Yesterday, I collected a receipt from our daycare for tax purposes. In the past, I've always gotten the receipts on a month by month basis, but this time they had a receipt for the entirety of 2012. My husband and I couldn't stop staring at the number on the receipt:
$39,000
Spent on daycare. Before we pay our rent, before we buy even a single frozen chicken nugget. Just for daycare.
Wow.
Unfortunately , when both parents work .................. .
ReplyDeleteYou forgot, "after taxes"!
ReplyDeleteSome of it is tax-free. A whole $5,000 worth.
DeleteIf it's any consolation, it'd be even worse if you lived in a higher cost of living area. Makes it obvious why many single moms are underemployed doesn't it...
DeleteIt makes it obvious why many MOMS are underemployed (not just single moms).
DeleteOh sorry! I totally forgot to chide you for feeding your children chicken nuggets! ;-)
DeleteEwe nuggets! And holy cow that's a lot of money!
DeleteAnd that is why it irritates me no end when stay at home parents are derided as a luxury. Because currently, either my husband or myself needs to be a stay at home parent (right now that would be him) because neither of us makes enough as an individual to afford to pay for the daycare we would need if we both worked. Sometimes you can make scheduling opposite shifts work, sometimes you can't.
ReplyDeleteDear god... makes me wish I had family who could help me out when I (eventually) have kids. Because that's the same as my med school tuition.
ReplyDeleteAssuming that's for 2 kids...otherwise, you may want to shop around for another daycare, Fizz. Have you ever considered an au pair? We've had one since August and love it.
ReplyDeleteIt's for both, and fortunately will be much less in 2013 when my oldest starts public school. Either way, we don't have room for an au pair in our apartment.
DeleteOur bill is $28,00/yr for two. That's with a 10% reduction for the eldest. $39k is wow-high.
ReplyDeleteNot atypical though. See comments above.
DeleteI don't know where you live but 28k for 2 is unheard of here. We pay 23k for 1 kid worth of day care and that doesn't include the many holidays (columbus day? presidents day? for reals?) for which we have to find backup day care. Our day care is average price around here (ie we could do about 10% cheaper if we were willing to drive 25 min each way across town but we looked at pricier options also).
DeleteHows this? $ 60,000 for three kids to be in daycare, one is preschool, one is toddler and one is an infant. This is typical in CT and doesn't include "extended" hours
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I'd be paying (or more) if I had another infant.
DeleteWow. In my (Canadian) city, most day cares are about $500/month, and a fancy private day care is $1000/month (for the rich people only). I wonder why there's such a huge difference.
ReplyDelete(Not trying to be an ass in pointing this out...I'm just curious.)
I'm actually shocked. When I had two kids and both were in full time daycare, we paid 22,000/year. Now I have three, two in part time, and one in full time, and we pay $20,000/year (thank goodness part time is so cheap.) We even live in an area where daycare is very competitive and the wait lists are over a year. How on earth is daycare $39,000/year? No offense, I just want to make sure I don't live in that area.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the Canadians, apparently, in Alabama. I pay $7000 a year. For one. And here I was thinking I had it bad...
ReplyDelete