Please share au pair real life costs annually

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know that au pair is way cheaper than a nanny. Way to exploit a vulnerable young woman from a foreign country who is looking for a ‘cultural experience’ but winds up spending the majority of her time raising your child for less than a living wage. I couldn’t do it...

We had one for two years and she still visits us when she visits the states years later. I don’t know if many experiences like you describe among her peers

Us, too! One of our Au Pairs is coming to live with us for free for a month this spring for an internship. We have had multiple of our Au Pairs come back and visit and bring their families. We consider them to be family. They have a pretty easy schedule - for us, around 15 hours a week. We pay more than the required rate so her hourly is between $14-15 per hour. That doesn’t include free room and board and free car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had Au Pairs for almost 9 years. It was a godsend when I used to travel and spouse had erratic work hours. Costs:
- ~$9K matching fee (can pay up front or in installments)
- $500 educational stipend
- $196 weekly stipend, although we pay $215 for “gas money”
- ~$75 extra weekly in groceries - we used to send some Au pairs shopping but they overslept so now I ask our Au pair to add to our weekly shopping list. Helps keep costs in check. You need to provide basics (milk, bread, eggs, meat, in-season fruits and vegetables), but you do not need to buy them their special flavor of high-end sparkling water or almond milk (they can buy that with their stipend)
- $150 - Christmas gifts
- $75 - birthday gifts
- $25 weekly if we take her out to dinner (doesn’t happen weekly)
- Extra car insurance - not sure how much this is
- Car or transportation if you want them to take your kid to activities. If you are more urban, may not need this.
- TBD - if you take them on vacation. I have found that they usually are excited if you tell them they get extra vacation time. If we are traveling over Thanksgiving or Christmas, we take them. Other trips depend on if it is convenient and if the Au Pair has really bonded with us.
- All In - ~$28K annually

Seems like a lot but for us, it has been amazing because once our two kids hit school age, we no longer had to load them up on expensive camps and they could relax and do fun activities like go to parks or our local pool or just rude bikes. If you assume 8 weeks of full-day camps, it can really add up. We also love having built-in babysitter. And extra hands if you want to run out to the grocery store, etc.

We had Au-pairs for 6 years and this sounds right. Vacations are not a must. We did take them along for thanksgiving and Christmas but not to Caribbean/Europe. We did buy airfare to visit home when we went on vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP’s actual question:

Id plan on about $20k/year fully loaded with all the expenses many of the PPs have described.

If you can swing it I think it would be an amazing option for you!!

Agree with this. We paid about $22k but that was with an au pair car that we fully paid for (gas, insurance, maintenance, etc). Unlimited data phone plans. Brought them on vacations with us (Disney, beach, etc).

I’m single and this program was awesome for split schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a separate bedroom for the au pair? That’s a limiting factor for a lot of people.

Not exactly. We have a basement space that's nicely fixed up but probably wouldn't count as a real room. There is access from the upstairs and a door to the back patio.

When your LCC (or whatever the local agency person is called in other agencies) checks your home, you have to show a legal bedroom. That means two exits, one of which has to be a lockable door, but the other can be a window or door.

Really? So if the Au Pair gets an entire basement, finished, but the egress is upstairs that won't pass muster? Seems odd because legally a member of the household is allowed to live in the basement even if there isn't egress.

With only one stairwell into the basement, no windows? No, because a fire can block one exit.

[Anonymous]

Costs for our family:

$8,000 a year for agency fees
$500 educational stipend
$10,200 (weekly stipend $200x51)
$250 Cell phone
$1,000 extras (gas money, xmas gifts, birthday gifts, etc)
$2,400 car insurance
$2,500 groceries, eating out etc.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something but this adds up to about $25,000 a year and it doesn't include the expense of an extra car and an extra bedroom in your house if you don't already have one. We don't take our AP on vacation with us, but many people do so add that in as well. APs are awesome, but I wouldn't really consider them cheap childcare.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you have an Aupair, can you drop daycare for the 4yo? That would be a savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a separate bedroom for the au pair? That’s a limiting factor for a lot of people.

Not exactly. We have a basement space that's nicely fixed up but probably wouldn't count as a real room. There is access from the upstairs and a door to the back patio.

When your LCC (or whatever the local agency person is called in other agencies) checks your home, you have to show a legal bedroom. That means two exits, one of which has to be a lockable door, but the other can be a window or door.

Really? So if the Au Pair gets an entire basement, finished, but the egress is upstairs that won't pass muster? Seems odd because legally a member of the household is allowed to live in the basement even if there isn't egress.

With only one stairwell into the basement, no windows? No, because a fire can block one exit.

Luckily, for an au pair there Are a few laws to protect them, whereas, obviously, you don't care if a family member cannot get out of house if there is a fire.

[Anonymous]

All basement bedrooms must have Windows large enough for a fire fighter wearing full fire fighting regalia, to gain entrance. There must also be two means if escape. These are universal fire codes so if you are allowing someone to sleep in a basement without a proper window and two means of escape, you are breaking fire codes and can be fined even if it is only your family member.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All basement bedrooms must have Windows large enough for a fire fighter wearing full fire fighting regalia, to gain entrance. There must also be two means if escape. These are universal fire codes so if you are allowing someone to sleep in a basement without a proper window and two means of escape, you are breaking fire codes and can be fined even if it is only your family member.

And if there’s a fire, it becomes either negligence or malicious intent...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: OP, if you have an Aupair, can you drop daycare for the 4yo? That would be a savings.

We do not "save" money by having an AP because of this. 4 yo might not need daycare, but certainly would benefit from preschool. Older kids benefit from summer camps instead of being home with an AP all summer, who also doesn't want to have kids all week and all summer long.

An AP is NOT a cheap option despite what the LCCs like to advertise and the APs claiming they're practically "slaves" (which is insulting to real, historical slaves and modern day slavery).