Do The Math

Holy Smoke! It has just really hit me how much we will have to spend on childcare.
I just got a letter from our new nursery and the good news is that they have a place available for both Aimee and Dylan in September, thus allowing Cat to go back to work after her maternity leave expires. But, and here’s the shockingly awful part - the new nursery costs £1416 a month to cover both kids.
It doesn’t sound too bad until you look at it over a year, a sum total just shy of £17,000 a year!! And that's not even for a full time placement, as they will only attend 4 days a week.
I wonder if instead of nursery, I can hire an au pair or nanny for the same amount or less? Mind you, I am permanently traumatised by the horror flick The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, so that alone rules out personal childcare.
Still, it's not all bad news. The government offer a voucher scheme that means we don't pay income tax on £243 a month, effectively saving about £1900 annually if both parents use the scheme. And we get a few bob in child maintenance and child tax credit, but ultimately it is just shaving snowflakes off a £17,000 iceberg into so-called Early Years Education.
Now I know why a lot of Mums, and increasingly dads too, give up their job to look after their kids full time. It simply is not economically viable to put two or more through nursery. It’s not long term fortunately. When Aimee turns 5, she’ll go to proper school, but even here, there are uniforms and breakfast/after school club fees to pay for.
A newspaper article about the lifetime cost of raising a child makes depressing reading.
Still, at least we have their happy little faces to cheer us up…well until they reach that moody age.