How to Save Money by Sharing Child Care

Child care costs can really cut into your paycheck. Consider sharing child care with a good friend or two. You’ll all save money, and the nanny will make a higher hourly wage.

Steps:

1. Meet with those interested in sharing child care.
2. Talk about the type of nanny you’d like to hire. If you find that your expectations and discipline techniques are too different, strike out on your own.
3. Decide where the child care will take place.
4. Determine how much to pay the nanny per hour. If a nanny usually gets paid $8 an hour per child, you could decide to each pay $6 an hour per child. That way, you save $2 an hour, and the nanny gets $12 an hour. The wage goes up as the number of children increases.
5. Contact a nanny referral service in the phone book or via the Internet.
6. Start the interviewing process. Check references carefully. Observe the nanny interacting with the children.
7. Hire a nanny on whom everyone agrees.
8. Have a meeting with everyone before the first day of child care. Make sure everyone is clear about the situation. Will the nanny be expected to do household chores? Will the nanny be paid extra for late hours? Will the nanny need his or her own transportation?
9. Enjoy your new child care arrangement!

Tips:

• Avoid disagreements by ironing out all the details of the arrangement beforehand.
• Put the extra few dollars you are saving per hour into a college fund for your child.
• Full-time day-care co-ops are rare, but there are some out there. Check in your phone book.

Warnings:

• Some landlords despise group child-care situations. Consult an attorney to determine your rights.
• Factor in the cost of household employment taxes (Social Security, Medicare), which you’ll need to pay for a nanny who cares for children in your home – unless you hire through an agency that agrees to pay in the nanny’s behalf.