Anonymous wrote:OP Here, thanks so much for the feedback. I guess my thought process was nannies here are $25hr for 30 hours per week would come to about $47k per year including employer taxes and a workers comp policy.

PP, I'd love to hear the breakdown of extra costs with your AP if you are willing to share. Thanks so much!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey! I posted earlier offering more insight into the unexpected costs we found with our au pair. So here you go.

First, you mention that a nanny will cost about $25/hr in your area - around $50K/year or more. But for that money, you can expect a professional, knowledgeable about child development, engaging the child, running the household as it relates to the child, etc. You cannot expect any of that with an au pair. An au pair is more like a college student or mother's helper with some (if any) babysitting experience in the past.

So if you cobble together some babysitters (making way less than $25/hr) and are judicious with your hours, you're looking more at $30K/year. This would be for about the same quality of childcare that you'd get from an au pair.

And I've spent way more than $30K this year hosting an au pair.

I'm sure you've already read up on the expected expenses with an au pair - the stipend ($200/week), the agency fees, the phone bill, the car insurance and a slight increase in household utilities. The shockers to us were (1) car; (2) groceries; (3) eating out; (4) vacations and (5) "wear and tear" on your house.

Car - I knew insurance would go up, but our au pair caused an accident early on so our insurance is now ridiculously high. Here's the thing... you are not required to pay for their gas, you are not required to let them take your car on weekend trips, or drive around their friends. But you will hear about how other families do these things. It's push and pull of keeping your au pair happy, without burning a hole in your wallet. She will be VERY aware of what other families are offering. She will be very UNaware of how much it costs to maintain a car + insurance + how much her "oops" accidents cost you. Between insurance, gas, wear and tear, we've spent about $2K more with the au pair.

Eating Out - my husband and I get take out 2x/week. Again, there's no requirement that you get take out for your au pair. But I would feel like a dick for getting yummy take out and not offering to her (she always accepts). So that adds about $50/week, or $2,600 annually. A cost you wholly would not incur with a nanny, as he/she would not be in the house. If you don't ever get take out, this is not applicable.

Groceries - we try to eat organic, fresh, aka $$$. I underestimated how much she would eat at home - basically all her meals. (Which to be fair is smart of her, rather than burning her stipend at restaurants). She added about $500/mo to our bill, or $6,000 annually. A nanny or babysitter often just brings their own food or snacks on what the kids eat. They don't go into your fridge and legit eat your expensive cheese, steak and fancy chocolate. Your au pair will though!

Travel - again, there's no requirement for you to take your au pair on travel. This is where the "treat them like family" and "provide them a cultural experience" gets murky. Because if you take a trip to the mountains, the beach, Disney, etc... they're gonna want that "cultural experience" and be disappointed if you don't include them. And you do not want a moody, grumpy teen in your house watching your kids. So we took her, to the beach, to the mountains, to my parents' house, to a wedding. You need to pay for a flight + a separate hotel room for her + pay for the meals she eats with the family. We also paid for her ski equipment rentals. Not required, but again, it's push and pull between keeping her happy, fulfilling your obligation to "treat her like family" and not go over budget because you feel bad for excluding her. I'd say we spent about $2K on travel extras associated with the au pair. Again, I made the choice to include her, so these are costs I accepted. But it's not as easy peasy as the agency makes it seem to "leave her at home! She'll love it!" It can create some real discord and discomfort in your home to exclude her.

Wear and Tear on Your House: I'll also throw in here - you'll be providing Christmas presents, birthday presents, thoughtful gifts here and there - those can add up. You also have a person living in your home who has no clue about the costs of home ownership (like when she left her windows open in the winter, next to a heater, because she "liked the breeze"); when she thought my steam carpet cleaner was a vacuum and busted it ($280 right there); she's scraped up every Le Crueset pot I own; she will literally do a wash and dry cycle for a single clothing item, etc, etc.) It's just the cost of having a young adult in your home, but it's annoying as hell. If I added all this up, I'd say it's cost me about $2K this year.

This is an AMAZING list of the actual hidden costs. Keep this post tagged.

I would like to add the price of college courses ($500-$1000) a semester.
Cellphone with data covered by family
Gym membership covered by family
She used our visitor passes to take her friends to our pool every weekend

We treat our aupairs like family but that cannot be underestimated when comparing costs. It's not the cheapest option out there.

100% this post is accurate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey! I posted earlier offering more insight into the unexpected costs we found with our au pair. So here you go.

First, you mention that a nanny will cost about $25/hr in your area - around $50K/year or more. But for that money, you can expect a professional, knowledgeable about child development, engaging the child, running the household as it relates to the child, etc. You cannot expect any of that with an au pair. An au pair is more like a college student or mother's helper with some (if any) babysitting experience in the past.

So if you cobble together some babysitters (making way less than $25/hr) and are judicious with your hours, you're looking more at $30K/year. This would be for about the same quality of childcare that you'd get from an au pair.

And I've spent way more than $30K this year hosting an au pair.

I'm sure you've already read up on the expected expenses with an au pair - the stipend ($200/week), the agency fees, the phone bill, the car insurance and a slight increase in household utilities. The shockers to us were (1) car; (2) groceries; (3) eating out; (4) vacations and (5) "wear and tear" on your house.

Car - I knew insurance would go up, but our au pair caused an accident early on so our insurance is now ridiculously high. Here's the thing... you are not required to pay for their gas, you are not required to let them take your car on weekend trips, or drive around their friends. But you will hear about how other families do these things. It's push and pull of keeping your au pair happy, without burning a hole in your wallet. She will be VERY aware of what other families are offering. She will be very UNaware of how much it costs to maintain a car + insurance + how much her "oops" accidents cost you. Between insurance, gas, wear and tear, we've spent about $2K more with the au pair.

Eating Out - my husband and I get take out 2x/week. Again, there's no requirement that you get take out for your au pair. But I would feel like a dick for getting yummy take out and not offering to her (she always accepts). So that adds about $50/week, or $2,600 annually. A cost you wholly would not incur with a nanny, as he/she would not be in the house. If you don't ever get take out, this is not applicable.

Groceries - we try to eat organic, fresh, aka $$$. I underestimated how much she would eat at home - basically all her meals. (Which to be fair is smart of her, rather than burning her stipend at restaurants). She added about $500/mo to our bill, or $6,000 annually. A nanny or babysitter often just brings their own food or snacks on what the kids eat. They don't go into your fridge and legit eat your expensive cheese, steak and fancy chocolate. Your au pair will though!

Travel - again, there's no requirement for you to take your au pair on travel. This is where the "treat them like family" and "provide them a cultural experience" gets murky. Because if you take a trip to the mountains, the beach, Disney, etc... they're gonna want that "cultural experience" and be disappointed if you don't include them. And you do not want a moody, grumpy teen in your house watching your kids. So we took her, to the beach, to the mountains, to my parents' house, to a wedding. You need to pay for a flight + a separate hotel room for her + pay for the meals she eats with the family. We also paid for her ski equipment rentals. Not required, but again, it's push and pull between keeping her happy, fulfilling your obligation to "treat her like family" and not go over budget because you feel bad for excluding her. I'd say we spent about $2K on travel extras associated with the au pair. Again, I made the choice to include her, so these are costs I accepted. But it's not as easy peasy as the agency makes it seem to "leave her at home! She'll love it!" It can create some real discord and discomfort in your home to exclude her.

Wear and Tear on Your House: I'll also throw in here - you'll be providing Christmas presents, birthday presents, thoughtful gifts here and there - those can add up. You also have a person living in your home who has no clue about the costs of home ownership (like when she left her windows open in the winter, next to a heater, because she "liked the breeze"); when she thought my steam carpet cleaner was a vacuum and busted it ($280 right there); she's scraped up every Le Crueset pot I own; she will literally do a wash and dry cycle for a single clothing item, etc, etc.) It's just the cost of having a young adult in your home, but it's annoying as hell. If I added all this up, I'd say it's cost me about $2K this year.

This is an AMAZING list of the actual hidden costs. Keep this post tagged.

I would like to add the price of college courses ($500-$1000) a semester.
Cellphone with data covered by family
Gym membership covered by family
She used our visitor passes to take her friends to our pool every weekend

We treat our aupairs like family but that cannot be underestimated when comparing costs. It's not the cheapest option out there.

Anonymous wrote:Hey! I posted earlier offering more insight into the unexpected costs we found with our au pair. So here you go.

First, you mention that a nanny will cost about $25/hr in your area - around $50K/year or more. But for that money, you can expect a professional, knowledgeable about child development, engaging the child, running the household as it relates to the child, etc. You cannot expect any of that with an au pair. An au pair is more like a college student or mother's helper with some (if any) babysitting experience in the past.

So if you cobble together some babysitters (making way less than $25/hr) and are judicious with your hours, you're looking more at $30K/year. This would be for about the same quality of childcare that you'd get from an au pair.

And I've spent way more than $30K this year hosting an au pair.

I'm sure you've already read up on the expected expenses with an au pair - the stipend ($200/week), the agency fees, the phone bill, the car insurance and a slight increase in household utilities. The shockers to us were (1) car; (2) groceries; (3) eating out; (4) vacations and (5) "wear and tear" on your house.

Car - I knew insurance would go up, but our au pair caused an accident early on so our insurance is now ridiculously high. Here's the thing... you are not required to pay for their gas, you are not required to let them take your car on weekend trips, or drive around their friends. But you will hear about how other families do these things. It's push and pull of keeping your au pair happy, without burning a hole in your wallet. She will be VERY aware of what other families are offering. She will be very UNaware of how much it costs to maintain a car + insurance + how much her "oops" accidents cost you. Between insurance, gas, wear and tear, we've spent about $2K more with the au pair.

Eating Out - my husband and I get take out 2x/week. Again, there's no requirement that you get take out for your au pair. But I would feel like a dick for getting yummy take out and not offering to her (she always accepts). So that adds about $50/week, or $2,600 annually. A cost you wholly would not incur with a nanny, as he/she would not be in the house. If you don't ever get take out, this is not applicable.

Groceries - we try to eat organic, fresh, aka $$$. I underestimated how much she would eat at home - basically all her meals. (Which to be fair is smart of her, rather than burning her stipend at restaurants). She added about $500/mo to our bill, or $6,000 annually. A nanny or babysitter often just brings their own food or snacks on what the kids eat. They don't go into your fridge and legit eat your expensive cheese, steak and fancy chocolate. Your au pair will though!

Travel - again, there's no requirement for you to take your au pair on travel. This is where the "treat them like family" and "provide them a cultural experience" gets murky. Because if you take a trip to the mountains, the beach, Disney, etc... they're gonna want that "cultural experience" and be disappointed if you don't include them. And you do not want a moody, grumpy teen in your house watching your kids. So we took her, to the beach, to the mountains, to my parents' house, to a wedding. You need to pay for a flight + a separate hotel room for her + pay for the meals she eats with the family. We also paid for her ski equipment rentals. Not required, but again, it's push and pull between keeping her happy, fulfilling your obligation to "treat her like family" and not go over budget because you feel bad for excluding her. I'd say we spent about $2K on travel extras associated with the au pair. Again, I made the choice to include her, so these are costs I accepted. But it's not as easy peasy as the agency makes it seem to "leave her at home! She'll love it!" It can create some real discord and discomfort in your home to exclude her.

Wear and Tear on Your House: I'll also throw in here - you'll be providing Christmas presents, birthday presents, thoughtful gifts here and there - those can add up. You also have a person living in your home who has no clue about the costs of home ownership (like when she left her windows open in the winter, next to a heater, because she "liked the breeze"); when she thought my steam carpet cleaner was a vacuum and busted it ($280 right there); she's scraped up every Le Crueset pot I own; she will literally do a wash and dry cycle for a single clothing item, etc, etc.) It's just the cost of having a young adult in your home, but it's annoying as hell. If I added all this up, I'd say it's cost me about $2K this year.