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Working Moms
2 in daycare - How do you do it $$$?
in Working Moms
I know it has to do with geographic location etc. But how does a middle income family afford it? I just turned 39 so we started thinking about adding another to our family and I asked at DS's daycare what an infant would cost. It would be almost $1700/month for 2 children! Me not working isn't an option since I am the breadwinner and hold the benefits.
We live in a modest house (1000 sg ft bungalow), have only one car payment and no credit card debt. Financially we are in good shape. I guess it frightens me to be cutting the budget so close every month. I am sure there are things we could cut out. But we certainly don't live extravagantly. Our biggest luxuries are probably cell phones and cable. LOL
We would have 2 in daycare for at least 3 years bc DS won't start school until he is almost 6 due to his birthday. Just curious on how others swing this.
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Re: 2 in daycare - How do you do it $$$?
Ramen noodles
Just kidding LOL. We have 2 in daycare and have for 2 years now. It's about $1400 a month for us though with the sibling discount, so make sure you look into that.
We had always lived on my salary as DH is in grad school, and his stipends/fellowship/teaching assistant money pays for daycare. When he gets a lower teaching load like this semester we drop them down to part time, they'll go back up to full time in the fall. But we make it work.
Our budget is very 'close' on paper too, but we account for savings, retirement, etc that we need to. There isn't much wiggle room, but that's what our emergency fund is for.
We are in the same situation you are. We pay 1800/month and DD #1 will not start school until she is almost 6. I get excited when room changes happen hoping that my monthly tuition bill will go down.
Luckily for us, right around the time DD #2 was born we paid off a condo that we currently rent. Without that money coming in our budget would be tight.
DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
You can look into a new day care center or in-home provider, which are usually cheaper (we pay ~$2000/month for 3). You could also discuss your DH being a SAHD if you're the primary breadwinner and benefits carrier.
You remind yourself that it only lasts for a few years and then salivate thinking of what you'll do with all the extra money when the kids are in school.
Honestly, we made concessions in other places. We didn't buy a house at the top of our budget, we cut out some extras we don't need, and as I said above we remind ourselves that this is just a temporary thing.
BFP #2 5/27/12. EDD 2/1/13. m/c and D&C 6/21/12.
Sorry I have no advice but I just want to commiserate.
We live in a pricey area and will be paying $3,000 a month for a toddler and a baby. Yes, it sucks. Yes, I could find cheaper places but the quality is significantly different. I am just so so so happy to be finally out of grad school and into my first year of a job with a great income.
Ditto. I pay $1600/month for ONE kid in daycare. I don't know if I could afford two. It's a major reason why we may not have another.
Well we don't have any car payments and we also don't have cable. Those are our choices for other reasons though not daycare reasons. We use a licensed in home day care and only pay $55/day for two kids so it works out to about $1000/month total for both kids (4 days a week, DH has Mondays off and works 4 10's). We live well below our means so it wasn't an issue at all. Now when we are paying $1000 a month for two kids daycare, $350/month for full day kindergarten, and $200/month for after school care it will probably pinch a bit more, but we have a lot of wiggle room in our budget.
we will be paying close to 2K a month for 2 in daycare this fall. It's going to be tight but we can do it. One vehicle is paid off and we are trying to get the other paid off by then. We also are careful to adjust our withholdings on our paychecks so we get the maximum amount of $ each paycheck and just about break even at tax time. Also, my DH's company offers an FSA to which we submit claims for daycare, which reduces our taxable income.
The biggest thing which we have been doing since DS was born (and we will have to be extra vigilant about now) is just watching our spending. Really limit eating out, shopping, impulse purchases. Shopping at consignment for kids stuff, only buying stuff when its on sale etc.
We could not afford it, we were going into our savings every month to pay all our bills. Needless to say we went through a lot of it. I work for the government and I was finally able to get them into my work's daycare which is a lot cheaper than privately owned ones.
So my suggestion is one of you to get a gov job or a corp job that has a daycare on the premises that is cheaper than outside daycares.
Ugh, I'm jealous. We spend more than that here for one in day care.
That is one of the reason we are one and done. I just don't have $4000 to shell out for day care if we had 2 kids in day care at the same time.
Trust me I have been trying! I have been applying for govt jobs for over a year already with not even one interview. One of the interviews I went on had a daycare in the same bldg but it was MORE than we pay now!
It took me 2 years of trying to get into the gov before I got in. It is tough but worth it. Keep trying. Good Luck.
Like the other posters said, you do just "make it work". We pay just over $2000 a month for childcare and I often wonder - what was I doing with this money before we had kids???
What I did want to add to the conversation is - don't forget with an additional child you will have an additional tax exemption and therefore more take home pay. A small "raise", so to speak. Just one more thing to consider.
You might want to look into either an in-home daycare if you're currently at a center or hosting an au pair. Both would probably save you at least $500 a month.