Childcare costs - any rough guide?

Where in the country are you based? From what I can gather childcare costs vary greatly between places.

No idea on the NHS stuff I'm afraid.

Good point Cricks - I'm in Nottingham, work in Chesterfield. So any one with experience of costs in East Midlands area greatly appreciated!

I'm in the East Midlands too and I work with childcare settings and nurseries.. the average of a day Nursery around my area ranges from £38-£45 a day including all meals. Not providing nappies and the such likes.

Hope this helps somewhat!

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Agree with the childcare costings that BS said. They do vary quite drastically though so it's worth looking around and asking people you know for recommendations but it can be between £35-50+ per day.

I think the NHS maternity pay is pretty good and one of the best around, I can't say exact but I have a few friends who work in the NHS and rave about it. Try checking your contract as it should say in there, failing that then speak to someone at work and ask them to tell you.

I'm not far from you, and when my son was in nursery it was about £40 per day, or £2.85 per hour (+ retainer for holidays etc) for childminder

I'm in Scotland and the child are prices quoted by PP's are roughly in line with what we pay here. It's also dependent on whether you use childminder or nursery. Sprog has been with his CM since 16 was old - we were lucky as we don't pay for meals, and when he was in them, we didn't have to pay for nappies either. We pay £40/day BUT that's because we need 2.5 extra hours on top of 9-5. If he was there 9-5 it would only be £30/day.

If you work for NHS it's worth looking into whether or not they provide childcare vouchers - the amount of the vouchers is deducted from your gross salary so you save the tax and NI. As you'd be joining after 6th April 2011 it's £243 a month that is tax & NI free, although this amount reduces if you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer.

Definitely consider posting this in BT. I know there's at least 2 NHS employees who've been on recent maternity leave.

Don't forget about Tax Credits. There's lots of info on the Direct Gov website. Forgive me, I don't know any details, I just know they really help some couples pay for childcare!

Really hope you get the house, I'm sure you'll be able to make it work.

We pay £40 per day now J is 2, it was about £45 before that.

Do you mind if I tell you my story?

6 years ago when I was pregnant with Iz we moved to our forever house and we are still there now. The house is lovely BUT I wish we had bought somewhere smaller. We have a massive mortgage that means I have to work. I work 4 days a week but a lot of those are away. I honestly truely wish we could afford for me to work less. When I was pregnant and beforehand I was adament I would always want to work and I do want to work but not this much. I think my kids would prefer to be in a smaller house but have me about more.

Sorry that's all about me but I guess is what I'm saying is if you think you do want to have children consider that you might want to work less and don't over extend yourself, leave yourself with options.

Not working FT was never an option for me (higher earner), but I compromised by doing a compressed week. I still work FT, but in 4 longer days. I'm in a management role so I do still bring work home, but I get one extra day at home with Sprog.

OMG that sounds like you wrote my post!

I’m looking at moving, as I did what you intend not to do and I’ve got to 4 years later and now I need to move!

I currently work for the NHS and I think at the moment you get 6 months full pay and 3 months half. You can have this averaged out over the 9 months so that you get the same pay each month, rather than loads at the start and hardly anything at the end.

You can also buy child care vouchers which is just taken out of your pay before tax therefore saving you 20%

My friend currently puts her son in day care all day for 2 days and half day for 1 so a total of 3.5 days and I think this is about £400 per month! It’s like a second mortgage!

I’m currently hoping to change jobs and start working for the CCG, I’m on a 6 atm (non clinical) but hoping for a 7. It looks like for me a new mortgage will be £1000 and its currently only £600!