If you live in the Twin Cities and have ever wondered if you pay too much for daycare, then check out Resources for Child Caring. Annually they survey home daycare providers and daycare centers across the seven-county metro area and report average rates. Is there something similar in your city? If so, leave a comment and let us know.
In the spirit of daycare and kids you get a glimpse of Olivia (6 months) in a rare serious moment and Victoria (2 years) with a “pose for the camera” smile. My husband stays home with them now, but we used this daycare rate chart when we someone else cared for Victoria while we both worked.
Your turn: Yes, our kids are worth quality daycare, no question. At the same time, daycare is E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. What does your family do to keep that cost in check?
About Carrie Rocha
We are very fortunate to have an affordable in-home daycare that lets us do part-time at part-time rates. My husband works overnights Friday to Monday, so our girls are only in day care 2 full days and one afternoon a week. Still, for three girls, we pay over $800 a month for part-time. That’s a big OUCH. If it weren’t for the insurance my husband gets, it wouldn’t be worth it for him to work. But his insurance alone saves us $650 a month in premium over what we’d pay through my work.
Thanks for this! I LOVE our daycare provider, and I’m happy to see that the daily rate we pay for part-time care is spot-on with our area average. I feel very fortunate to work part-time and also have affordable home care where I actually feel comfortable leaving my baby.
This is the only daycare I’ve been to, and before that, I had absolutely no idea how much everything was supposed to cost. Thanks for also making me feel comfortable with the expense!
We use an aupair service and have flexible, affordable daycare. You have to have an extra bedroom as they stay with you for a year or two but it is only $320 for 45 hours. We love it and our children know Thai, Spanish and German!
This is a great resource! We pay just below the average, which seems in line with the over-the-phone research I did prior to my first child being born. My husband and I also worked out our schedules so we can have the kids in daycare half-time, and we were very fortunate to find a daycare center that accommodates our situation.
I have to say: we economize on lot of things, but daycare isn’t one of them. Our center is significantly more than the average cost in our county, and that’s OK with us – because we really think they do a great job and have great people (particularly important to us as we both work full time). I’m sure there are less expensive options that are also good. But for us, one of the reasons we are thrifty is to have money available for things like this.
Haila – I agree. Our kids are worth whatever we need to pay for quality daycare and just like you, we save money in certain areas so we can spend more in other areas. It is a matter of prioritizing our finances and making financial decisions on purpose, not by accident. –Carrie