Working Moms

S/O: what are WM doing with your childcare "raise"?!

I'm calling it my "raise"- when DS starts kindy at the end of August our childcare costs will go from $1300 a month to $350. WOOT! We promised our friends we'd get a babysitter and actually go out to eat with them to celebrate- instead of us cooking for them at our house so we can save the cost of a sitter. And DH and I have some major remodeling projects we've put off. We may upgrade some furniture that we've had since college. We still don't have a bedroom set- just a mattress and frame and some crappy mismatch ikea dressers. I might even splurge on a once a month house cleaner. I'm tired of living in squalor!

By January 1 we'll set up a plan to start contributing the excess to our retirement accounts and student loan debt. But until January 1, I'm going to just enjoy spending money. Excuse me while I go play with my calculator some more...

Re: S/O: what are WM doing with your childcare "raise"?!

  • I will be paying for summer camp, sports and the like.
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  • It's a long way off for us, since we're TTC we'll hopefully have 2 in daycare next year. But we've talked about going on bigger vacations.
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  • skyejoskyejo member
    More than likely our "raise" will go to a higher mortgage.  We're planning on moving in the next few years to a larger home. 
  • when DD is done we'll start saving for a bigger house, then when DS is done we'll look to make a move.
  • A ways off for us as DS doesn't start school for 2-3 years, and we're adding a second child at the end of the year.  When it does happen, any excess will funnel to retirement/education savings or to pay down our mortgage sooner.
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  • DS starts kindergarten this year, too, but I don't think our childcare payment will go down much at all.  Between paying for full day kindy and after care, plus all those days off and vacations, it's going to be pretty close to what it is now, I think.  Next year!

    But we are boring, and will just put it toward retirement, paying down student loans, a new car fund, and all that fun stuff.  :)  I want to talk about getting someone to come in and clean, but I doubt that will happen.

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  • After 2 years of 2 in daycare, I'm pretty excited about DD starting kinder this fall. :) Hopefully I'll finish paying off my student loans quickly and start saving more aggressively so that we can afford a slightly bigger house in 2 years!
  • Given that I am pregnant with #3 now, our "raise" is a long way away. However, being the type A planner I am, I have already given this quite a bit of thought and have the following ideas in mind.

    Since by the time all 3 are in school our annual savings will be close to $25k (we plan on sending the kids to private school with tuition and are also factoring in after care and summer nanny costs), we will be shifting most of that right into their college savings. We save $250 per month per child now, and will bump that up to around $650 per month per child. We will also pad our next house savings, as my goal is to save a large enough down payment for our next house to only have a mortgage similar to what we currently pay on our 15 year mortgage and try and pay it off early so that the house will be paid off by the time the kids are in college.

    For us--the savings will likely only be "short term" as we live in a big city and will likely need to pay for private high school tuition, which is about the same as what we pay in day care. Unless our kids test in to the really good college prep schools--but they are practically impossible to get into.

    Will baby #3 be another girl?


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  • It is a long way off, but we have actually talked about it and we are going to put in a pool. :]

    After that retirement, then college funds.

    We already have DS1 in extra activities, so while there will be additional for DS2, we do have some of the extras currently in our budget.
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  • I have about 3 years but my plan is: we pay $700 per month, we will be paying about $150 for before school care and maybe $100 for activities. I will put $250 into an account for summer camp and activities (we hope by then to have adopted a child so while fostering DC is paid for but he will probably be around kindergarten age so I need to factor in camp for when he is adopted). That leaves a "raise" of $200 per month. I plan on dividing it between college, retirement and paying off the mortgage (though I have separate money for those things every $ helps). We may go out a bit more as well. I know it's not a big chunk but better than nothing.
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  • Here it will fund activities for the girls (they will be 12 and 9) and camps for all of the kids.  Most likely what will happen is I will redirect those funds into a vacation/camp/kid account and then quarterly adjust retirement contributions and move money around.  Summers with school age children are very, very expensive.  For the children to attend the camps I attended and take classes like I did, we are looking at 2- 3K a month (for three kids) and that leaves us with some non-full time care, so there is additional spend there to close that gap (sitter/nanny).
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  • We have a while until this happens but I think we'll put it towards a new house!  We're thinking of having #3, so it might not even matter!
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  • We are going to add it to our debt snowball to pay off our debt.  We don't have a ton of money going to DC costs...it's about $200/month.
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  • DS is not even 1 yet but since his DC cost is very high, I day-dream about this all the time.  We'll spend 25% of it on extracurricular activities for him, 25% on bigger vacation and 50% into our own retirement fund.  I really want to retire at 55!
  • We are discussing a third, so hopefully it will go to the baby's daycare.
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  • KL777KL777 member

    Our preschool was never terribly expensive. With DS going to a private school for kindergarten, we'll actually be paying more :-(

     
    However, now on my off days, I'll get to get those to myself! And I know exactly what I'll be doing!

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  • We have another year to go, but most likely we will put it toward retirement savings and paying off my student loans.  I will definitely start hiring the occasional babysitter, too, though!
    DS born 8/8/09 and DD born 6/12/12.
  • I hope to have another child who will be in daycare by then, but if not, I will probably just put more into savings.
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    DD #1 passed away in January 2011 at 14 days old due to congenital heart disease
    DD#2 lost in January 2012 at 23 weeks due to anhydramnios caused by a placental abruption
  • Honestly? A nice family vacation. I know this is cheesy, but I really want to go to Disney. I grew up with 8 other siblings, so we never went anywhere amazing as a family. We are definitely going to fix up our house. We just had DD (almost 4 months) so we have awhile and DS is almost 3. I also want to pay down debt and funnel more into retirement. 
  • We will just put more money into savings, although I don't think our "savings" from daycare will be very large. 
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  • It's a ways off for us, but the current plan is to use that money for extra savings, and of course if kiddos are into expensive hobbies/sports some may go there. I'd like to allow them opportunities to do fun things if we can afford it.  So hopefully some cool family vacations too.



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