How to Save Money on Child Care Cost

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By chasingthebull
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Most parents love their children unconditionally. They would do just about anything to keep their children safe and happy. In today's economic environment, however, the amount of money parents must spend on child card cost is staggering. A family with one child can easily spend $500 a week on child care. There are, however, a few ways to save money on child care costs.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Step 1

Share Babysitters - An increasingly popular method of saving money on child care costs, is to find a few friends and share babysitters. This technique only works if you need someone to watch your children on the same nights. My friends and I began doing this a few months ago with tremendous success. Here's is an example of how it works: My wife and I want to go to the movies on Friday night (we typically pay our sitter $10 per hour). On Wednesday or Thursday, we start calling a few friends to see if they are planning on going out as well. If so, we share our babysitter. Since our babysitter must now watch 2 kids, we increase her rate to $15 an hour, which we split with our friends. Our new cost is $7.50 per hour (a savings of 25%). Our babysitter is more than willing to do this since she can make more money doing about the same amount of work.
Step 2

Be Flexible - Ask your employer if you can work a flexible schedule. Try and coordinate it so that at least one parent can be at home with the children as much as possible. Even if you can reduce the number of hours your child spends in child care by 50%, your savings can be hundreds of dollars a month.
Step 3

Utilize Available Tax Credits - Keep detailed receipts on what you have spent on child care. On your income tax return, working parents can claim up to $3,000 for one child for money spent on child care. If you have 2 or more children, you can claim up to $6,000.