Childcare Budget
Free Childcare Budget calculator with clear step-by-step results.
About Childcare Budget
Prices full-time childcare across multiple children with the sibling discount applied from the second child onward, deducts any subsidy, and expresses the result as a share of take-home pay - the ratio that determines whether a second income is worth the cost.
Formulas
Gross monthly cost
Gross = fee + fee x (children - 1) x (1 - sibling discount)
Share of income
Share % = (gross - subsidy) / household monthly income x 100
Worked example
With the default values below, Childcare Budget returns Monthly childcare cost after subsidy of $1,510.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Monthly fee per childminimum 0 $
- 900 $
- Children in childcareaccepts 1–8
- 2
- Sibling discountaccepts 0–60 %
- 10 %
- Annual registration or materials feeminimum 0 $
- 250 $
- Household take-home incomeminimum 1 $/month
- 6,200 $/month
- Government subsidy receivedminimum 0 $/month
- 200 $/month
Results
- Monthly childcare cost after subsidy
- $1,510.00
- Monthly cost before subsidy
- $1,710.00
- Annual cost including registration
- $18,620.00
- Share of take-home income
- 24.35% %
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Gross monthly cost
- 3Share of income
- 4Monthly childcare cost after subsidy= $1,510.00
- 5Monthly cost before subsidy= $1,710.00
- 6Annual cost including registration= $18,620.00
- 7Share of take-home income= 24.35 %
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 6 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation or tax into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What share of income is considered affordable?
Benchmarks commonly cite 7-10% of household income for childcare. Many families in high-cost cities pay 20-30%, which is why the ratio is worth watching.
Does this cover school holidays?
Full-time nursery places usually bill 12 months, which is what this assumes. Term-time-only settings need the fee prorated across the year first.