(09-06-2024, 04:31 PM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote:

(09-06-2024, 01:41 PM)Caldrac Wrote: The national average per year for a family paying from their income for child care for their children was estimated and/or reported to be just below $7,200 per year. That's $600 per month.

Some families pay more than that. I can tell you right now it's costing me $1,200 per month for just my son, BUT, here's the catch, and, I am not afraid to admit this. He's not going to some VPK School or Childcare Center, where, I could have easily saved some money.

I could have been paying $185 - $200 per week, which would have ran us just south of $800 per month or right at $800 per month. It just didn't work out. He wasn't quite ready yet due to potty training and really only knowing my family, in particular, my Mom and Father-In-Law as babysitter's.

So, we gave that a shot for two months and then put him with a family friend to give our folks a much needed break, as they're helping out with the younger kid's coming up in the family and it's just time for our son to bump up into his next walk's of life.

I think a lot of this though, comes down to the families being responsible. You're getting anywhere, between, what? $2,000 - $3,600 per year on the tax return's with the Child Credit Act. That's a good chunk of that yearly average there. It's got the name "child" in it for a reason. Maybe put that into savings instead of blowing it on nonsense when you file your taxes.

That's one way to look at it. Maybe as President, sure, you could try and up that credit a little bit more to soften some of the blow from inflation, which, again, the larger issue is actually inflation. Resolve the overall prices of goods, gas and energy and guess what? All of a sudden, child care and a number of other things become a lot easier to budget and plan for.

I do agree with the YouTuber though. It was really a nothing burger from Trump on this topic. He may, in fact, be thinking just like that though as mentioned above. Child care is a monthly expense. Fix the overall economy, lower the overall numbers that are up due to inflation, and, child care becomes affordable.

I'm having flashbacks of living in DC in the mid-90's.  We had 2 kids, costing $415/week total.  That's when we moved to Jacksonville and cut our costs in half.  Not only was the $415/week costly for us, but when you factor in formula, diapers, and all drinking we did (HA !! j/k ... kind of), it was hard to keep our heads afloat.

We cutback on a few things to make due. Granted, we don't live beyond our means. Our mortgage is beyond affordable, thankfully, we only have one car payment at the moment. I would probably be [BLEEP] right now if I had to carry two car payments. I can't lie about that. 

We just really focused and looked at our bank statements and realized we were pissing away money monthly on certain services we didn't really need or hardly used. I think of a lot of people get swept up into that. I can see now why there's advertisers and companies specifically doing this for people.

It's to weed out the nonsense in a sea full of [BLEEP] that you're drowning in. I didn't need YouTube TV AND Hulu. I didn't need L.A Fitness AND Bailey's. My wife's preference's and my preference's had to be melded together to some extent. I grew up eating store brand [BLEEP]. She didn't. I don't need everything organic to feel good about myself. Matter of fact, when I started doing the shopping, you actually get more for less at stores like Aldi's and Trader Joe's. 

Wal-Mart also has the same "junk" that comes in boxes and bags at places like Publix and Target. Why pay more at those places for the exact same [BLEEP]? 

That's what you're supposed to do though. You cut back and figure it out. 

I know we got off lightly though compared to other people and the average family I know of out there. The biggest thing is just not going overboard with credit card debt again. That's only for emergencies.

---