How are we all coping financially with having childcare costs!? 😩
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Nursery costs are the worst thing about having children. We knew it would be hard but it’s brutal! We’ve done things like lowering pension contributions and making sure we aren’t paying for any subscriptions we don’t need etc and don’t have car payments. Ours is £1700 for two children including all the tax free and free hours! Anyone who has family help out should be soooo grateful! X
My LO goes to nursery 2 days a week and preschool 2 days a week. It costs 500 a month (after 15 free hours & taxi free) so it may be worth looking round for cheaper options but that probably does depend on the area you live. Preschool is a lot cheaper for us but we have to supply his food and contribute for occasional extra activities they arrange like parties and santa. Preschool is shorter hours though and term time only so it may not work for everyone. As others have said though reduced pension contributions, no big spending, no holidays, all toys and clothes are second hand (he's too young to know and won't even remember if we took him on holiday at this age). We have the option to change the mortgage to interest only if we really needed to but we are trying not to. It's only temporary though so if we can hold out on changing cars, going on holiday etc til next January we will be on 30 free hours then so will hopefully have a bit more breathing space! X
My nursery costs are 1100/month that's with using the free hours. I'm only paying for 1 child and that's to go 4 days a week. i do get help from UC as I'm a single parent but before the 15hrs free I was paying 1500+ some months and it was killing me. I had to take a mortgage holiday for a few months. Some bills just didn't get paid on time, watching every penny was grim!
For the next 8 months, I’ve got 2 little people in nursery 🥲 But I guess we’re just mindful with spending and budgeting for bigger expenses, where possible. My eldest started when there was no funding until 3y, so I just feel grateful this time around that it’s marginally cheaper to send my 1yo with some funded hours.