Should I lose he housekeeper?

[Anonymous]

If I were you, I would send my child to public school and keep the housekeeper. I hate hate cleaning. It's such a time suck for me. I would much rather be spending that time with my family anyway and I do not think public education is bad at all.

It depends on your personal views on public education vs. private and how much you hate cleaning house OP. Only you can ultimately decide on that.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

How could the cost of a private school even compare to the cost of the housekeeper? The fact is, you are not going to be able to afford private school if you cannot now, just by dropping housekeeping service, that is unless you have a full time housekeeper and only one kid in a private school.

If you are feeling strained for cash trying to save, then, it is up to you what costs to cut. Personally, having a weekly housekeeper is super important for me, and I cannot live without this service, it's worth every sacrifice or saving on other things. But, if to you, cleaning is not a chore and is possible to do easily, then drop it. Only you can answer this question. If housekeeping is important and your life will be miserable without it, like not finding time to do it and sucking every minute of your free time after work, kids, etc. then, cut costs somewhere else. Bi-weekly housekeeping really should not break a bank in the household, which can afford private school tuition, if it does, something is really strange, like are you charging private school on credit card or take loans?

[Anonymous]

Just saying, lots of us who send kids to private school can't afford a house cleaner. Middle class people send our kids to privates, too, often because we don't live in nice suburbs with good schools. So you scrimp and cut and make the payments. To say that if you can afford private you can certainly afford a main is silly - I can afford private school because I don't have a house cleaner, mow my own lawn, brew my own coffee, etc. OP, if you want to save money to put toward tuition by cleaning your own house...go for it. It is hardly revolutionary to think a family can clean up their own mess.

[Anonymous]

Thanks pp! Just re reading this thread and yea we can pay for private but that doesn't mean we need to be wasteful if we don't have so much in discretionary income. And I have my own bank account that my husbands puts as much moby as I wish into but it jut easier bc it's just for me and shopping, gas, groceries, kids activities. The rest of our bills are from a joint account that I just beer use. It's easier this way and my husband doesn't hold money from me

Saving a few hundred dollars a month to feel like we have something adds up with little things bc private is important to us. If we weren't doing private for 3 kids, we would probably do a weekly cleaner, is get Starbucks everyday and shop everytime Hanna Anderson had a sale lol!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just saying, lots of us who send kids to private school can't afford a house cleaner. Middle class people send our kids to privates, too, often because we don't live in nice suburbs with good schools. So you scrimp and cut and make the payments. To say that if you can afford private you can certainly afford a main is silly - I can afford private school because I don't have a house cleaner, mow my own lawn, brew my own coffee, etc. OP, if you want to save money to put toward tuition by cleaning your own house...go for it. It is hardly revolutionary to think a family can clean up their own mess.

OP said that she has one kid in private now and two just behind, and she is asking if she should ditch the two times a month cleaning. nobody says that she cannot clean her house (we are two working FT parents, our HHI is about $240K, our kids go to public school, none of us ever go to Starbuck, we have no cleaning lady ever, one car, never buy at Hanna Anderson for our kids, only at Target and Gap only when there is a sale, so we are not wasteful and like to save). the point people were making is that private for 3 kids costs so much, that ditching the cleaning lady will be a drop in the ocean, will not make any difference. OP said that $3K is one month tuition for her child. three kids will be easy at least $75K a year for 12+ years. either OP has that money, or she does not. she is not going to put it together by giving up cleaning help twice a month and her morning coffee.

in my experience, pricey private school is doable for a middle class family for one child, but not for three. people I know who have 3 or more kids in expensive private schools are law firm partners or people with similar salaries (and I bet they all have the cleaning lady). if a family has to pay $70K or $80K in school tuition a year, it can afford a mortgage for a house in a good school district (this is what we did - our mortgage, RE taxes and insurance is $3900 a month, which a lot but still less than private tuition for two kids, and are kids will go to good public school up to HS). so if you cannot afford to live in a good school district, I can't see how you can afford to send three kids to an expensive private school. if you chose a parochial school that is not that expensive, that's another story, but it does not seem the case described by OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd go public and keep the housekeeper.

+1

Me, too! You'll certainly be getting more for your money.

[Anonymous]

I'd ditch the eating out twice a week and keep the cleaner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just saying, lots of us who send kids to private school can't afford a house cleaner. Middle class people send our kids to privates, too, often because we don't live in nice suburbs with good schools. So you scrimp and cut and make the payments. To say that if you can afford private you can certainly afford a main is silly - I can afford private school because I don't have a house cleaner, mow my own lawn, brew my own coffee, etc. OP, if you want to save money to put toward tuition by cleaning your own house...go for it. It is hardly revolutionary to think a family can clean up their own mess.

OP said that she has one kid in private now and two just behind, and she is asking if she should ditch the two times a month cleaning. nobody says that she cannot clean her house (we are two working FT parents, our HHI is about $240K, our kids go to public school, none of us ever go to Starbuck, we have no cleaning lady ever, one car, never buy at Hanna Anderson for our kids, only at Target and Gap only when there is a sale, so we are not wasteful and like to save). the point people were making is that private for 3 kids costs so much, that ditching the cleaning lady will be a drop in the ocean, will not make any difference. OP said that $3K is one month tuition for her child. three kids will be easy at least $75K a year for 12+ years. either OP has that money, or she does not. she is not going to put it together by giving up cleaning help twice a month and her morning coffee.

...

+1000 OP is being penny wise and pound foolish.