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By
Jeffrey Strain
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Child care costs are are one
of the most expensive costs associated with going back
to work. Finding ways to cut down on
child care
costs without sacrificing quality child care is a top
priority for all working parents. Here are a few ideas
that can help trim your child care costs without
sacrificing child care quality:
See if your employer has a
child care
flexible spending account. This is a special account
that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) -
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw87.html - created that
allows you to set aside money for
child care
expenses with pre-tax dollars. |
You ask your employer to
take out a certain amount of money each month from your
paycheck and you can use this money tax free for child
care related expenses.
Inquire if your company has
partnerships or offers discounts for certain
child care
provider services. some larger companies will sometimes
negotiate discount plans with local
child care
providers to help offset child care costs.
See if your public school
district offers a half day pre-kindergarten program for
4-year-olds. These programs are usually free and by
signing-up your child, it will reduce your
child care
needs to a half day from a full day.
Check to see if your
employer would be open to flex hours, job sharing or
telecommuting. If so, you may be able to use these to
juggle your schedule and cut your
child care
costs.
If both you and your spouse
work, see if it's possible to arrange your work
schedules so they overlap as little as possible. This
will allow you to reduce the number of hours your child
has to spend at child
care.
See if there is a relative
or good friend that can help with
child care.
Consider hiring a nanny and
sharing the cost of
child care with a few good friends. This will
allow you to pay less individually for child care costs
and the nanny will make more money overall.
For a list of
child care
resource and referral agencies, you can visit the Child
Care Aware website -
http://www.childcareaware.org - which is a nonprofit
organization that helps parents find quality
child care in
their communities.
Copyright Jeffrey Strain. He
is owner of
http://www.savingadvice.com - a website dedicated to
saving you money.
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