Women’s Finance Blog

If you live where I do, you are lucky to even find a space in child care, and if it is a decent one, you are paying through the teeth for the spot. But if you are in an area where you have a bit more flexibility, here are some ideas and tips to help you reduce your child care expenses. After all, if you are a working mother, you can easily spend 10-20% (or more, depending on the number of children) just on child care expenses alone.

• Form a child care co-op. This means that each parent puts in a certain number of hours or days a month, based on a preset schedule, which greatly reduces the amount of money you have to pay each month for full-time child care.

• Form a Friday Night Club (or Saturday Night Club, if it works better). Four families with equal numbers of children in roughly the same age group take turns watching the kids. For example, the first Friday night, you will have all the kids at your house for the evening, but then the next three Friday nights your child will go to the other couple’s house for the evening. The Friday night you are “on” can be painful, but then you get to have a night to yourselves for the following three Friday nights.
• Investgate any child care tax credits or breaks you are eligible for.
• Take advantage of summer camps to free up your time during the summer months.

Filed under: Family, Budget