Snug & Sorted: Our Race to Mortgage Freedom

kaycastle

Thank you all!

Unfortunately I didn't explore the "too good to be true" method enough and failed to read the small print. 

I'm discovering that every nursery has some way of tripping you up/misunderstanding fees and I need to read the ts&cs very carefully. And the childminders are all full or they do hours that just don't work for commuters or just for part time workers - like from 8.30am or just Mondays and Tuesdays etc.. Which is fine for them but means the more affordable option of a childminder goes out the window for a lot of people. Childminders I find charge about £5-£6 an hour, all in and often term time only so we save a bit of money being a school teacher family.

 The governments new scheme didn't take into account supply/demand so its even more like gold dust to find anywhere available. 

I'm a high earner and I'm lucky to have negotiated 4 days a week - when I was job searching last year I quickly discovered that there are barely any options out there for that - even in a high demand skill set - as soon as you ask about flexible working/4 days no one rings back, even well known companies.

So I only need 4 days a week childcare and this is what it costs: 

Nursery 1 which I've registered at for the time being - only allows 4 of the 15 hours to be used on Monday. On the day you use these hours - you also have to pay for an extra session and also for food - food is included when you aren't doing the free hours. So on that 1 day it costs £50.50 instead of £77. Every little helps but yeh. 

So Nursery 1 averages £1207 per month - max £1341 per month depending on the amount of days/Mondays in a month. We then get the 20% thing via the government but I need to update my calculations to take into account that you only get value of up to £500 per quarter from it - which it would exceed but I think roughly its somewhere between £1000-£1100 a month

Nursery 2 which I got very confused about has some very fine print under their table of fees. They stated that their fees per hour depended on how many hours you have a week with them. So £9.60 for 0-10 hours, 10-30 at £8.84 and 30-36 at £5.28. So there I am thinking I'll be in the last bracket but no in the small print it explains - that you pay for the first 10 hours at 9.60 then 8.84 for 20 hours etc etc.  - so you actually only get charged a little bit less for some of the week. And this nursery charges for food on top.
Still nursery 2 does allow the 15 free hours to be used - although I'm suspicious of the wording now as it makes it sound like you have to apply to them for it too so it seems doubtful. 

Nursery 2 I think still works out slightly cheaper at around £100-200 less I think but I need to do my full calculations. per month like I've done with Nursery 1 in my spreadsheet. 

It is disheartening because with commuting costs as well, just the costs that enable me to work of childcare+commuting costs me half my salary. 

And I know I'm better off because I'm a high earner - how do the majority of workers do it? I know some will get help from family with childcare costs but how many have that luxury. 

I have to  keep telling myself the childcare costs are temporary but we really want 2 children. But I just don't see how we would afford it - even on my salary of £60k a year, I'd be spending 83% of my salary on childcare and commuting costs.


Stressful.  

Bluegreen143

That’s rubbish Kay. There are definitely always compromises. I don’t pay for my 5yo DD’s nursery (it’s a council-run preschool) as they just take off the 30 hours from your bill - the ONLY nursery I found which does this and they did the same with DS. I’ve never sent them longer than their free hours so haven’t paid. But while it suits me, the downside (for some parents) is it’s term time only and preschool hours, eg she attends 8.30-3.15 every day except finishes at 1 on Fridays. Suits me as I have a primary school child also finishing at 3 but many parents need childcare til 5. I’ve never found a perfect childcare solution, except when I was a SAHM 😂 but that’s very expensive as you lose your salary. I did manage to get back into work at the same level 3y later so was lucky. 

Why is it only 15 hours that you get? I had assumed it was 30 everywhere!

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on finding the house of your dreams ! 

I think if you really want two children then you will find a way to make it work - so annoying that still the economies of the world haven’t found a way to ensure people (mainly women )  can work and have kids … 

can you not try to time the second ? Maybe having maternity leave whilst first child still needs nursery costs - both you and your OH maybe take extended maternity /paternity timed leave to  minimise nursery fees 

Or could you go back to 5 days temporarily (I assume you would still make more than the extra nursery care) and save that extra day towards the next baby nursery ? I appreciate you probably don’t want to or maybe find a side hustle to do for you or your OH to get extra income in to save for the nursery fund 2 

I think look at the challenge of financing a very big important want in your  life and accept it’s a 5 year a battle you are choosing and thus knowing  other budget items need to be lower eg holidays, house renovations, going out with family more frugally for this period alone 

beanielou

Blimey. I had no idea there was a scale for nursery like nursery no 2. So if you use less hours you pay more per hour. 

My DS is an adult now but wow. It certainly did not used to be like that. Speechless. 

Bluegreen143

I do agree with LWAP, great advice. My little DD is worth every penny I didn’t earn by having her. We didn’t go on holidays, bought clothes second hand, didn’t redecorate our house and if I went to the pub to see friends it would be 1-2 soft drinks… but as they get older you can do all these things again so it really is just a few years. We are out the other side now as have no childcare costs and I work almost FT (32hr per week). When I look at the relationship my DS and DD have it’s priceless seeing them together ❤️

Also, are you a higher earner than DH or does he earn more?

kaycastle

Thank you all - I'm really grateful for the support and advice 

@Bluegreen143

hehe I'm a bit jelly you found a council run nursery :P I've long assumed they are some sort of myth. I didn't realise how lucky I was with my existing childminders. The childcare cost increase with moving I hadn't factored in to be as much as it is. 

15 hours as he is only 2, its the new gov scheme that starts this April, 30 hours feels like a long way off and I'm noticing there are often restrictions with that level too at most nurseries so one never is able to actually use the 30 hours. I shall have to be on the look out for council run nurseries.

I'm the higher earner - partner is a teacher so he earns half what I earn even though IMO his job has so much more purpose to society. I don't think he'd become a stay at home dad which I can understand.

It's so heart warming to hear from someone out the other end, I do hold on to the fact these costs are temporary I haven't been on holiday since before the pandemic and I have booked 2 nights away this year before I knew we  were moving but then nothing more after that especially with these childcare costs. 

@LadyWithAPlan


When I moved jobs last year I negotiated keeping my full time salary across 4 days as I thought it couldn't hurt to ask and it worked So not sure if it would go up if I worked more, it definitely makes it psychologically easier to spend 3 days with him and 4 somewhere else as opposed to 5-2. Also I'm sort of holding on to the fact that one day in the far future I'll be on my full time salary on 4 days a week with kids at school....and I think that sounds pretty neat.

You're definitely right that they'll be an ideal timing to this in terms of the second and maternity leave and saving on childcare costs. As much as I can time these things haha but also my salary will go down during most of my maternity leave. Think I need to get spreadsheeting and find a sweet spot.

I think I'm prepared for how hard this will be financially but I'm not sure. And I still find it frustrating that it has to be so tight.


@beanielou

Oooh yeh there seems to be very creative fee mechanisms in place. And how it actually works was in the smallest print as well - so its not even the case that if you are a full timer that you make much saving anyway.


Frugality initiatives

• Second hand clothes (most of what I buy is second hand already for cost and environmental reasons but I think I could definitely push this up to 100% and I definitely avoid buying things)
• Better meal planning (I'm working on a new spreadsheet for this to save me time and money)
• Free fun. I'm quite a master of this already :P Libraries and parks and the woods. Library rhyme time is brilliant. I expect this will be even easier in a larger house with a nicer garden.

I need a bigger list!

kaycastle

It's lucky I'm very good at excel because the formula required to calculate the nursery costs over the next year are a frickin headache - especially with 2 nurseries that have completely different pay structures. One requires me to calculate how many specific days of the week there are - so like how many wednesdays in May and therefore which costs I'll be on that day and the other is that by number of hours in a week fee thing.


Just to give everyone a flavour, here is part of it:
=SUMPRODUCT(--(WEEKDAY(ROW(INDIRECT(H$1&":"&I$1)))=3))+SUMPRODUCT(--(WEEKDAY(ROW(INDIRECT(H$1&":"&I$1)))=4))+SUMPRODUCT(--(WEEKDAY(ROW(INDIRECT(H$1&":"&I$1)))=5))



My conclusion is that the first nursery I found is slightly cheaper until Sept 25 when 2nd nursery becomes waaay cheaper as they are definitely offering the 30 hours when that kicks in for all. But that's a long way off and first nursery might still decide to do that so I'm going to stick with my registration at the first nursery but visit both. 

kaycastle

Hiya All,

Sorry for the lack of updates! The process was so horrifically stressful that everytime I went to post about it I just shut down my laptop and watched TV/read books to attempt to empty my brain before sleep. Which was very difficult. I swear I look older now.
I didn't think it was even possible but there was an issue after exchange even (in fairly small chain) so even after that things weren't certain. I don't want to ever move house again! Moving process needs an overhaul

But enough of that because we are all moved, and successfully in our forever home!!! 

I absolutely love it, it's an Edwardian property, I've always wanted to live in an older house so I'm inlove. It's so much bigger than last place but somehow the cleaning feels easier because I really want to look after it.

My toddler finally has a room and we've all been sleeping better, his slept in his own bed for over a week now and it's amazing.

Grandparents out of the blue offered to do one day a week childcare which has significantly reduced our cost which is good because Council tax had a steep increase compared to last year as with other things so good to save somewhere. 

I'm going to do a full financial breakdown 

I've been doing lots of admin. I did sort out getting onto a cheaper energy tariff immediately so that's good.

South_coast

Lovely to hear from you, so pleased you're finally in and glad it's the forever home 🏠 

beanielou

Happy new house.