Having trouble swallowing the cost of daycare for 2

[liberal_chick]

And I know the rates here will be cheaper than where lots of you are!

We recently fired our sitter and the new sitter, who has been employed with us for 1 week and 2 days has already missed 2 half days.  At this point I'm coming to the realization that we're probably going to have to transfer them into daycare, if not now then after the first of the year.

The problem is that daycare costs for 2 will eat roughly 50% of what I make in a year, but at the same time we can't afford to do without my check.  We are paying just over $400/mo right now for someone to be in our home (b/c it is part time), and daycare will be $760/mo since there aren't many (if any) part time options in our area.

There are a few things we can do to tweak our budget to pay for it, but it'll be tough.  It just pains me to pay so much for childcare.  This doesn't include after school care for my ds1 or his care in the summer.  It all just makes me want to cry.

This is mainly just a vent.  I had to let it out somewhere.

[MacKinnon]

I feel your pain! I've got three in part-time child care now. It just seems to be a loose-loose...I try to keep focusing on the long term benefit to my career and future successes. Someone here once encouraged me to look at the percentage of our total household income, not just what child care took out of my own salary. It made me feel better!

[Imakcerka]

I get it and it's annoying.  At one point we were paying 1200 a month and that was with a discount.  It's frustrating and causes so much stress.  The only thing I clung to was this won't be forever.

[Super~Single~Mama]

My son's daycare costs $1400/month (and thats WITH a $300 discount through my employer!) for ONE kid.  My ex pays half, but its still a LOT.

[Anna Phor]

Why did she miss the half days? Was she sick (i.e. something out of her control) or was it just unprofessionalism on her part?

Could you offer slightly more money for the sitter and get a more professional sitter? Could you offer the job at your current rate to a SAHM with the understanding she can bring her own kid (maybe an older kid, since I guess you have a toddler & a newborn)?

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by Anna Phor 

Why did she miss the half days? Was she sick (i.e. something out of her control) or was it just unprofessionalism on her part?

Could you offer slightly more money for the sitter and get a more professional sitter? Could you offer the job at your current rate to a SAHM with the understanding she can bring her own kid (maybe an older kid, since I guess you have a toddler & a newborn)?

I agree, that seems unprofessional (unless it was a total emergency).  I've nannied and babysat for folks, and never missed days!  Especially if it is part time. 

[coldandsleepy]

I feel you.  If I stay where I'm at, working full time hours with my older son and my new baby in full time care, that will be pretty damn close to 100% of my paycheck.  (Of course, me still working means us still having good insurance, money going into retirement savings, etc.)  On the one hand, I don't want to go back to being a FT SAHM, I like being back to work... on the other hand, doesn't it seem totally ridiculous to have a job just so you can send your kids to preschool/daycare... just so that you can have a job?

[JudiAU]

Childcare is such a strange strange thing. In my area a good nanny makes around $15-20 hour plus benefits plus quaterly tax payments plus quarterly payments to the people that due the quaterly tax payments etc. Our nanny is everything wonderful but it is so very expensive. It eats up half my salary as well. But we need the other half and all the goodies that come with my job like food and medical care. :::eyeroll::::

And I am currently hiring someone with a master's degree at $30/hour. Now how does a master degree only get you a $10/hour raise over someone without a college degree even?

[liberal_chick]

She has a baby that she brings with her and he was sick. But it was a super low fever, like 99. She called and said he had a fever and she needed to take him to the doctor, so I went home after being at work 2 hours. I know kids get sick and didn't mind at that point. But the next day she comes in and says that she didn't take him to the doctor the day before, that he's going that day and she won't be coming back after the appointment. I know kids get sick and I expected to miss some work due to her child being sick, but I expected her kid to really be sick and for her to get him to the doc ASAP. She's quite young and a first time mom, so it seems to me that she overreacted.

I hope that doesn't make me seem cold-hearted.

[Skippy918]

I've got 2 in daycare also and it's 2k a month. It sucks but it's only a 2 year overlap. DS starts kindergarten in 2013. costs should go down as DD gets older.

[liberal_chick]

Our sitter quit today.  I have to laugh or I might cry.  So LOL.

Really, though, it is ok.  She gave a week's notice and we were looking at letting her go anyway, so it is going to work out for everyone.  I forgot that our local Montessori school opens at age 1.  I called and they had openings for both the boys, so they'll start there on Monday.  Now dh and I officially will spend $300 more a month than we make. :-l

[nina_yyc]

$1400/month here for two.  Almost exactly one paycheck for me.  The money i do make goes 90% into bills, family expenses, savings, credit cards, which are necessary, but it is hard to get up in the morning knowing that none of it has any direct benefit for me.

ETA: sorry should have mentioned that I usually get 2 paychecks a month.  I'm on biweekly pay.

Edited by nina_yyc - 11/12/11 at 9:16am

[Quinalla]

Yup, not looking forward to this, we only have our one DD now, but planning to start TTC sometime next year and we will have 2 in daycare for ~3 years and it will be a little over half my paycheck when we start at least. It is one of the reasons I put off TTC a bit longer than I might have.

[DCMama01]

My daycare bill for DD just dropped from $300 a week to $186 a week. She is turning 2 this month and I switched daycares. My friend just went from $660 a week (for 2 kids) to $370 for both. We both felt like we got pay raises (single mamas)!

I feel like daycare should be govt subsidized but thats another topic.

[Skippy918]

Daycare costs don't get nearly the amount of visibility that college costs get. Having 2 in daycare is a year's worth of college tuition. Dependent care accounts only let you max out at 5k, and then if you have that, you can't take the child care tax deduction. Child care is more than most ppl's mortgage these days.

[nextcommercial]

Originally Posted by Skippy918 

Daycare costs don't get nearly the amount of visibility that college costs get. Having 2 in daycare is a year's worth of college tuition. Dependent care accounts only let you max out at 5k, and then if you have that, you can't take the child care tax deduction. Child care is more than most ppl's mortgage these days.

But, not all daycares cost so much.  There are plenty of good choices that charge a very reasonable fee.  

[Super~Single~Mama]

Originally Posted by nextcommercial 

But, not all daycares cost so much.  There are plenty of good choices that charge a very reasonable fee.  

This entirely depends on location.  There aren't childcares close to me that are affordable - I'm in the cheapest decent daycare in the area that works.  Seriously - $1400 for ONE child is the best price I can find that is convenient.  There is ONE daycare that costs $900/month, but when we visited it was a) FULL and b) had so many health violations they should be reported to the health department.  Seriously - a potty in the "kitchen" area with a kid peeing while the teachers were making food, chickens inside the classroom not in a cage (if they had been outside I would have been fine with it - they weren't contained at all), and not a single child in the 2-3yo "class" was talking or making any noise at all which was weird b/c it was right before lunch so they should have been.

The other options cost MORE - the next cheapest is $1,436, then $1,500 and up.  It's insane.

[nextcommercial]

Originally Posted by Super~Single~Mama 

This entirely depends on location.  There aren't childcares close to me that are affordable - I'm in the cheapest decent daycare in the area that works.  Seriously - $1400 for ONE child is the best price I can find that is convenient.  There is ONE daycare that costs $900/month, but when we visited it was a) FULL and b) had so many health violations they should be reported to the health department.  Seriously - a potty in the "kitchen" area with a kid peeing while the teachers were making food, chickens inside the classroom not in a cage (if they had been outside I would have been fine with it - they weren't contained at all), and not a single child in the 2-3yo "class" was talking or making any noise at all which was weird b/c it was right before lunch so they should have been.

The other options cost MORE - the next cheapest is $1,436, then $1,500 and up.  It's insane.

Ugh.. seriously?  I had no idea.  I charge $125 a week here, and I'm average.  The chain centers here are quite expensive, but still more reasonable.
 

[liberal_chick]

Our daycare bill is about 300 more a month than our mortgage. It makes me want to cry.

[Super~Single~Mama]

Originally Posted by nextcommercial 

Ugh.. seriously?  I had no idea.  I charge $125 a week here, and I'm average.  The chain centers here are quite expensive, but still more reasonable.
 

Yeah, its INSANE.  In my old city we had the most wonderful center, that was just over half that price, that fed him 3 meals/day PLUS a snack, PLUS a peice of fruit to eat on the way home.  They were amazing, but I couldn't find a job there, and then I landed my dream job in our new city, and costs are crazy.

I'll be honest though, in my old city I only saw terrible home daycares, so I haven't looked at any home daycares here.  Not that it would help, my job isn't in a residential part of town, and one of the best things about DS's daycare is that its right across the street from where I work - which I really love even though its pricy.  They staff are wonderful, and I'm starting to get to know some of the other parents, and its linked the university that I work at so most of the parents are affiliated with the university (if not all - we are given priority for the spaces).