Seeing as how we have a lot of parents surfing around this blog, I figured that a lot of you would like to see this.  We don’t do day care for our little ones, but I know that a lot of you probably do.  So here is a list of ways to save some money:

1. Find out when higher childcare rates go into effect. For example, many childcare centers charge high rates after 6 PM or a fee per minute you arrive late after closing. Then arrange your work schedule or driving route so you can get the kids before the higher rate goes into effect.
2. Are you going on vacation? Talk to the childcare center about taking vacation from the daycare at that time. Don’t pay childcare rates for weeks that you are not there. And updating your status to “on vacation” allows you to hold that childcare spot if gone for two or three weeks without having to re-enroll.
3. Some day-cares request that parents fill out forms for government programs to offset the cost of feeding children. If your family is low income, this can reduce the cost of bringing food to daycare for young children.
4. If you use a government program to pay for the cost of childcare while you are looking for work, be sure to swipe your identification card each morning when dropping off the children. Failure to do sign in or swipe the benefit card creates the appearance of not utilizing the services. This can result in being dropped from subsidized childcare program or the center dropping you for violating sign in policies.
5. Talk to the daycare manager about field trips. Ask them to arrange cheaper field trips for the children, allowing everyone to spend less while the kids still have a good time. Field trips to the city owned mini-water park can be as fun as a trip to a water park and going to a local arcade can be as fun as a major theme park, but they are more affordable for all involved.
6. Parents must often bring pre-made bottles for infants. To avoid extra fees for failure to bring a bottle, leave a set of clean bottles and single serve pouches of baby formula in the child’s diaper bag. You avoid the fee for forgetting to bring bottles, and an extra-hungry child has the formula they are accustomed to available when they finish off their normal bottle count.
7. Buy an educational learning tablet instead of video games for young children. Download educational games for the price of an entertaining game while helping your child learn skills they need for school. The educational learning tablet will take up as much space as large picture book while carrying many titles in its memory. Save money by stocking up on batteries or buying an educational learning tablet that uses the same charger as your cell phone or laptop computer.
8. There are days you will be late. Avoid the penalties for being late by having a designated friend or family member who lives near the center pick up your child before the center officially closes. Then the delays in traffic result in stopping somewhere else to pick up your child, instead of a dollar a minute late fee.
9. Purchase an educational learning tablet that is compatible with your electronic reader. Then download free classic books from book sites or the public library’s e-book collection to provide no-cost reading for your child.
10. If possible, buy an educational learning tablet that is compatible with an iPad or school lap top computer. You may be able to use the educational learning tablet you already own for school instead of having to buy a new computer for a young child. The added benefit is that if they child damages the educational learning tablet, there is less money required to repair it and it is easily replaced.