Save and Conquer

Many married couples in America need two incomes to make ends meet. My wife and I are no different. We would love it if she could stay home full time with our son, but our savings goals will not allow that. (I may talk about those goals in a future post.)

Daycare for children of working couples often takes an enormous bite out of their take-home pay. Luckily for us, my wife and her sister have been able to arrange to trade childcare. Both have been able to work half-time and adjust their schedules to trade day care 4 days a week.

In the current schedule, my wife’s sister takes care of her two children and our son on Mondays and Wednesdays. My wife takes care of the three children on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each takes care of their own children on Fridays.

Taking care of other children is not easy. I would not be able to do it. But my wife and her sister have managed to make it work.

Trading childcare has been a boon to both families. Besides the obvious savings, there have been other benefits.

1. We were able to leave our son with his loving aunt and her family. Likewise, she left her children in the care of a loving aunt and our family.
2. Our children see each other as if they were siblings.
3. We were able to transfer our son into a better school than our local district offered.
4. My wife and her sister have become closer friends.

Based on the going rates in the area for childcare, we saved around $12,000 the first year and $8,000 for each of the next 4 years. After-school daycare for the last two years would have cost $424 per month during school and 667 per month in the Summer for a total of around $5,820 per year. That gives a total savings over these past 7 years of $55,640.

Our situation will change shortly as all three children will be in public school next Fall. My wife and her sister are planning to change their hours to work during school hours and be home when the children are. This will be a major change from the sibling-like situation for the three cousins, but we have plans to keep them close.

We are extremely thankful that trading childcare was possible for our families and has worked so well for us.

Stumble it!