4 Powerful And Simplified Ways To Always Have Guaranteed Childcare Money

I know you will probably look at this headline for a quick and easy way to always have childcare money and no, I’m sorry, you have to put some work in ASAP. However, you will have the money and it won’t hurt you as much each paycheck.

3 1/2 months ago, I was set to go on maternity leave. No one told me when you have a normal delivery; most employers only pay for 6 weeks of maternity leave. Since this was my 2nd time having a child in 2 years (I blame my husband lol), not only were they paying for 6 weeks instead of 8, I was only going to get 70% of my paycheck. WHAT?! 70%. I don’t know about you all, but I need the whole 100%.

I made up my mind that I couldn’t risk missing out on being with my baby full time by having to go back to work early. With my first, I went back to work after 8 weeks (and this is AFTER a C-Section). I hated missing little moments with my child because I had to go back to work.  My oldest would need to start daycare (my mom was nice enough to watch her full time for her first year of life) and my household would have a new bill, similar to a 2nd mortgage.

I should have been smart enough to save her daycare while my mom was her caregiver, but I wasn’t thinking nor smart about my money as I am now.

Kids will change your mindset. They should….

Let’s look at some things I did and others that I know:

1. Automatic Direct Deposit – don’t touch

5 months before I was set to go on maternity leave, I set up my direct deposit at work to take the money for estimated child care out of my check and into an online savings/checking account with – no fees and no debit card. An account without FEES is vital. You want to make sure nothing is being taken from your child care money. Period. This helped tremendously. I gave myself ample time to budget and see how life would be with this new bill. My oldest would not start daycare until I returned back to work. I was able to save 5 months worth of daycare. My daughter started daycare 2 weeks before I was set to start a new job, this wasn’t planned for me to start a new job, but I did #3. This meant I wouldn’t even have a full check with the new job yet. This was ok though; I had the child care saved… See!

2. Mystery Shopping

People laugh at mystery shoppers. I used to laugh as well. It’s funny to some, but one man made $14,000 last year mystery shopping. That’s the average cost of child care/expenses these days for 1 child. Is it still funny? The key to mystery shopping is to sign up with multiple companies. Also, try to mystery shop in your area of work. This means, you could go on lunch breaks. Also, when you pass certain stores on the way home, you can stop and mystery shop. Easy Money. Easy. I have researched several women banking in mystery shopping. I’m no expert on it so I will just stop there, you can google legit companies. Why not do what we (women) like doing anyway? You can even use this little extra money to pay off debt.

3. Ask For A Raise

I’m serious about asking for a raise. More than likely, we are sitting at a job not making what we deserve. Ask for a raise. Show your value to the company. Save the new extra money. You need to still live like you are making your “OLD” pay and put the extra “NEW” money in an account strictly for child care or emergencies.

4. Sell Your Services

If your friends are always asking you to do something, you’re good at it, and you’re an expert, SELL IT. Stop doing free. I know you think it’s cool to give your bestie the twist out of a lifetime but you need to monetize that talent you have with those fingers. Don’t sell yourself short. If you lost 50lbs and everyone is asking you how, ma’am, you need to sell that knowledge. Ma’am. Stop doing free. If you already are taking advantage of this and are making money on the side, please don’t negotiate your prices. Your price is your price. Your business is your life.

It’s not simple by any means to ALWAYS have child care, but implementing these strategies will at least have you with a little bit of cushion.

Now, don’t use the money for an emergency unless you can replace it and PLEASE don’t use the money on bags, hair, and shoes.

Let’s all continue being responsible great mothers 🙂

Connect with me

Twitter: @pencilskirtmama

Instagram: @tiffanicrenshaw