Anonymous wrote:Op here..... We believe private is important for elementary and hoping to put all 3 In Private for those years. We will reevaluate after that.

Every penny counts. My husband can pay the tuition but I'm trying to save "my money" just in case we have a bad month etc.... I ditched Starbucks daily, housekeeper, my bi-weekly babysitter, sinners out more than twice a week, etc to save money. I want to have a safety net for jut on case. My DH is not the best at saving.

Interesting. Your dynamics and world view are very different from mine. (different = different not better or worse) I don't think I can help you, but i will try.

We do public and have an every other week house cleaner and two a year hire someone to do the heavy lifting with the yard/lawn/garden. We combine all incomes together and go from there. We don't have "his" and hers" money piles. We save and donate based on agreed upon amounts. We do cash flow based on what each person has historically spent- occasionally we transfer money from one account to another when the cash flow dictates.

I would suggest setting an agreed upon savings plan with your spouse. If you drop the housecleaner, then everyone you, DH and the kids need to help keep the place clean - it shouldn't be you with minimal support.

Do you work? If not, you can do the cleaning. If so, get in a cleaner at least once a month. We ditched the cleaner last year. After eight weeks, it was obvious that we needed help. I was cleaning our house at 1 or 2 in the morning. I just don't have the time or energy for that. We now have someone come in once a month to do the heavy duty cleaning (baseboards, dusting that I can't reach, etc.), and we do the basic sweeping, mopping, linens, etc. Our cleaning lady charges us a little bit more to come once a month than she would if she came every other week, b/c there is more for her to do, but we still save lots of money.

Op here..... We believe private is important for elementary and hoping to put all 3 In Private for those years. We will reevaluate after that.

Every penny counts. My husband can pay the tuition but I'm trying to save "my money" just in case we have a bad month etc.... I ditched Starbucks daily, housekeeper, my bi-weekly babysitter, sinners out more than twice a week, etc to save money. I want to have a safety net for jut on case. My DH is not the best at saving.

We spend $30K on private school for middle schooler. Ditched a lot of stuff including cleaners. Still very tight.

30K tuition for a kid under 5? if you are in a financial situation that you would benefit from ditching the housekeeper (saving just 3k a year), are you sure you can afford the private school? you say you have two younger kids who will presumably will be of school age soon. are you going to spend 90K a year in private school, or just send the first and the other to public? unless you really have a lot of money and do not know where to spend it, 30K tuition for a child under 5 is ridiculous. I would send the child to public school (I actually do) and keep the housekeeper

No body wants to do work especially housekeeper if one can afford to hire someone to do. When you can not afford it, you have to do it yourself. Easy answer.

Anonymous wrote:I'd go public and keep the housekeeper.

+1

What is your budget?
What does biweekly cleaning cost?
What does private cost?
What's your HHI?
How big is your house?

Hard to give advice without knowing!

I'd go public and keep the housekeeper.

Take a good look at your overall budget.
If basics are covered (retirement, college, mortgage, rainy day fund etc), and you also have enough for vacations and a little spending money, then why not keep the housekeeper?

If not, then ditch it and clean it yourself: it helps to never let it accumulate, but always tidy something every day.

For me monthly cleaning really helps. I WOH and hate cleaning

I would just clean it myself. I mean, do you live in a huge house? If not, do it yourself. Try to straighten up as much as possible daily, and thoroughly clean the house biweekly.

Wow bad typing! I was hoping to hear that it was doable to so the cleaning on my own and worth saving the money.

Starting private school!

Trying to save money. Went from weekly housekeeper to every other week now wondering if I should just close her all together? I would save almost $3k over a year!!! But I have 3 kids under 5 years old and I love the help. But DC is starting price school this year and that's like one month tuition. Wantin to here that I an clean the house by myself lol! I know it's a luxury but I feel it's a necessity!