Two-career couples: how much do you spend outsourcing household chores and child care?

[Anonymous]

Please direct me if there is already a thread on this subject;

I am trying to compare budgets to decide whether its worthwhile to work full time or more feasible to stay home.

I am wondering about total costs of all services incurred from working full time, such as
Dry cleaning and even spendi

[Anonymous]

I actually figured this out after our taxes this year:

$51,000

HHI = $180,000

It hurts. As a result, we are not going to employ our nanny after this school year. We will have 2 in public school next year and will pay for full day preschool for the remaining child. It will save us $38K a year.

[Anonymous]

Whoops, it's PP. Going preschool over nanny will not save us $38K net. It will save us $18K net.

Still makes a difference.

[Anonymous]

Ing money on work clothes
Child care including afterschol care
Meals eaten out (or takeaway) that you do because you are too busy or too tired (not incl. date nites)
Money spent on commuting or parking, etc.
Also yard work and maintenance (I currently do my own mowing weed whacking etc.)

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Pp thank you - does that figure ($51k) include all those incidentals?

[Anonymous]

Mostly. I drive to work but have free parking so I haven't added in gas.

I don't add up take-out that I might grab because we're in a hurry. There's no way to know what I might grab if I were home all day either!

All the child care is included in that number.

When I went back to work, I spent about $1000 to update my wardrobe (suits, mainly)

I spend about $50/week in dry cleaning. However, I know that could be lower because there are some things that I send to the cleaners that others might hand wash. Still, I don't have the time to hand wash every little blouse, so it's part of my "convenience fee" to pay for the cleaners.

Those little incidentals aren't necessarily in the $51k. That is child care, school fees (one kid in pre-k this year on top of nanny rates), sports/activity fees, house cleaners ($105 every other week).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ing money on work clothes
Child care including afterschol care
Meals eaten out (or takeaway) that you do because you are too busy or too tired (not incl. date nites)
Money spent on commuting or parking, etc.
Also yard work and maintenance (I currently do my own mowing weed whacking etc.)

Thank you

HHI $205
Ing money on work clothes - minimal maybe $500 annually. Business casual & try to choose cottons
Child care including afterschol care - $24,000 - this is an au pair plus part time preschool for 2
Meals eaten out (or takeaway) that you do because you are too busy or too tired (not incl. date nites) - probably 3x a month so $1080 annualy (come to realize from another thread this is VERY low)
Money spent on commuting or parking, etc. $300 monthly, $3600
Also yard work and maintenance (I currently do my own mowing weed whacking etc.) $135 monthly
Housecleaning - $250 monthly

[Anonymous]

HHI $350
We spend:

$20K on preschool
$20K on au pair and related costs
$12,500 on cleaning and laundry person
$1000 on extra clothing
Lots on the metro.

[Anonymous]

$340/month weekly housecleaner

$160/month for aftercare

$120/month for lawn service

$3500ish for summer camps (you can do this much more inexpensively than we do)

I buy very few clothes. I keep telling myself that I will buy clothes when I lose weight and that is just not happening. So I buy clothes very rarely.

Neither of us pays for parking or metro or other public transportation

Maybe $30 per week in for a take out meal bc I am too tired to cook. I am really working hard to eliminate the eating out. I really hate cooking so this is the area where I struggle the most.

[Anonymous]

Nothing on dry cleaning or cleaning services or any other outsourcing. No nanny, kids in school.
Same with peers. We do the cleaning on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

$15,600 on preschool

$3,000 on afterschool care (we don't need before care)

$3,000 on summer camps

$2,880 on housecleaner

$1,000 on work clothes (I work in a nonprofit - don't need suits; but I do update my wardrobe seasonally)

$2000 on meals - I tend to each both breakfast & lunch at work; it just works easier for me. I do bring lunch sometimes, maybe twice week, but it's hard to do it every single day. I bring fruit & a protein for breakfast & buy coffee.

I have free parking at work. Commute is 7 miles. I probably would run around in the car if I were a SAH, so I don't think the gas would necessarily be less.

[Anonymous]

HHI 330K

Costs have decreased and the income has increased as the kids have gotten older. I also SAH for a year and a half with my first and had expenses then that I do not have now, like having too much time on my hands and spent money on crafty crap and shopping and redecorating.

-Childcare NOW is approx 22K/yr (down from 40K for the former nanny)
-I cook most every night, so there is no added expense
-I hardly dry clean, I'm in a very business casual company (IT-think Silicone Valley types) with that said, since I can buy "cute" clothes for work, I do enjoy some pleasure shopping. I spend about 10K/yr on clothes/shoes/accessories
-Commute probably costs me an extra 2 tanks of gas a month ($140)

I would say when all is said and done, working costs me an extra 35K/yr, but that is high side. Next year my youngest is in school and the daycare significantly goes down.

Here is what I get from working:

-When I started back at work, I was making $25/hr for about 30hrs of work a week. 5 years later I'm at 163K/yr.
-In my 401K alone, I have just under 200K (unfortunately i was a 1099 for awhile).
-We have a lot of disposable income because we have had a number of homes over the last 11 years and have built up some equity and have a low mortgage. So YES I could SAH, but my income brings in a lot of extras that make life very comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Spending money on work clothes Me: $500 per year H: $1500 per year (he wears suits and we typically replace 2 a year, plus 2 new pairs of work shoes and random shirts) + about $1500 for the year on dry cleaning.
Child care including afterschool care: $18,000 a year plus all the associated "things" that add up like school party contributions, random fees, etc, which is likely another $500 a year for full time daycare for a toddler.
Meals eaten out (or takeaway) that you do because you are too busy or too tired (not incl. date nites) Usually about $75 a week, so around $4K a year.
Money spent on commuting or parking, etc. $1000 a year for parking at the Metro + gas to drive there at another $1000ish for the year.
Also yard work and maintenance (I currently do my own mowing weed whacking etc.) None. We still do this ourselves.

= about $28,000 a year
HHI is $197,000

[Anonymous]

My HHI is $190K, with 2 working it was about $260K.

Back then...
Nanny: $32,000
Preschool: $11,000
Extra gas + food + clothing: $5,000 or so

We had/have low expenses at least - no student debt, no auto loans, mortgage is $1500 a mo, etc. My income wil probably cross into the 200s in the next 2 years, hitting around $220 to $230. That's enough to live fairly comfortably. We intend to go back to dual income in a few years.

[Anonymous]

You have to remember all the additional costs of staying at home. Are you not going to send your child to preschool at all? Classes? Activities?

There's also increased utility costs, gas, lack of retirement contribution, the salary hit you'll take if/when you do decide to go back, etc...