Do Costs Get Any Easier After They Leave Daycare?

No because then they play sports, scouts, sell stuff, clothes get more expensive, toys get more expensive.

Sorry, didn't mean to be a debbie downer. :(

Oh it does get cheaper after they move out! :)

We unfortunately have after school care since they get off early and neither my husband or I can be home. But the cost of that is 1/2 of what I'm paying for daycare for my daughter (not in school yet). There are other costs that we never had to worry about when he was in daycare such as school lunches (even if you pack one it costs money), field trips, snacks for the classroom. Then there are cub scout costs, dance lessons, swimming lessons, softball/t-ball, but all those are optional things we do because we can afford it. But add all that up it's less than you would pay for full time daycare.

Once they're out of daycare altogether, if you keep the extra activities to a minimum you will find some relief. My kids are each allowed 1 sport plus 1 instrument per school year. We do have school lunches and fairly regular field trips costing anywhere from $20-100 each.

not really! From KG to almost teen years, you have: afterschool, summer & holiday vacations.....childcare. You have the cost of school supplies, lunch supplies/money, + extra-curricular activities...whether it be Scouts, sports, etc.

From teen years on....plan on paying out the ......(insert word of choice here, please). That's the simple, simple truth! You may lose childcare costs, but then you add in all those parties, activities, Band, sports, etc. All those fun teen things that kids like to do! OH, OH & the electronics....OMG, just shoot me now! One simple electronic can eat up an entire gift budget!

Our younger son is 15. We average about $15/week for lunch costs (a few breakfasts thrown in). A little bit of pocket $$ brings it to about $20/week minimum.
Then we have gas $$ for his practice driving....about $10/week.
Band competitions...another $20/week. (& that's only if we don't travel to watch the competition! Then it's another $50 min.)
It's another $15 for us to get in to watch the football games so we can see him perform at half-time.
Scouts....it varies. Sometimes as little as $10/month. Sometimes $200 for trips.
Field trips: hmmm, the one on Monday is to the Renaissance Faire across the state...& it will cost us $50. But then again, it's from 4:30am to midnite. So that's a fair amount for 20 hours of activity/travel. (insert eyeroll here & all pun intended).
Oh, & let's not forget the Band Trip next summer....we're making payments of $60/month towards that.....& hmmm, another $35/month to pay off his instrument. Good golly...that's $100 right there! Aaaaargh.

***yep, it doesn't get any better! Some of our expenses are pure splurge, but the bulk of it is the cost of participating in school activities. Our son is happy, engaged, & thriving. We make sacrifices to allow him this freedom. & he works hard, too.....over the summer, he mowed yards & saved almost $700 towards his car fund! Even now, with all of his activities, he's still managing to mow 2 yards a week....& we're danged proud of him!! :)

Yes and no it all depends. We had to do before/after care and we chose to do sports etc, so for us it is not cheaper, however it is your choice.

Before/after care- Not much wiggle room here if you have to do it.

Fundraisers if you can't do it don't! I support what I feel is important, but I don't do them all.

Sports- I want her active so I do have her participate in sports, but that is totally optional.

Pictures- Her school pictures are always terrible. I mean it, they come out terrible. I do always buy one and one class picture for memories, but I never send them to anyone and just do my annual JCpenney pictures that I usually have a 75% off coupon for.

You can definitely make it cheaper, you just need to pick and choose what you are willing to spend money on.

For us, it got MUCH better! Our kids are currently 7 & 5.....our youngest just started Kindergarten & our oldest is now in 2nd grade. We had both of them in full time daycare for 2 years and we will NEVER forget how difficult it was. We even got the "multiple child discount" which still makes me laugh because it was only 5% off my oldest's weekly tuition. I always paid daycare bi-weekly....the same day my husband & I got paid. So, every two weeks, I wrote a check to The Learning Garden for $588.72.............so $1,177.44/month. Over $14,000/year. I honestly don't know how we did it. But, you just find a way and push through it. I always reminded myself that daycare was only temporary......it's just the first 5 years. LOL Kinda like I did with baby formula and diapers........it's only temporary! =0) Then, our oldest graduated from the daycare and started Kindergarten. We work 7am-3:30pm, so we obviously still needed before and after care. The school system has ESP (Extended School Program) which provides care from 6am to start of school and then from the end of school until 6pm. Great program right inside her school. When I signed her up for it, I'll never forget asking the lady how much it was per week..........she said $42/week! So, that right there was $102 cheaper PER WEEK than daycare was for her! I was ecstatic! Then, she asked if we would need full time ESP care during breaks and summer (ESP from 6am-6pm Monday-Friday) and I told her yes. She got real serious and said, "well, that's much more expensive........that will cost you $80/week"!!! I laughed out loud at her! That was STILL $60/week CHEAPER than full time daycare (which was ALSO 6am-6pm)!! =0) Now, both my son and daughter are in school and both are in the ESP Program. They also give a multiple child discount! For example....this week is Fall Break, so my kids are in ESP full time this week. It's $80 for my son and only $55 for my daughter.......I consider $25 less a VERY GOOD multiple child discount! =0) During regular school, I only pay a total $52/week for ESP! That's for both my kids!!! MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper than $294/week that full time daycare costed us for them!

Sorry for all that info, but I wanted you to know that for some of us.........it really does get better! There really IS a light at the end of the tunnel. My kids are the only ones in our extended family that have had to attend daycare, so I'm always hearing my relatives complain and complain about the cost of this field trip and the fee for that and the expensive school t-shirt, etc, etc, etc. It always makes my husband and I chuckle because in our world.........as long as school doesn't cost us $1,177.44 per month......we are HAPPY HAPPY campers! ;0)

Going thru all that really did have a huge impact on us and it really does help us to keep things in perspective. We know now that it could be worse...........we could still be in the world of double full time daycare! We will NEVER forget. NEVER! lol

Just keep pushing thru..........you will get there soon!!! =0) It's great when the first one leaves daycare, but it's FABULOUS when the last one leaves daycare!!!!

It does get easier. you go from $1000 a month to about a thousand a year. There are sports fees. but not so much thru the public school at kindergarten age. fees for sports are more for private lesson type stuff. if you do ballet or soccer etc. but those costs are not much if you stick with park district programs at least for the first few years. after the first couple years you will know if your kid is the next michael jordon etc. some sports are more expensive than others. hockey and or ice skating is by far the most expensive sports around here as the ice time is nuts expensive. gymnastics is a close second. dance can cost a fortune if you try to do a dozen different types at once. fundraisers can be expensive but not if you choose not to do them. if your kid is in a sport you can opt to do fundraisers as part of your fee. my son is in the choir they are going to be performing at disney this spring. they are selling candybars right now not going to make much on that one. but when they do the fruit sale we will be able to sell enough to pay for his whole trip. we did if for the other two and it is always a big help. you can opt to not buy photos although they are about $20 to $50 depending on what you buy. get the smallest package. I think your friend must have had older kids. it does get easier.

needed to ad this sorry lol. there is fees at the public school for sports but that is nothing compared to the private lesson type stuff. also keep in mind that while your struggling right now your wages will go up as the years go by.

I pay $400 a month for my youngest to be in daycare part-time, because he is in pre-k part time. I also pay $400 a month for BEFORE care for my older two. They cost me more now because of all of their activities and their clothes, toys, books, etc all get more expensive. But it's all in how you manage it. If they can only do one sport a year, do it that way and PRE PLAN for things like uniforms/costumes, pictures, trophies, your turn for snacks, etc. It also gets easier because most people get pay increases as time goes on. If the area where you live is low cost of living and low pay, it should go hand in hand right?

In these parts, $12k a year for two kids in full-time daycare is cheap. You would need to more than double that amount, so it darn well better be less expensive than daycare. I'm sure it will be less for you as well. (At least until they're teenagers.)

I paid almost 10k for a year for ONE kid, so consider yourself lucky.

DD is now in full day Kindergarten, which we don't have to pay for, so, of course things are better. IMO, anything is better than daycare costs, unless you have your children in private schools & multiple activities. Even if we have DD in an activity, it still wouldn't come close to what we paid for daycare. We had school pictures last month & a field trip this month. Those are the only necessary expenses we've had so far, school wise, so far.

I am not sure what the person that you mention is talking about, honestly.

for us it got cheaper because our kids are not in sports. I don't usually do fundraisers unless it's for girl scouts. I just don't have the extra money to spend on things like that. We are on a tight budget, so we just can't afford those extra things (and sports are extra to us). I do wish I could put my daughter in gymnastics, but instead we put her in girl scouts ($12 compared to $150). She is happy and she gets plenty of exercise at the park and pool (which we do almost daily)

It still is hard and as they get further and further into their school experience it get's more and more experience. For instance, last year in the 4th grade it was the year of projects. 4 projects in 5 months to be exact. Make a native american wigwam, passport around the world (we had spain) with accompanying costume, food, artifacts, etc. Then this year is beginning band. We just dropped $104 on our first month of alto sax rental along with the book, stand, and reeds.

The thing is, it's not consistently expensive so it can be planned and saved for. It's not $150/child ever week. There are pictures, but that's twice a year, and sports when they are young are inexpensive and contrary to popular belief not absolutely necessary for a healthy, well rounded child. Fundraisers are also not mandatory and if you can't afford to buy a $15 roll of toilet paper or take everyone to Chick-fil-a on Tuesday so that the school can get a share of the profit that is OK, too.

I think it's less expensive most of the time, but a killer some of the time.

I think the costs are a little easier( not alot)...you can pick and choose what fundraisers you participate in, school activities/sports etc. I don't know if you coupon or not, but that has really helped me save alot of money for my family. GL

M

Not really. We paid about $13k a year on daycare. Now with school lunches, packed lunches, summer day camp, day camp for in-service & vacation days, fundraisers, and sports we probably spend about the same. Sports weren't an expense when my kids were little and in daycare, but now we spend about $200 a month on sports alone. It's important to them so it's important to us and we budget for it; but it's definitely a 'want' not a 'need' and if we were really pressed we would cut back on it.

It all depends an if your child get's into anything. When my oldest stopped going to daycare which was in 4th grade that allowed us to take on a car payment since i had to get a new to me car. He's now in band ($61 a month for his sax), private lessons that are required for his band ($60 a month that we only pay $30 for have scholarship for other part) and pinao ($80 a month that we only pay $40 of cause my mom pays other part) This past Jan. my youngest started gymnastics. No he count take just one day a week he had to be so go they put him on a pre team that is twice a week. ($150 a month) And because of how good he is they want to put him on the actual cometitive team $170 a month plus comatition and uniform fees that are over $900 a year. Which we can not do now. That made things tight. We finally took him out of daycare and we are fianlly making ends meet with no extra. So to answer your quesion the money will go to other things that they didn't do before. Sometimes it seems like it's never going to end but we seem to make it work. My sugestion is to put what you can back and just keep cutting back where you can.

Good luck and God Bless

It's never gotten any cheaper for me. I may be the daycare provider so I don't pay for daycare. But, I pay 9,000 per year for utilities and 12,000 per year for food. I buy toys, books, learning supplies, baby equipment and replace it all as it wears out or becomes obsolete, and then as my kids started to leave home, my mother moved in. Then the grand baby came a long. I can't afford even a day off. I keep trying. It's been 3 years since I had a 3 day vacation and I have only had Thanksgiving and Christmas off the last 3 years. I have no money in savings, the charge cards are maxed out and my bank account stays just a tiny bit above the next bill that must come out.

People get pretty mad at us providers when they find out we actually do need to make a profit from taking kids to and from school.

It depends. We did before/after care with SD so that was like daycare. And for the pictures and sports and things, you have options. You don't buy them, you get pictures taken on sale at Kiddie Kandids (my dd's 3 yr pictures cost me all of $17, and that was only because I liked a pose and wanted another sheet), you choose the $5 item in the fundraiser or skip it, etc. And maybe they do band and you rent the instrument or maybe they do football and you go to all the games, but it's different. I personally feel it did get better. You just need to be proactive about your funds.

My DD was $299/week when I turned into a WAHM PT. I know how daycare eats your money. It's sticker shock for people most of the time. Infant/toddler care is very expensive.

And with clothes or toys - we gave the kids options. You can get several books for your birthday or ONE video game. You can get your jeans at Old Navy on sale or you can get one or two pairs at another store in the brand you want. SD learned about clearance racks and thrift stores. I rarely pay full price for anything for DD even now. When I was in HS, I had one good backpack for 4 years. Etc. The year that is REALLY expensive is end of Junior into Senior. SATs, college applications, college visits, driving, insurance, graduation items...ouch.

No, sorry, it really doesn't.
I have a 4 and 5 yr old. They were in a fulltime home daycare. I paid $600 a month for both. This year school started. My son goes to after school care at the YMCA That's $63 a week. = $252 a month. My 4 yr old is going half day to public school pre-k. For someone to pick her up and keep her until I get off, it's $90 a wwek = $360 a month. So, now I'm up to $612 a month. AND I have to pay extra on the day schools out for random holidays and teacher work days. PLUS - school lunches, back to school clothes, join the pta, school pictures, and sports all in a very short period of time. Oh and now it's time for costumes and right behind that will be Christmas. And now we have homework every night! yikes. when will it get better? I dunno. Maybe when both kids are in after school care. That will only be $400 a month.

There will always be a "cost" for your kids above food, clothing and shelter. But I don't believe its more than what you are paying for daycare. Unless you get all crazy and put them in every sport, cheerleading, etc. Then it gets costly. Good luck!!!

Agh, I was wondering that too. We have 2 in daycare as well and I have a little countdown of when things should get "easier" b/c they won't be in daycare. I too have heard, that does not happen!! However, to ease your worry, even though you might not go back to pre-children money life, it shouldn't be as pricey as full time daycare now. And, yes things suck in the economy now but it won't be like this forever. So eventually, you'll see those raises and promotions and full time jobs coming back around. I don't think you'll live with deep cuts for 20 years, but there will be a cut always b/c you have kids. Oh, and I play the lotto a lot too.

It does get cheaper but it doesn't seem like it does. We spent about $13K per year when my two youngest were both in daycare and that was for just two days per week.

We are paying for extended day K this year (my youngest is finally in school!) but that will cost us $3500 plus $4000 for two days of after-school care for two plus $1500 for two days per week of baby-sitting during the summer. So this year will cost us $9K and the following years will cost about $7K. So from a pure childcare standpoint, it is cheaper as long as you don't need full-time care in the summer, then you could easily be paying thousands of dollars per child for summer camp. Eight weeks of day camp here is $3800 per child.

That said...we usually spend some money on week long day camps each summer ($1200-1500 among 4 kids), and sports are expensive - kickboxing for my step-daugther runs us about $1000 per year, hockey for my oldest son is $1600 a year, hockey for my little guys is about $600 a year plus we probably spend another $500 or so on lacrosse, soccer, t-ball/baseball and/or recreational basketball. None are playing an instrument right now so we don't have that expense, but that was $100 per month when one of my boys was playing drums. So when you add all of that in, it's about the cost of what we were paying for daycare for two, and these are all optional. No kid "needs" to take piano lessons or play hockey or do martial arts 12 months a year like you need child care.

Yes and NO. The other cost start coming into play. However those are elected costs. Sports ect.

It's different that's for sure. We had three in daycare at once and yep cutbacks even though we were both working. It is easier in the sense that the expenses for the daycare are not paid weekly or monthly. But it will depend on what you involve your kids in. If you do sports and piano lessons yes it will add up. Right now my daughter is in dance and then I have her and my son in Karate. I don't get involved in fundraisers as I know it's cheaper just to pay for my child directly and when it comes to school photos I buy a reasonable portrait package so as to not break the bank. It's all in how you budget and save your finances. :)

Most likely you will still be paying for before and after school care.. (it costs $15 per day for both before and after care at my school..) so $65 per week.... There are about 36 weeks of school.. You still have to pay for childcare for the other 16 weeks of the year.. so childcare for a school age child is not free.. there are still lots of days to pay for childcare when school is not in session.

Fundraisers in public schools are crazy.. we got entertainment books to sell in the first week of school.. they had a fun run and every family was suggested to give $50 ... $8.50 for a teee shirt to wear for field trips.. etc.. it just goes on and on..

I dont know your families finances.. but when I quit working.. our federal tax bill shrunk like crazy.. it was like i was working to pay childcare and taxes.. We were paying $16000 for childcare and an extra $20000 in federal taxes.. it was not worth it for me to work..