Daycare years: were you in the red?

[Anonymous]

It’s ok. You are also building or at least maintaining your careers. We had years of breaking even but now are further along in careers and feel paid back for all the work and expenses early on. Plus, the kids are wonderful in so many ways, definitely worth it even if expensive sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Just don't have twins. We would have broken even or just been pean if we had had one. But twins will put you in the red.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were not in the red. We chose to use a church based daycare and was quite pleased with the care. We are no religious but respected their religion. Our kids learned a lot academically and it was cheap. Shop around and choose your options wisely. I found that the 2k monthly daycares did nothing more or better than the cheaper ones.

I have never found a church based daycare that was any cheaper than other daycare centers.
Where was this one that you found that was cheap?

[Anonymous]

Child care costs went down once one kid was in K but no where near what we hoped. The reason being is that we over estimated that our kid would do ok at the after school care but it was loud and chaotic and by the time we picked our kid up they were overly tired and so were we. After the first month, we hired a part time nanny who also helped out on when school was closed and did pick ups from camps in the summer. All told that year we paid about $2k less than a year of daycare.

[Anonymous]

We were briefly in the red when we couldn't get our second into daycare right away and had to cover both first kid's daycare and second kid's nanny for a while.

We were lucky that we got spots in subsidized PK3 classrooms through DC's PK expansion program.

We were also extremely lucky that years ago the military was still offering child care subsidies to civilian employees using daycare off base (which were a much bigger discount than the non-DOD subsidized daycare rates downtown). If you have any employer subsidized daycare option, get on those lists as early as you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Child care costs went down once one kid was in K but no where near what we hoped. The reason being is that we over estimated that our kid would do ok at the after school care but it was loud and chaotic and by the time we picked our kid up they were overly tired and so were we. After the first month, we hired a part time nanny who also helped out on when school was closed and did pick ups from camps in the summer. All told that year we paid about $2k less than a year of daycare.

I think you lucked out in finding a unicorn. Especially the part about them being available when school was closed.

[Anonymous]

When we had 2 in daycare simultaneously we had to pull money from our savings account several times because the checking account balance dwindled down to zero.

[Anonymous]

We lived very frugally during the daycare years to ensure we could continue to pay for retirement. Lots of hand me downs, no big vacations, no splurging on cars/jewelry. It was also a time in our lives (early 30s) when our careers picked up and we started making more.

Somehow it all worked out - but it stung!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Child care costs went down once one kid was in K but no where near what we hoped. The reason being is that we over estimated that our kid would do ok at the after school care but it was loud and chaotic and by the time we picked our kid up they were overly tired and so were we. After the first month, we hired a part time nanny who also helped out on when school was closed and did pick ups from camps in the summer. All told that year we paid about $2k less than a year of daycare.

I think you lucked out in finding a unicorn. Especially the part about them being available when school was closed.

Definitely not a unicorn. A neighborhood mom's mother who had moved in with them and was looking for part time work. She basically was just an adult in the house and made sure the kids didn't endanger themselves. It wasn't ideal but she was in our budget and she was available full days when school was closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know people that stopped or decrease retirement savings to pay for daycare. You do what you have to do.

This was us.

And us too. No regrets but it was hard for about five years (two kids)

[Anonymous]

I think daycare for us was around $25k per year (just over $2k/month when she was little). We didn't alter our finances at all. I made a lot more than daycare cost, so it was a no brainer for us. Plus I love what I do.

When DD started K we still had aftercare (I think that was around $350/month) plus summer camp (we did Lifetime at the time which was roughly $300/week) and other little activities. It wasn't near $25k but it wasn't zero either. I think it was probably half when everything was added in.

[Anonymous]

When we were buying a house our budget showed us to be a little in the red during the daycare years once we had two in daycare. It turned out daycare didn't cost as much as we had planned (used in-home daycare) and a few of the other child-related expenses were less than we budgeted for and we got slightly better raises than we had expected so didn't end up in the red.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were not in the red. We chose to use a church based daycare and was quite pleased with the care. We are no religious but respected their religion. Our kids learned a lot academically and it was cheap. Shop around and choose your options wisely. I found that the 2k monthly daycares did nothing more or better than the cheaper ones.

Not in the red. I was able to WAH and we were part of a child care share with friends so I needed her a few days a week while I worked, and then a couple days a week was at preschool. But, we were very lucky to have that flexibility (granted, I had to divert out of my career path to do it).

[Anonymous]

Yes, plus we chose to redshirt one of our kids nonetheless. On the brightside, we got used to spending less, and now our savings rate is higher than before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are getting ready to TTC and I understand that we will likely be paying about $25k for daycare. Messing around with our budget I don't know how to cut out that much - sure we will be traveling less, but that's about the only big thing that we can change. I think we will basically be breaking even. What about you?

When we had an infant 8 years ago we paid 28k. Close in NoVA. Have prices actually gone down?? Anyway, it's expensive and it sucks but much like childbirth, the memory of the pain quickly fades.