We've had luck in having our parents watch our child (in return, we bought each of them a house and take care of their finances (medicare and social security)), but with her becoming 3 years old next year, figured it's time to get her on a waitlist for pre-school, so I called around and set up tours, interviews, and information sessions.
I called four different locations, and costs are $45, $49, $51, and $65 per day. Given that pre-school runs September to May (standard school year), and given that there's about 25 days of no school due to holidays, spring and winter break, consider that about 8 months of schooling. Kindergarten runs 3 days a week, so I'd like pre-school to have the same tempo, and have our parents continue to watch her for the remainder of the 2 days a week (the weekend = us, of course).
Math:
$45/day * 3/days a week * 4/weeks a month * 8 months = $4,320; or at $65/day = $6,240. Subtract $1,050 in federal child tax credits and another $1,050 in state tax credits = ~$2k to ~$4k a year.
I've heard horror stories about childcare costing like $2,000/mo, so color me surprised when I found out it's "only" ~$300/mo.
We have two places scheduled for this Thursday (5/9), and the other two places next Wednesday (5/15).
/blogfaqs
https://i.imgur.com/XNEdLrJ.png