Yes, but summers can be very expensive if you do high-quality camps. Their are cheap camps, but many of them are poorly run.

Anonymous wrote:It depends. Our kids go to public school, we do not use before or after care, and we do not fill the entire summer with expensive camps. We both work from home, so on snow days, days off, and early dismissals, they kids just stay home (one of us will occasionally take the day off). If you need before and/or after care and you put your kid(s) in $500/wk camps, no, you will not save any money.

???

DH and I have hit some financial troubles. We have 2 more years of day care. Does it get better financially after day care or does that money go to other things?
(we will still have to pay for before and after care)

Anonymous wrote:It's better, but how much better depends on what you're paying now. I pay $600 / month for before/after care and just paid like $2500 for summer camps for this summer. Admittedly, the before/after place does a cheaper summer camp but I wanted DC to try different things.

One kid, Fairfax County public school, need full day care.

Also in FCPS. We went from $1100 to about $600 month during the school year -- however we have to pay extra for school breaks (~$300/week) and snow days ($~60/day), which were costs we didn't really have during daycare/preschool. Summer camp varies - but anywhere from $2000 - $4000 depending on how fancy you get.

And then you need to consider if your child will be participating in outside activities. We pay about $150/month for two sports, but DC has friends who are busy every night of the week and have 1-2 classes on the weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if they're paying $400-500/month for those activities.

It will depend on how flexible your schedules are. We don't have any before or after care but we have very flexible jobs that allow one of us to handle drop off and pick up. We did price after care programs and found that they were far less expensive then our day care options had been. Summer camps are about the same as infant day care options were.

We took the money from day care and put half of it into DS 529 plan.

It depends. Our kids go to public school, we do not use before or after care, and we do not fill the entire summer with expensive camps. We both work from home, so on snow days, days off, and early dismissals, they kids just stay home (one of us will occasionally take the day off). If you need before and/or after care and you put your kid(s) in $500/wk camps, no, you will not save any money.

Our costs went from $1900/mo. at private daycare/preschool to $500/mo. for aftercare, etc. Summer camps run $3-700/wk., so comparable to daycare, but only for 12 weeks.

At our in-bound Title I school (we are now at a charter), the aftercare was much cheaper -- like $0-$100/mo.

Depends how much you were paying for daycare. We have friends that are paying $2,100/mo per child for daycare at a center/pre-school/montessori and others paying closer to $1,200/mo per child for a small in-home daycare. So the "savings" will vary depending on your situation. We we're paying ~$1,600/mo for daycare and now our 2 kids are in SACC (FCPS) before and after care. I would say the savings were significant but the cost of summer camps add up, so in the end the answer is YES you should see a nice decrease in your household expenses, but probably not as much as you would hope for.

It's cheaper once you're done, but you will need to pay for before and/or aftercare and summer camps or other care during the summer. So it's not like you free up all $20K or whatever you're paying.

It's cheaper once you're done. Even if you do before/after and summer, for us it's been at least $10k/year cheaper per kid.

Anonymous wrote:I'd work on figuring out your financial troubles now, not in 2 years. It will get easier then, yes. Before/after care is cheaper than daycare. You can skip extra curriculars etc. But I'd work on getting a handle on your issues before then.

We are dealing with it now. Cutting back where we can. I just mentally want to prepare, is this something long term or just until we get through the day care years.

Switch to an inhome daycare near your elementary school. Then when kids are in school, they can go to the inhome daycare for aftercare and before care too.

It's better, but how much better depends on what you're paying now. I pay $600 / month for before/after care and just paid like $2500 for summer camps for this summer. Admittedly, the before/after place does a cheaper summer camp but I wanted DC to try different things.

One kid, Fairfax County public school, need full day care.

I'd work on figuring out your financial troubles now, not in 2 years. It will get easier then, yes. Before/after care is cheaper than daycare. You can skip extra curriculars etc. But I'd work on getting a handle on your issues before then.

You will need to consider what you will do on snow days or other random days off.

DH and I have hit some financial troubles. We have 2 more years of day care. Does it get better financially after day care or does that money go to other things?
(we will still have to pay for before and after care)