If you live in DC she can take then to the Smithsonian zoo via metro for free. Also Air& Space museum and Museum of Natural history are Smithsonian museums so are free. If she has a car she can take to farms and petting zoos that aren't that expensive. Splash parks ate fun. Also in the city they're are a lot of fountains to visit and cool off. Get the parents paper too.

The nice thing with free museums and zoo is that you only need to be there for an hour or so but go back often/weekly to see different things. When you pay for admission you feel like you have to see everything and that's exhausting!

Wow, that is a lot of money. Most weeks I don't spend any money taking my 3 charges out. I utilize mostly free activities, like the park, pool, library and play structures at the mall. And I only go to the grocery store to buy food if the parents ask me, or if they are out of something I know the kids eat daily. I've always given receipt whether the family ask for them or not. I know they trust me, but I feel it's best for all involved if I leave receipts.

How much is the pool? Three people x 5 days a week is likely more than $20-$30.

What does the credit card show it is being spent on?

How much is the pool? When it's hot, the pool really is great. Is there a community pool or YMCA anywhere that you might be able to get a reasonably-priced membership?

It also depends on your neighborhood. Are there parks or spraygrounds nearby? Is nanny driving places and parking or can she take metro?

At any rate, I agree that that sounds like a TON of money. I have 5-year-old twins and spend around $50 per week.

We go to a store once a week and stock up on snacks qnd lunch ingredients for the week, then hit a nearby sprayground, then play at the park near home ($25)

We do zoo or a museum about twice a week, and bring the food we bought (cost of metro, which is auto-reload, so doesn't count).

We do a "destination park" like Clemijontri in McLean or Cabin John in MD, again bringing snacks and lunch along, but pay for a train ride or carousel or whatever (usually less than $10).

The last day is our wild card and we sometime spend nearly nothing (free movie or museum activity or story time) or inexpensive (bowling, craft project at local toy store or michaels, meetup for playdate and bring a snack to share) but sometimes we spend a lot (Baltimore Aquarium, Port Discovery, Mt Vernon).

I would sit down with your nanny and brainstorm some cheaper or even free activities in your area. Maybe come up with a weekly schedule where she isn't spending so much money on the kids. In a place like DC there is an unlimited amount of free things to do to keep children entertained.

First of all, you should suggest that your nanny packs snacks everyday just incase they are late getting back for lunch. If they are doing some kind of outing where she knows they will be out longer she should pack lunches. I would tell her to limit eating out to lunch to one day per week as a special treat.

Here are some examples of what she could be doing with the kids to keep costs down.

-Take them to the library. Most have some set story time. Ours is on Wednesdays from 10:30-11 AM, so getting there and back usually eats up about 2-3 hours of the day, and then she could always have the kids hang out and look for books to check out for a little bit afterwards.

-Look up some free museums especially ones that have some sort of area for the kids to play in, and she can take them there once or twice a week.

-Take the kids to the park for a few hours and just let them run around.

Honestly, I don't see the need for so many outings unless you live in a super tiny apartment or something. We don't have tons of things to do in my area, but between the library, going for walks and playing at the park our days go by quickly. I would be over the moon if there were some kind of museum to take the kids to, but we make do with other things. Your nanny should be capable of entertaining the kids in ways that don't cost $200+ per week!

It would be easy to go weeks spending nothing in DC so $150-200 a week seems very high to me. She could easily pack lunch or get home in time for lunch. Eating out some days makes sense for fun, a change of scenery, if they're short on time, but everyday? I don't get it. There are plenty of free activities.

OP - I am genuinely curious what activities your nanny is doing that get that expensive? When we go out with our three year old, the only thing that really costs much is lunch - and if that is the case, you may want to consider asking them to come home or pack lunch. A special occasion trip to the Baltimore Aquarium or the Newseum or some other not-free place can make for an expensive day but that should be a one time thing not weekly!

I will say, I noticed our nanny spent money much more freely when I wasn't good at checking receipts. I trust her and I don't think she wasn't using it on DC, but they would go out to lunch more often or get ice cream more often or whatever. I actually noticed when, on the weekends, DC started to demand a cookie every time we went to Whole Foods, and asking where we were going to lunch when we were out. I had her start including the receipts in her daily log book and noticed right away the spending decreased. They still did many of the same activities, but DC didn't necessarily get an expensive treat each time etc. I think once she could see it across a week and knew I was looking more closely too, she realized a daily "treat" for a three year old is not necessary.

Anonymous wrote:Ah, if you just moved from the UK, it makes sense that you don't think $150-$200 a week is a lot! Well, in DC, it's a ton, given that virtually everything is free. It's one of the fabulous things about DC; you can casually swing by the zoo or the Museum of Natural History or the Air and Space Museum for an hour and think nothing of it.

You asked for suggestions on how to find out about activities - I would strongly recommend you spend the $20 to subscribe to the Our Kids weekly newsletter: https://www.our-kids.com/become-member

It gives dozens of awesome specific events in the area every week, a large percentage of which are free.

Have fun!

Op here. thank you so much. I shall definitely subscribe.

Thanks to everyone else for the feedback.

Ah, if you just moved from the UK, it makes sense that you don't think $150-$200 a week is a lot! Well, in DC, it's a ton, given that virtually everything is free. It's one of the fabulous things about DC; you can casually swing by the zoo or the Museum of Natural History or the Air and Space Museum for an hour and think nothing of it.

You asked for suggestions on how to find out about activities - I would strongly recommend you spend the $20 to subscribe to the Our Kids weekly newsletter: https://www.our-kids.com/become-member

It gives dozens of awesome specific events in the area every week, a large percentage of which are free.

Have fun!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a crazy amount. She needs to research all of the free things she can take advantage of. I have a pair of 5 year old twins and spend MAYBE $30 a week. There are way too many free, fun, and educational activities around to be spending that much weekly

If you wants free or cheap, do your own research. $30.00 a week is just stingy.

why is this stingy? we have a great time. we always pack lunches, so never spend money on food. we go to the zoo, spraygrounds, museums, farms, fairs, libraries, the pool at my apartment, playgrounds, and the planetarium. the kids have a blast and we go on a field trip almost every day of the week. I don't see the point in spending money on movies and lunches and other activities when there is so much around here that is free and educational and fun. if the parents wanted to sign the kids up for a class that would obviously require more money, but since we're not in a class that is money that isn't necessary for us right now

If you are paying that much you might as well send them to a camp, it would be better for them anyways.

Another MB here.

I trust our nanny too and got lax about checking the petty cash. I have been finding she is going through money at a rapid rate this summer, and when I realised she'd burned through more than $100 in 24 hours, i.e. the petty cash was empty, I asked about it. She said she had receipts/written records for the last couple of weeks but so far I have not seen a proper accounting for it, and I found that after keeping a record for one month when she first started working for us in February she then stopped (I didn't check the running tally after the first month as there are not a lot of expenses during the school year and I could see receipts were being put into the petty cash wallet).

I feel that she doesn't take the expenses that seriously since it is for our kids and we have a generous attitude about her doing things with them, get her memberships to take them places, etc.

In the end, however, I don't think she has done anything wrong with the petty cash, I did my own rough tally and they did have lunch out one day, pay for admission tickets and some public transit etc. It really adds up. So, I think it is important to make clear that there should be an effort to do some affordable activities, take lunch with them rather than always buying it when out if that is an issue, keep a running tally and retain receipts.

Anonymous wrote:That is a crazy amount. She needs to research all of the free things she can take advantage of. I have a pair of 5 year old twins and spend MAYBE $30 a week. There are way too many free, fun, and educational activities around to be spending that much weekly

If you wants free or cheap, do your own research. $30.00 a week is just stingy.