D.C. Area Babies

another daycare and take home pay question

I know this is really personal so I apologize if this offends someone, but I have a question for those of you with children in daycare.  How much money do you think is the least that you would want to have as take home pay after paying for daycare?  Are there other expenses that I'm not thinking of when it comes to sending your child(ren) to daycare other than the monthly payment?

As you can tell from my previous post I'm asking because DH and I have just hit a huge financial bump and it looks like I may be scrambling to find a job and daycare.  If I were to get a teaching job at the pay I was making when I left then after paying for daycare and formula (because there is no way I see how I would be able to pump during the school day) I think the take home pay would only be anywhere from $500-$800.  I could probably make that in about 10-13 tutoring sessions.

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Re: another daycare and take home pay question

  • If you could tutor without full time daycare and just an occasional sitter and make the same amount, I think you will come out ahead.  For me, the threshhold is $1000 a month.  PWe decided that at 2 kids in daycare I would still earn enough each month to make a significant impact to our budget (groceries, utilities, car payments, etc.) with 3, my take home would be way too low to make it worthwhile and at that point I would stay at home for a few years.  

    <edit - I'll delete the personal information from this later this afternoon>

         

  • Oh, I just read your post below. I'm sorry to hear that you are in this financial spot.  

    Do you have dependent care FSA with your job? If so, you can put away $5K per year pre-tax for qualified daycare expenses and then get reimbursed when you submit your bills. So, that can help a bit.

    As far as daycare goes, I don't really think there's any additional expenses other than some incremental things like maybe some food gets thrown away if they don't eat it which wouldn't happen at home. Also, I have to bring in an extra hat, coat, etc. but I just pick up stuff at the thrift store. There's gas but my daycare is only a half-mile away. Other than that, I can't really think of anything.

     

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  • I want to throw my computer out a window because I typed up a whole response then Explorer crashed.  Or the Nest is being wonky.  Boo.

    How much totally depends on you and what your monthly expenses are.  If you'd be working solely to contribute to household expenses, then how much would you have to take home to substantially contribute?  

    Using totally un-real numbers, if your household expenses are $1000 a month, and your DH takes home $500, then you have to take home $500 so you can come out even each month.  That's over-simplifying it of course... it's not taking into consideration savings goals, like e-fund, college savings, retirement, etc.

    If you take home $500 - $800 a month after paying daycare, is that enough to make a good dent in your monthly expenses?  And if you can make that tutoring - I mean really make that amount consistently - without paying daycare, then why take a full time job?

    I'm assuming that you're not concerned with non-$$ benefits of working, because it sounds like this is strictly for the money, but there are other non-$$ advantages to working - contributions to retirement savings, keeping up with your field/cutting down on gaps in your resume, adult interaction, etc.  If you do end up doing this, and I know it's not what you want, but if you do, post again and the working moms can maybe boost you up a little and tell you about the good things about being a working mom.  Smile

    Hugs to you - this must be really hard.

    Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
  • Totally depends on your household expenses. Do you have a budget or money management software where you know how much you guys spend each month? Add in the daycare costs and what you'd be making and see if you come out even, and then for savings, etc.

    This is one major reason why DH is a stay at home dad. He's a chef and they just don't make enough, he was only going to be making like $300/month after daycare expenses for all 3 girls and everything else.

    If you can make that much in your tutoring sessions without having to go back to work fulltime so you dont have to pay daycare then that's what I'd go with, if you guys are alright with the $500-800 extra each month.

  • for us, we'd have to take home 2-3 times more than DC costs
  • besides the weekly daycare rates- the other expenses include the diapers and wipes we take there. otherwise, the daycare fee covers food, milk, etc....

    For the $$ question- I am not sure what the least I would want to take home would be. I think our daycare is expensive but my salary and benefits more than offset the cost. Will the $500-800 extra month help resolve the situation quickly so you could return to being at home?

    Are you tutoring right now? Could you add more tutoring sessions?

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  • As others have pointed out, with tutoring you aren't getting benefits (health, retirement, life insurance, disability...) that you would teaching.  
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  • For me, if I have anything left it is worth it.  You can't put a price on your retirement fund, pension, seniority, and benefits, which all adds up. 
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  • imagevictoria1212:

    Will the $500-800 extra month help resolve the situation quickly so you could return to being at home?

    I think this is the burning question.

    Another thought I had was re: the tutoring - to make $500 - $800 a month, you would need consistent business.  I don't know how tutoring works, but I'd make sure I could get enough students lined up and committed as possible right away.  DH and I always talk about him quitting his FT job and going back to be a home improvement contractor - he's damn good at it and potentially can make a ton of money.  But, it's feast or famine out there - when he used to do it, there were definitely months when he made more money than others and the fact is we need him to make a consistent amount of money each month to pay our bills.  I'm not sure what the tutoring market is right now, so it probably in no way relates to the market for home improvement (both would be different in a recession) but it's just something to think about.

    Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
  • With two in daycare next year ($45K), it would be financially advantageous for DH to stay home.  However, currently we think it's more beneficial overall for him to continue to work (reasons include both of our sanities and DD goes to a very good daycare that she enjoys). 

    One thing to figure into the cost of staying home is the cost of preschool.  If you stay home, I imagine soon you'll want N to be in preschool for the next few years, and some preschools are quite expensive (not as much as a daycare center but it can be a substantial cost).  Your preschool education is already provided if you're in a good daycare. 

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