A nice surprise...

Today I had the urge to start checking out daycares in the area. Part of me wants to work out the remote schedule that has me, my dad and my mom watching her during the day but then she doesn't get to socialize with little kids. Then there is my job to consider, if I don't keep getting raises...well...then we don't get stuff and the raises go to those who are IN the office. But I want to spend every second with her - so it's a catch 22 - what to do?

There is a Methodist church down the road from me in VA that my travel mate is going to use. I started thinking how nice would it be for them to be able to play all day long. Not that I am going to make our kids be best friends, but you'd think since the mom get along so well so would the kids and it would be nice to have another little kid there that is Chinese too (we live in a very non diverse part of the world) so maybe she won't feel so weird.

So I had only priced the area near my job and on the advice of the single's group, you want daycare to be near the house. That way if she's sick - short car ride home. And if you are sick - well then you can take her there and go home and crash. Our daycares in the near job area are mostly in churches (I take that back, I don't know a single one that isn't a church) and they were $110. I don't know why $440 a month seems like a lot, its really not. Sort of like the car payment I don't have, it's doable.

But listen to this, the church near my house is in a more country area. Still state certified and all that but just $90 a week while she's one then it drops to $80 when she turns 2. In a year or so - $30 a week less for 50 weeks is $1500...not too shabby!

With my work subsidy, the two weeks I don't pay for while we are on the cruise and it all divided evenly by 12, it's just $318 a month while she's one and $283 when she turns two. So that was my nice surprise, daycare isn't going to break the budget :)