Thread title says it all-- what does full-time infant daycare cost? It’s purely for informational purposes currently, though who knows? Maybe in the next couple of years, it’ll be a real concern. Anyway, I’m just wondering what it costs when both parents have to work and the baby needs to be in paid daycare. What have been your experiences?
Thanks.
In our area, we’re talking somewhere around $700-$800, roughly speaking (Western North Carolina).
Daniel
In our area, it runs from $242 a week to much higher with an average price of $300 a week.
My corollary question then is, how do people afford it when their expenses suddenly go up $8,000 per year or more?
They wait to have kids until they can cover it and/or they cut back on other expenses and/or they quit work and stay home and/or they find a family friend or relative willing to take the baby for less or for free and/or they shift work schedules until someone is home most of the time and/or they go into debt. . . there are as many solutions to the problem (some less desirable than others) as there are people out there.
Here in Southern Arizona it’s about 150 a week. I’d think with two parents working it would be tight but manageable, but just think about us single parents who have to do it, especially with more than one child. There is state assistance for daycare, but you have to be very poor to qualify.
Several of my married friends have come across the situation where they’d have a second child, and it turned out that the cost of daycare for two children was going to be about what they made, so they stayed home.
My kids are now ancient (almost nine and ten) - when they were babies we paid $200 per week per child - $1600 a month in daycare expenses. I’m sure its a LOT higher now, since the infant room was the priciest when they started, and when they left we still paid nearly that with the yearly price increases.
We were lucky in that our kids arrived about the same time as our incomes took a huge leap, so the $20k a year in daycare costs wasn’t too noticeable. Don’t forget that there is also the $100 a month in diapers, the formula (my daughter was breastfed for six months, which helps, but you don’t always have that option), and they need a whole new wardrobe every six to eight weeks.
(Oh, and the college funds, the fund for braces, the fact that now it costs twice as much to go on vacation because we have four people to fly…)
I’ve known more than a few people who decided that it’s better for one parent to quit and stay home with the kids. In my friend’s case, her husband is the one who takes care of the three tykes.
Another option is family helping out. Either way, it’s expensive to have kids these days.
When Kid Kalhoun was a wee sprout, his dad worked days and I worked evenings. It worked out really well. There is NO WAY we could have afforded it otherwise.
A good chunk of it is tax deductable, too, if you can hold out until next year’s refund check. Month-to-month, we paid as much for day care as we did for our apartment.
For what time period?
In my small town (100,000 people) it costs about $120-150 per week per child.
A good friend of mine has 3 kids in daycare, it costs her $1,000/mo. She must be making some pretty good money at her job!
For our two year old it’s $325 a week. I believe that for the infant it will be around $380 a week. So for the two of them it’s almost $40,000 a year. We can afford it because we both have good jobs. We’d be worse off if one of us quit and stayed at home. This is in Maryland right next to DC.
When mine was an infant (he’s almost 11 now), we lived in Southern California and paid about $850/month.
I have a distinct memory of talking about it with a coworker who had a son about 6 months later. Her mom lived with her family and cared for the little ones, so she hd no idea. When I told her she said “Ay! GwenDEE. Tha’s like another rent!”
It was - less by about $20/month.
It’s good to remember that once they’re out of diapers the cost of care drops precipitously.
I’m back on the east coast now, and after school care for the primary grades is a little under $200/month.
The flip side of this is families like my S-I-L’s. Once she had a third child, careful analysis down to the penny showed that with 3 kids in day care she’d have netted about $200 a year. So she became a stay at home mom. Her husband’s job benefits include particularly good insurance and retirement so they’re able to do that.
Some employers offer plans that allow you to pay as you go on a tax deductible basis. You budget for daycare expenses, get money withheld on a pre-tax basis, and file receipts for reimbursement throughout the year. A paperwork hassle, but good for cash flow.
Our two year-old costs us $256/week at a facility. And that’s after a 10% discount from my employer.
Friends we have that can’t afford this or have 2 kids often find home run daycare which runs $150-$200 per week.
That’s what’s keeping us from having a second kid right now. I don’t think I could afford to pay for two kids in a facility and I like facilities too much to have them both in a home run daycare.
Under $1/hour ::happy dance!!::
Sorry, I just discovered this today and I’m still thrilled. I am only going to be working part time to begin with (15 hours a week) and I’m a single mum so daycare is subsidised by the government. They’ll contribute $3.32/hour for up to 50 hours a week care. The family daycare service run by the council charges about $4.70/hour for regular business hours and a maximum of $5.05/hour outside those hours, so I just have to pay the gap. But then there’s some other government incentive that will reimburse me 50% of what it cost me to cover the gap. So even at the higher rate, $5.05 - $3.32 = $1.73 out of my pocket, and then I can claim back $0.86. Daycare will only end up costing me about $50 a month! That’s phenomenal!
QKid#2 just turned two, but through June we were paying $1320/month. QKid#1 is in daycare this month as he is out of school for the summer. That put our total around $2k. (I don’t remember the exact figure - I’ve been doing my best to block the memory.)
Re: fitting it into the budget - well, that’s pretty much why we never go out to eat, see movies, hire a babysitter, go on an interesting vacation, shop from somewhere other than the sale rack, etc.
Kids are expensive and should be considered to be a luxury item. My oldest daughter cost $225 dollars a week or $900 a month but that was only for 3 days a week. My youngest daughter costs $162 a week or $648 a month for a home based day care and that is also for only for 3 days a week.
Often they’ll just direct deposit the checks. When we did this, we’d wait until we could file one $5k reimbursement form, then get one fairly large check and $400 a month direct deposited. Three pieces of paperwork a year - sign up, reimbursement form, direct deposit form.
But there are a few things to note about the tax breaks - they are means tested - make too much and you’ll pay taxes. The DCSA is non-taxable income, not a tax credit (I think the Child Care Credit really IS a credit). And they haven’t scaled the amount in the ten years I’ve had kids - when it was insufficient for ONE child much less two.
Also, when figuring out if you can afford to work or stay home - personally, I think its your heart that needs to rule. But if you are going to play with numbers and do the whole “I won’t buy lunch out every day” do a fair analysis with both short and long term impact. You may find that $200 in net income isn’t a lot, but that 401k match sitting around for retirement would be missed. (Again, in the end, its your heart, not whether or not your checkbook will have a higher balance)