Reply to Please share au pair real life costs annually

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Reply to "Please share au pair real life costs annually"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.
[/quote]

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.  [/quote]

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