ her during school hours while the other family employs her for school age children at the beginning and end of the school day. You can also split the tax code, effectively lowering your tax burden — see this article on the tax implications of nanny shares written by Nannytax here.
4. Do you have more than one child under 5?
If you believe that nothing can beat at home childcare, don’t forget that a nanny or childminder can often be cheaper when you count illness days and more than one set of nursery fees. Able to look after children while ill, nannies are also more flexible in terms of their working hours, while childminders will offer longer hours than many other care options. If you combine a childminder with nanny or nursery, you can make the budget stretch far without compromising what you want for your child.
5. School Age Children
At this age, consider using an au pair, a babysitter, or instituting a shared drop off and pick up with neighbours or other working parents, who are likely to be in the same situation as you and will appreciate the returned favour.
Whatever care you choose, we wish you the best of luck with finding quality care!