How much do you spend on childcare monthly?

[Anonymous]

PP here - we are also hoping to "time" the pregnancy so that baby arrives before Sept. 30th (cut off for kinder in VA) to avoid extra year of daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone purposely Space kids out so as to not have 2 in daycare at the same time? I don't get how I would afford a mortgage and 1 kid in daycare...forget 2

Yes. I posted earlier that I pay $1286 for my 4 year old in a DC center.

#2 is set to arrive this August and at the moment I am crossing my fingers we find out Friday that we got a PK4 spot in the DC lottery. My first is a December baby, so would need care provided until she's almost 6 to be eligible for public K. I didn't really want a 6 year difference if I could help it, so we went for the 5 year difference and if all works out, #2 will arrive just as #1 starts the public pre-k. If that doesn't work out....well, I'll likely have to keep the nearly 5 year old home with me while on maternity leave and then suck up 6 months of paying for 2 in care at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Not that I completely agree, but everyone shocked here shouldn't be because this is what happens when you have a minimum wage. Now you know what businesses complain about when they raise the minimum wage.

[Anonymous]

Twins in day care - $2250/month. Now in before/after care with school $986. So wonderful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1150 a month for an almost 2.5 year old in Silver Spring. We did a nanny share for the first 18 months that was around $1500.

We have number two on the way and my wife doesn't want to put a infant in daycare, so we'll look for another nanny share. It will suck to have kids in two different places...not to mention the costs. If we're below $3,000 I guess I consider myself lucky.

Our first was also born in November...which is an extra year of daycare since he misses the kindergarten age cut off. At least he'll be one of the older kids.

If you don't mind me asking, where in silver spring do you go? That's pretty good!

The YMCA in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

$2000 for two kids, one in pre-school and the other an infant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is this just a dc/nyc thing? i live in dc, no kids yet, and this makes me think i cannot afford a child. i would be writing my paycheck to daycare.

Right..are many people basically just breaking even here?

I I basically have about $100 left over from my take home pay after we pay daycare costs. Things are super tight. We had decided we couldn't afford a second child, but I got pregnant accidentally. This second kid just may bankrupt us.

Same here, paying $2000 a month has us living pretty tight, when added in with our mortgage, it's my entire paycheck. I will be so excited when my kids start public kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone purposely Space kids out so as to not have 2 in daycare at the same time? I don't get how I would afford a mortgage and 1 kid in daycare...forget 2

Yes. I posted earlier that I pay $1286 for my 4 year old in a DC center.

#2 is set to arrive this August and at the moment I am crossing my fingers we find out Friday that we got a PK4 spot in the DC lottery. My first is a December baby, so would need care provided until she's almost 6 to be eligible for public K. I didn't really want a 6 year difference if I could help it, so we went for the 5 year difference and if all works out, #2 will arrive just as #1 starts the public pre-k. If that doesn't work out....well, I'll likely have to keep the nearly 5 year old home with me while on maternity leave and then suck up 6 months of paying for 2 in care at the same time.

This is exactly what we did (got a pre K spot too..fingers crossed for u!) but the only glitch in my perfect plan was #2 ended up to be #2 and #3!!! So we pack lunches (seriously my boss took us to chipotle on day last week and it felt like the biggest luxury in the world; it had been months since I had anything not made in my kitchen), temporally cut back on 401k, and drive a 10 year old car that we've clearly outgrown. O well in 4 years it will be ALOT better.

[Anonymous]

$450- Before & Aftercare (part of private school)
$150- Other Childcare Fees to cover Shift Work

Military Base Summer
$550 - Daycamp
$150- Other Fees to cover Shift Work


$50-$60 Per Day If I can't get the Day Off When School/Camp closed

[Anonymous]

^^^^ 7 year old^^^^

[Anonymous]

3 kids are in public elementary school so we just pay about $1k month for aftercare. This is in NW DC.
However then we have to pay about $8-10K for a summer of camp.

So it's definitely a savings over the early years but it's still not insignificant.

[Anonymous]

In the Fairfax suburbs:

$1,080/month for full-day preschool (3 year old)
$1,150/month for home daycare (infant)

Total per month = $2,230 for two kids

[Anonymous]

Sure, childcare can be quite expensive, however in my opinion....If you find someone who can watch your child while you cannot be there, someone who will love your child and care for them w/out any doubts from you, then that in itself is priceless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nanny $25/hr, 40 hours weekly.

Same here, plus we pay her health care, guaranteed quarterly bonuses, and cellphone allowance. It comes to over $5k/month.

[Anonymous]

$800 full time preschool for 2 year old
$60 after school care for 5 year old
$55 one night paid babysitter per month

= $905

We also have an $1800 bill for summer camp for both kids for six weeks. Then the youngest starts school and costs drop to about $120 a month for aftercare.

Personally I think people paying close to $2k a month for a single child are NUTS and have more money than sense.