totally personal money question for working moms...

I am just curious as to what you working moms pay for daycare? If I start working it will be $230 a week for both kids-the daycare provides food, diapers, wipes.
I am also curious as to what kind of income you alone bring in after paying daycare? I've applied for a few jobs and am really concidering going back to work-we want to be able to travel some and make some more home improvements which we just cant afford to do on dh's student stipened ($30,000 pr yer). Unfortunately I have a degree in psychology, which is useless on its own, so I dont qualify for a whole lot of jobs. The job I just interviewed for is an Early Head Start position. It is a 45min commute (1 way), and after daycare and health insurance would be taken out I would bring home about $850, but thats before taxes and not counting gas. I just cant decide if its worth it and am looking for thoughts I guess?

 

My DH works from home, and I take home about $3700 a month. I'm quitting my job, but we calculated that DH would ave to make about $4000 a month for it to be worth it for him to work outside the home, too. Of course, we're having a third child, and he has a $530 a month child support payment.

Probably doesn't help much, but that's out thought process.

 

Wow - that is a great price on daycare especially if they provide diapers and wipes! We found the cheapest by far that we could find in our area and pay about that but have to supply our own diapers, wipes and milk. Sorry that I can't say exactly what we pay because she asked me not to publicize it but it is very similar without the extras that you get there that certainly add up! I am in a unique situation because regardless of how much I bring home I have to work for the insurance. DH is a realtor - which means commission only and no benefits - so that falls on my shoulders. Sounds like you, though, don't have to work but anything you bring in will be additional and that is fantastic! My kids really, really enjoy daycare - I enjoy working and having some "me" time - and for me as long as I am breaking even and especially if I am bringing in extra that will allow for vacations or home improvements I would be all for it!

 

My daycare is $350 a week for both with a sibling discount, that includes food, wipes, milk, juice, projects and daily activities. I'm in the Washington DC area so it's very expensive compared to other places, in Tampa we were paying $100-150 a week for a part time sitter. I bring home enough money to make it worth it though.

 

that's a really good deal. we pay $435 per week and they don't provide diapers. they do provide wipes, milk and meals (except dinner, which we have to provide).

i'm not comfortable discussing the actual amount of my income. suffice to say i'm well compensated and right now i'm supporting our entire household including health insurance and daycare on my paycheck alone. DH was laid off about 6 weeks ago and is now freelancing but we're still waiting on his first invoices to be fulfilled. i'll be happy to be a 2 income household again.

for me working is about more than the financial decision. i think there's as much value in having a career out of the home as there is in choosing to stay home. not everyone is cut out to be a SAHM, just like not everyone is cut out to be a working mom. so for me, even if the cost of daycare cut more significantly into my income i would still want to have a career. we really like our daycare providers and the boys have really blossomed and learned a lot there.

it's all about what works for you, more than a simple financial decision.

 

Totally agree with the above statement. :acute:

I make a lot (I'm in management and in IT). And I outearn DH by quite a bit; I'd say that I make about 65% of the income, plus I carry the insurance. So for me, working and having a nanny is a no-brainer money-wise; she makes $440 per week and that's a small percentage of my income. Obviously I have to provide all meals, supplies, etc. because she comes to my home.

Right now I like my job, but it is really kicking my butt stress-wise. If I decide I can't do it anymore, I'll start an independent consulting biz, and probably make next to nothing, but have more time with my boys. My point is that the money is nice, but that's not the only factor that went into my decision to go back to work. I enjoy what I do, and when I no longer do, I'll leave.

If you can save enough money to do the things you want to do (travel, remodel, etc.) and you will also enjoy working, then go for it!

 

I looked into daycare costs and it was $35 per child per day. I felt that was reasonable and I was willing to pay more for them to go to a very well recommended provider. However, I wasn't comfortable going back to work yet, despite having an interesting, challenging and well compensating job in the legal field that I enjoy. Needless to say, in February 2011 I will have to decide what to do and I will once again be making the decision whether to pay daycare fees or give up my job. My husband is currently on a sabbatical so I know the feeling of living on less. We have decided that we will make up the lost income when our children get older. It has been very difficult for us to adjust to our new lifestyle, especially not being able to travel. Perhaps you can find a balance by working part-time or job sharing.

 

I pay $60 a day, $300 a week. I pay it by the month though. Normally around $1320 a month depending on how many days there are in the month. She provides meals. I provide diapers and wipes. I make a good salary for working 9 months a year, but it's spread out over 12 months. My salary pays a decent mortgage including insurance and taxes, childcare, insurance, and our only car payment. DH pays for our daily living stuff and utilities. We SHOULD have a lot of extra money every month but it seems to disappear. Soccer registrations, new clothes, I have no idea where it all goes. LOL!

 

It would have been $175 per week, per kid or $350 per week total to send my kids to a home daycare *if I had gone back to work, but I didn't.

And $300 PER kid, or $600 per week Total, if I were to send them to a center (which is what I was going to do if I had returned to work), so in MN it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO expensive that unless you are a brain surgeon, you really can't go back to work. It's kind of set up that way. And I really don't love the idea of home daycares (based upon MY OWN experience growing up). So, I had to quit. I would've been losing hundreds of dollars per month putting them in a center AND I would've had to provide EVERYTHING!

YIKES! And the kicker is, the teachers there make minimum wage.

Anywhoo..

GL in your decision. It's not easy

 

Holy cow, that's outrageous!!

I pay $336 a week for my two, with a 20% twin discount. I have to provide the diapers, wipes and milk/food while they are in the infant room.

I am working four days a week for the rest of this year, with my off day being unpaid. I pay $672 every two weeks and my paycheck is $699.99 only doing 4 days a week so I am bringing in a whopping $56 a month. Once I go back to 5 days a week, I will bring home about $500 a month as my income will increase but my daycare costs will stay the same since they charge 4 days and 5 days as the same price. So I kept my job by coming back to it but I pretty much exchanged any extra income (since I break even) with having an extra day off with the babies this year.

I chose to go back to work because I couldn't stand being home every day. I love my babies but it was so monotenous and taking care of two infants is insane so I needed a break from that, too.

Usually by Wednesday I'm wishing I was home with the babies but usually by Sunday night, I'm ready to go back to work Monday morning.

 

My daycare cost is $972 a month, so $243 a week for both. I still have to provide diapers and wipes and all food and drinks. I currently bring home $2600 a month so it is definitely worth working for. I would love to stay home with them, but it is not possible right now. DH makes substantially more that I do (almost double), but we are trying to save to build a house and to go on vacations so working is the best decision for us. Plus my boys love their daycare and I enjoy the "me" time, I just wish I could work only like 3 days or so.

 

We're in VA, and in the infant/toddler room, we paid $420/week for both girls. At the time we had a 10% sibling discount, so that amounted to $378/week. We had to provide all of our own diapers, wipes, formula, baby food (in the infant room),and, since my girls were lactose intollerant, we also had to provide our own milk once they were weaned from formula.....

That seems to be the going rate around here for organized daycares. I didn't really look into home daycare because I just wasn't comfortable with that. And I REALLY didn't look into nanny's, au pairs or anything like that as I just don't trust strangers in my house.


I bring home about $3200/month (after taxes, insurance, etc, but before daycare) so my after daycare take home for JUST the twins (we have 3) is $1688, so right about 50%. That was when the twins were in the toddler/infant room. With all 3 in daycare, and now we pay for the girls to be in the 3 year old room (about a $37/wk difference EACH,$296/month for both), but our son is still in the toddler room, we are still forking over about $1500/month. THAT of course is with a $600/month voucher we now receive through the military. w/o that voucher, I really don't think we could afford all 3 kids in daycare.

That aside, between our $1500/month daycare bill, and our $1900/month mortgage, you can see my income is pretty much wiped out. I personally don't see a point in me working, but DH was NOT on board with me being a SAHM (he was worried we couldn't afford it) interestingly enough, in our situation, with DH also being military, our insurance would not be affected if I quit work, plus the military would give us free housing if we wanted it.... but there again, DH didn't see all that or consider it, so I pretty much work for free these days... (can you tell I'm a bit bitter?? LOL)

 

There are such a variety of prices out there depending on where you live! I found someone to do it for $1000 a month (she was an at home mom of two herself) but my boys were getting sick weekly with a new virus and were often put in a playpen. I then found a friend who came to our home to watch them for $900 a month for two, but often left them in their cribs and even stole something from us. Now I am getting laid off (I am a teacher in CA) and am pondering the same issue as you ( actually did that when they were born but found that it was costing a LOT of $$ to raise twins and other two boys). I am getting my niece to watch them for the last three weeks I work in June and then am not sure what I will do. I am tired of having them being watched by others. I even thought of opening up my own daycare/preschool. Having a reliable place is crucial, but I also know the cost of twins are just outrageous! I make $3300 a month and my hubby makes $4000 a month and we still barely make ends meet. With the thought of losing my job, it is very frightening. I wondered if I should substitute while looking for a job and found that I would make $2600 a month subbing, minus $900 in daycare = $1700 bring home. I do know that on unemployment I can get around $1700 a month and if I add in my daycare costs that I save it would = $2600 and gas, food and clothes, I may just even out on unemployment and still be at home. It is only a temporary fix and we would have to cut things out. Very scary times for big families! I dont know if I helped you any, but you may want to look into being home vs. the cost of working more closely. I would give anything to be an at home mom! The stresses of work and being a mom and not being with my boys is so heartbreaking still to this day! I guess its an individual thing but I would LOVE to be home with my kiddos!

 

Wow! That is crazy! Did you put it all on paper for him to see??? I am the same as you as we are barely making ends meet now (though it looks good when I talk about how much we make!) but life is having its own way of letting be at home as I am getting laid off of my teaching job I will actually even out on unemployment and be at home with my kiddos! you should look into hiring a Nanny who is from a company. you are paying a lot of money for the service you are getting. I looked into it (im in CA) and its around $10-12 an hour for a nanny who cleans and takes care of them. may be something you can revisit if your hubby cant see the numbers on paper!