Day care costs

[jodi]

I'm splitting this off from the babysitting thread...

What do you pay for day care? We are currently paying $27/day for two full days per week (it would be cheaper per day if we were full time). Our provider just raised it this year from $25. I have found it as cheap as $15/day, but I just feel so much better about leaving my son with this person, who runs a wonderful program complete with meals, snacks, activities, crafts, etc. She is very flexible with our times if we have to run errands after work or go to work early. We do not pay for days that ds2 does not attend due to illness or non-school days (which DH is home and we don't need day care), which I think might be a rarity. Not to mention ds2 loves the other kids in the program.

I know this is going to very widely by region, but I was just curious what others paid. We live in a rural area of central NY.

[MonkeyMama]

Northern California - cheaper in-home daycare, is $35/day for 2 days a week. I believe they charge the same for 3 days. (It's $25/day if we pick them up after lunch).

This rate may go down with more days (I am sure it does). But she is one of the FEW daycares we found who would take the kids on a part-time basis. Most of them don't want to fill up their full-time spots with part-time kids. So we were very lucky to find this. Likewise, we don't get sibling discounts or anything. Now we take up 2 full-time spots. Pretty much just lucky she was willing to let us tie up another spot for the one year we would have both kids going at the same time.

We really lucked out too. The lady who runs this daycare has become a second family to us. We LOVE her. So yeah at this point she could double her prices and we wouldn't leave. The kids are very well cared for.

Technically we pay for holidays and illness and all that, but she'll always take the kids another day. She took them an extra day last week because one had been sick and next week she is taking them an extra day because monday is a holiday.

When we looked around we didn't find anything cheaper. Of course, price wasn't the deciding factor. But it worked out. The reason she was cheaper is she has been in business forever. I think she could raise her rates and do just fine!!!

[MonkeyMama]

P.S. They didn't charge extra for not being potty trained either. !! Which is the big thing around here. Pay a premium for diapered toddlers.

[Saving in So Cal]

Southern California daycare center (not affiliated with a church, but good quality) = $300/week for infant or toddler care and $200/week for care for preschoolers and Kindergarteners. Includes breakfast (if you drop off before 8 a.m.), lunch, and two snacks. No part-time before age 2. Part-time after age 2 is prorated.

[SnoopyCool]

Well, as you saw, I charge $25 a day only for the days he is here. I do all food; he is not potty trained. My dds preK, which is free for all 4 year olds (she is 4) in NE Florida, charges $120 per week for those 3 and under.

[Thrif-t]

DS7 goes to a daycare in the summer 3 days/week, $32 day this is cheap(so I'm told) we're in NE Ohio.

[sweeps]

DS7 goes to a daycare in the summer 3 days/week, $32 day this is cheap(so I'm told) we're in NE Ohio.

DS7... your 7th son?

[aida2003]

Our DD goes to a church daycare (Charlotte, NC) and we pay $155/week. Infants are $175/w. I think.

[Thrif-t]

DS7... your 7th son?

No he's 7 years old.hahaha

[sweeps]

No he's 7 years old.hahaha

I had a suspicion that's what you meant