Randy & I were doing some number crunching today. You see, about 4 years ago this next week or so is when I went back to the workforce - leaving my kids with our nanny at the time. We kept the nanny until a month after their 2nd birthdays, when they entered daycare world. Their first 18 months were at wonderful daycare in Kansas - and the the last 7 months have been at 2 daycares here in Colorado. Okay daycares - but certainly not up to snuff with our Kansas daycare.
At a birthday party this weekend, someone made mention to Randy about 6 years of daycare and how they were excited to not pay that anymore. It made Randy & I think - what
had we paid for daycare the last 4 years?
We're budgeting kind of folks...I've put every bill into Quicken for at least 10 years. So, this was easy to figure out...even if it was a little shocking.
$79,367.92 for daycare for the last 4 years
Now, $25,000 of that has been "tax free" in our childcare cafeteria accounts. What did we have to
earn (before taxes) to shell out that amount of money (after taxes)?
Are you sitting down....
$111,435.48 over 4 years - or $27,858/year.
We're both engineers...but that is still a ridiculous amount of money when you think about it. And, that doesn't include all of the "extra" costs associated with working (like more meals out because you don't have time to cook, more gas, more vehicle cost, more clothing costs, etc).
So - for all of you stay-at-home moms out there, I hope this gives you an idea of how much childcare for two is worth...maybe you can ask for a pay raise?
