Nursery fees of £1846 per month, will we be better off with childcare vouchers?

laurenjs88

mitchaa wrote: »

How have you come up with the £1846 figure?

£425 x 52/12? Are they payable for 52 wks?

I know mine are payable over 50wks as the nursery are closed over the xmas/new year period?

Why is 1 daughter £190 pw and the other £235? Don't you get some form of discount for having 2 of them in at the same nursery and dont you get a day and a half free at the age of 3?

Anyway, the childcare voucher scheme works by sacrificing £243 from your gross salary. You will see a £167 reduction from your pay packet which in effect means you save £76. (You get £243 worth of vouchers but only having paid £167 for them)

If your husband gets the choice for a salary sacrifice too, then that is obviously a saving of £152pm.

I would have thought that if your childcare was so expensive eclipsing your own salary then its probably not in your best interest going back to work until they are at school?

Yup we have to pay the nursery 52 weeks. DD1 is £190.22 per week as she is now on the toddler rate. DD2 will be on the baby rate untill she turns 2 which is more expensive, They have also recently raised their prices. No discounts offered for second children anymore. Prices will drop slightly in the Jan after DD1 turns 3.

OH doesnt have the option for childcare vouchers through work, though I will see if thats something his boss would look into for us nearer the time.

I don't trust childminders after the first person i left DD1 with & will never use one again. The nursery DD1 is in is the best in the area, and is therefore the most expensive. The other nurseries have terrible ofsted reports and the prices only vary by about 5p per hour! Even looking closer to work the nurseries are of worse standard and more expensive as your getting into the city.

The nursery also follows through to the 3rd best primary school in the county.

I am a terrible stay at home mum, being a single mum i ended up suicidal being trapped at home with DD1.

The only other comprimise to this I can see is to attempt to reduce my working hours when i return to work but still sacrfice my salary to the max.

We dont have £1000 a month to spare but i'll do whatever I have to give my girls
the best start in their education. Looks like I may need to get a second job too!

I will try a negotiate with the nursery, paying them over £8 an hour is alot! It wouldnt be so bad if my OH and i earnt more but were both young (me 21, him 26) and are still on rubbish wages.

Thanks for all the calculations and advice, gives us something to mull over...

Kimitatsu

Hi Lauren

Horrible situation to be in and you have my sympathies. If your OH's work does not currently do vouchers then ask them to do them - its really easy to set up, all they have to do is send off a payment to a different provider, so there should be no excuses if thats what you want.

Have you looked into other Child Minders? I know the I couldnt manage without mine and over the years we have become good friends as well as having a business relationship, but I interviewed several before I found one that I felt really comfortable with, asking around people I knew for recomendations. You could also try the local toddler group if you can take the time off, my CM takes the little ones she has there and so you can see them "at work" so to speak, that way you get an idea of what they are like when you are not there. I know that CM's are far cheaper than nurseries (mine charges £3 an hour per child and takes vouchers) and if you live in the catchment area then you should get your child into primary whatever. Also when you are eligible for free childcare there is nothing to stop you mixing and matching nursery with a child minder, you decide where your vouchers go, they dont all have to go to one provider.

I will have a look because somewhere there is a website that compares tax credits to vouchers and which is best for you.

Ultimately you do the thing which you feel is best for your children.

Liquorice_Twirls

You mention that:

"The nursery also follows through to the 3rd best primary school in the county. "

Do you mean a private primary school?

If not, I wonder if you are technically right about this as you normally have to apply for state primary school when your child is 4. Admissions are usually based on strict criteria which will often be based on facts such as looked after children 1st, then those in catchment with siblings at school, those in catchment without siblings there, those with siblings and out of catchment and then those out of catchment altogether with those nearest in distance in this final category getting the final places if the school is oversubscribed.

What I am saying is that the fact your children attend this nursery might have no bearing on whether they get a place or not at the primary school. That's fine if you can and want to pay the high costs as you think that the nursery provides a level of service and care that is worth it, but wouldn't want you to be paying in the hope that this would mean you were further up the school places ladder.

PS I also wondered if you could perhaps employ a nanny for much less, or perhaps reduce your hours while the children are young and the costs so high.

snugglepet20

Liquorice_Twirls wrote: »

:


What I am saying is that the fact your children attend this nursery might have no bearing on whether they get a place or not at the primary school. That's fine if you can and want to pay the high costs as you think that the nursery provides a level of service and care that is worth it, but wouldn't want you to be paying in the hope that this would mean you were further up the school places ladder.

You are right there, I pay for my son to go to a lovely nursery which feeds into a really good school but he didn't get in for September because we live further away than the last child that got a place .

laurenjs88

snugglepet20 wrote: »

Liquorice_Twirls wrote: »

:

Liquorice_Twirls wrote: »

What I am saying is that the fact your children attend this nursery might have no bearing on whether they get a place or not at the primary school. That's fine if you can and want to pay the high costs as you think that the nursery provides a level of service and care that is worth it, but wouldn't want you to be paying in the hope that this would mean you were further up the school places ladder.

You are right there, I pay for my son to go to a lovely nursery which feeds into a really good school but he didn't get in for September because we live further away than the last child that got a place .

Sorry to hear that this Snuggle

Liquorice, it is a state school, Both my younger sister attended here, Im not sure if we are in the catchment area but we live 4.6 miles away from the school, is there anyway I can find out what the catchment area is?

kurjam

iamana1ias wrote: »

I didn't think you could mix vouchers with tax credits.

yes you can use vouchers and claim tax credits on the fees that you dont use vouchers for.

pelirocco

I am confused ,your child care will be more then you and your oh earn? , that doesnt make sense .

why dont you employ a nanny?,surely cheaper then £1800+ a month

missmontana

laurenjs88 wrote: »

snugglepet20 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that this Snuggle

Liquorice, it is a state school, Both my younger sister attended here, Im not sure if we are in the catchment area but we live 4.6 miles away from the school, is there anyway I can find out what the catchment area is?

Have a look on your local council website, there should be lists of schools and their catchment areas.

PasturesNew

Until all this tax credits thing started, parents simply worked different hours. It was most usual for one of them to work evenings/Saturdays where possible (back in those days there wasn't Sunday opening and no late night shopping, so evenings tended to be bar work, waitressing or factory evening shifts).

Maybe look at what jobs one of you could do part-time at different hours so you don't need childcare.

I did have one friend who just sat on her 4rse after she had her baby. Her husband worked full-time, got a factory evening job 5 nights a week and took any/all weekend overtime working from his full-time job. . . imho she should have done the evening job; in the end he left her for some bird he met at the factory.

flea72

laurenjs88 wrote: »

I don't trust childminders after the first person i left DD1 with & will never use one again. The nursery DD1 is in is the best in the area, and is therefore the most expensive. The other nurseries have terrible ofsted reports and the prices only vary by about 5p per hour! Even looking closer to work the nurseries are of worse standard and more expensive as your getting into the city.

The level of care varies from childminder to childminder, much in the same way you refer to nurseries. However dont believe all you read in ofsted reports. on paper my local pre-school is well down on the list of what ofsted require, but is actually the most subscribed pre-school in the area, due to the atmosphere and care received. Ofsted seem to think that because its run in the local village hall (not purpose built premises), and cant provide computer access (due to no-where to store such expensive equipment overnight when the pre-school is closed), that it is failing the children, and gets downgraded accordingly

The nursery also follows through to the 3rd best primary school in the county

Attending a nursery doesnt give you an automatic entry to a school. its all done on how far you live from the school, and those nearer (or with siblings already at the school) get first dibs

I am a terrible stay at home mum, being a single mum i ended up suicidal being trapped at home with DD1

Post natal depression. or just the wrong time for you to feel staying at home was a good thing. i couldnt wait to return to work with my first 2, but when DD3 came along i can honestly say, im in the right state of mind to be a sahm (unfortunately finances dont allow lol). Also just because you stay at home to look after your kids, doesnt mean you have to stay at home. there are so many clubs to go to, places to visit and things to do with kids, espec when you have an older one, who will want to do social things. or as already suggested, if you feel you need adult time away from the kids, get an evening or weekend job. OH looks after the kids, so no childcare costs, and you get chance to be you

The only other comprimise to this I can see is to attempt to reduce my working hours when i return to work but still sacrfice my salary to the max

Not sure how reducing your hours would save you that much money. you can only use £55/wk of childcare vouchers, which tbh doesnt make much of a dent in your fees, and you would be bringing home alot less money

We dont have £1000 a month to spare but i'll do whatever I have to give my girls
the best start in their education. Looks like I may need to get a second job too!

No, drop the day job that requires you to pay for childcare, and just get the second job of an evening or weekend. that way every penny you earn, you get to keep, rather than working and losing everything that you make. Honestly i know you say it keeps you sane to work, but come on, its total madness to work f/t, and not have any money to show for it. you are actually paying, to not see your kids. they dont get to see you, you make no money from working, and therefore they dont have a better lifestyle that they could benefit from. its a lose, lose situation

I will try a negotiate with the nursery, paying them over £8 an hour is alot! It wouldnt be so bad if my OH and i earnt more but were both young (me 21, him 26) and are still on rubbish wages

by the time your income has increased enough for you all to enjoy it as a family, your kids will at least be in f/t education, or tbh seeing as kids costs so much, you wont be at a financial loose end, until they leave home lol. Are you both in careers where your earning potential suddenly changes, due to age?

Thanks for all the calculations and advice, gives us something to mull over...

Tbh i dont see what there is to mull over. if your childcare fees are more than you and your OH earn jointly, then how will you pay the bills?

F