Financial Samurai - Forums

Financial Freedom => Family Finances => Topic started by: sfpf on August 06, 2018, 11:27:45 AM

Title: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: sfpf on August 06, 2018, 11:27:45 AM
How much do you spend a month on daycare or a full time or part time nanny? It can get so expensive and I'm curious how much other people spend for x amount of hours a month in various parts of the country.

Right now I'm paying a sitter $20 an hour or $1200 a month for 15 hours a week. The help is great and she's so attentive which we love. It just adds up so fast! Does the rate sound reasonable? I live in San Francisco so nothing is cheap here.

Thanks
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: Sydney on August 16, 2018, 06:21:18 PM
I've found $20/hour to be common in SF. You'll see profiles on UrbanSitter and Care.com that list hourly rate ranges like $14-20 for one child, but I've never actually had someone offer $14/hour. The lowest I've paid is $18/hour for a junior in college for a minimum of 10 hours a week. The three other sitters I've hired all charge $20/hour for one child.

I hear ya that it adds up fast, but hiring help is worth it if you can afford it especially while you have a toddler or a baby. It's a LOT of work and even if you only get a small amount of hours a week it is better than none and can help keep you sane.  ;)
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: defomcduff on September 09, 2018, 06:26:30 PM
We've found Boston to be an expensive market for nanny care:

$15 / hour: Least experienced
$20 / hour: Less experience
$25 / hour: More experience
$30 / hour: Most experienced

It also depends on how many kids you have.  We have four, so we're at the upper end of the range, which adds up for full-time care.

Southern California was more like $12 - $25 as the max range (a bit cheaper).  Kind of interesting - I think maybe there's more labor supply there.

Interesting stuff!

DeForest
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: WoodenitbeNice on September 09, 2018, 08:59:30 PM
There's a lady in our neighborhood (a fairly blue-collar suburban city near Los Angeles) that takes on up to 6 kids a day at her house, 7-4, and it costs $40 a day.
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: Sam on September 09, 2018, 09:46:42 PM
It is interesting how the cost of daycare averages around $1,000/month nationwide, more than average state college tuition, and often $2,500 - $3,200 in cities like SF and NYC.

It's no wonder why more folks are delaying having kids. Housing is expensive enough in many cities.

It is curious that we are living longer.. yet why is it that ~35 is still the biological age for women when fertility drops so much. Should that age also increase w/ longer life expectancy?

Did you know the Okinawans have a life expectancy of 90 for women and around 82 for men? That's 8-9 years longer than US life expectancy years. Ikigai!

Sam
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: SSAG on September 10, 2018, 10:53:09 AM
I pay about $2200 a month in daycare + $200 per week for a babysitter to transport my kid to and from activities. about $1000 of the $2200 is actually private elementary, but that is not much different than what I was paying when it was true daycare. My peak cost was $2800/month + babysitting. It is a cost of doing business for a household where both parents work.
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: Orphan on September 16, 2018, 05:57:14 AM
SSAG,
20 an hour is not bad for SF. The going rate here in fly over country is 12 to 20 depending on what one is looking for. No doubt it is a significant cost.
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: myamnesia on September 17, 2018, 10:30:12 AM
I live in Napa and pay approx $1000 for one kid in preschool daycare, I work a lot of weekends and evenings and pay $15 per hour for babysitting, this can often be 12 hours per day at the weekends. I am very lucky as my kid's preschool teacher has been babysitting my kids for over 3 years  and hasn't changed her pricing.
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: Irish247 on September 19, 2018, 06:49:27 PM
Daycare rate is different based on the age of care. Right now I have two kids under 2 and their daycare charges are about $150 different. The baby is about $1750/month and the near 2 year old is about $1600/month. They also have bi-annual activity fees for around $250 each. All told it's going to be about $41k this year. NoVa daycare is expensive...

I have been thinking about accessing their VA529 for future daycare and private k-12 school. Still considering if it's worth it.

Babysitter is $20/hr which I feel is standard.
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: Pennymenny on November 07, 2018, 11:41:42 PM
Where we live in NE, standard rate is 20 per hour for two kids for anyone with experience. We have paid 30 an hour for in a pinch situations. Really qualified (eg child development educated) charge 70k plus post tax pa for 5 days of care plus 2 weeks vacation plus federal holidays
Title: Re: How much do you spend on daycare or a nanny/babysitter?
Post by: Cheezus on November 08, 2018, 06:28:00 AM
South Florida, we were paying $880/mo for a VERY good day care, full time, in a great neighborhood.