Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve left the program, but we have an aupair credit card that is tied to a checking account. We added $500/mo and that covered whatever extra she wanted in terms of food and her gas. She did drive the kids, but it was always locally and the gas usage was marginal. All of our APs seemed happy with this arrangement. They were able to shop for all their won “special food” or just eat what we had at home and use the extra money for more flexibility in social activities.

That is beyond generous. I cover everything my AP needs (gas, household items, phone bill, multiple streaming and music subscriptions, additional groceries she adds on the shopping list for herself) so she doesn't have to pay anything out of her pocket for living. She can and should use her stipend on the extras she wants. I rather give a nice big bonus to an outstanding unicorn AP than making it part of the perk package. It is easy to offer more down the road based on the performance.

No, it isn’t call beyond generous, it’s called having a Host family with common sense; life is expensive and so is food and childcare. Having an AP is the cheapest route for childcare so at least the family treated the AP right unlike others….cheap AF families

Eh, daycare is cheaper - at least for one kid.

I’m just curious what your story is. Are you a disgruntled Au pair? A U.S. nanny? A parent who likes to call other parents “cheap”? You are definitely not a host parent. Who are you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve left the program, but we have an aupair credit card that is tied to a checking account. We added $500/mo and that covered whatever extra she wanted in terms of food and her gas. She did drive the kids, but it was always locally and the gas usage was marginal. All of our APs seemed happy with this arrangement. They were able to shop for all their won “special food” or just eat what we had at home and use the extra money for more flexibility in social activities.

That is beyond generous. I cover everything my AP needs (gas, household items, phone bill, multiple streaming and music subscriptions, additional groceries she adds on the shopping list for herself) so she doesn't have to pay anything out of her pocket for living. She can and should use her stipend on the extras she wants. I rather give a nice big bonus to an outstanding unicorn AP than making it part of the perk package. It is easy to offer more down the road based on the performance.

No, it isn’t call beyond generous, it’s called having a Host family with common sense; life is expensive and so is food and childcare. Having an AP is the cheapest route for childcare so at least the family treated the AP right unlike others….cheap AF families

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve left the program, but we have an aupair credit card that is tied to a checking account. We added $500/mo and that covered whatever extra she wanted in terms of food and her gas. She did drive the kids, but it was always locally and the gas usage was marginal. All of our APs seemed happy with this arrangement. They were able to shop for all their won “special food” or just eat what we had at home and use the extra money for more flexibility in social activities.

That is beyond generous. I cover everything my AP needs (gas, household items, phone bill, multiple streaming and music subscriptions, additional groceries she adds on the shopping list for herself) so she doesn't have to pay anything out of her pocket for living. She can and should use her stipend on the extras she wants. I rather give a nice big bonus to an outstanding unicorn AP than making it part of the perk package. It is easy to offer more down the road based on the performance.

Anonymous wrote:We’re a first time host family and we’re wondering how other host families handle AP food and gas expenses.

For food — I know where supposed to cover “board” but what exactly does that include? For the first couple months our AP ate almost all her meals with us so it wasn’t an issue. I’d let her add whatever she wanted to our weekly grocery order, which was about $60 worth of special items just her own use (totally reasonable). However, over the past couple of months our AP has said she prefers doing her own grocery shopping, which I thought would be fine except she’s now giving us >$150 worth of receipts per week plus she’s eating out a ton (gives us >$200 worth of receipts/week) during her off-hours instead of having snacks and meals at home. I’m thinking we need to go back to having her give me a list of items to add to our weekly grocery list and/or give her a weekly food stipend instead. What is a reasonable amount?

For gas — she has access to her own car and 99% of driving is for her personal use (she generally doesn’t drive our kids). Yet she seems to expect that we pay for nearly $100/week in gas expenses. Am I correct to assume that we should cover some gas expenses for her personal driving to allow her to partake in the “cultural exchange experience” in addition to any work-related driving? What is a reasonable gas stipend?[/



This is accurate, considering how expensive groceries and gas are as well as childcare. Don’t cheap out on the cost of having an AP, or else she’d rematch with another family.