Kids are downright expensive. I know, because I have two wallet drainers myself.
But I work from home and my wife is a stay-at-home mom, so we save on daycare. If I were a single dad and working from home, I could probably still pull off getting all my work done while the kids are home, so daycare would likely remain an unnecessary luxury I’d pass on.
If you commute, well, that’s a different story.
You’ve got to secure a care solution for the kids, be it a babysitter or a daycare provider. Both can be expensive, as a babysitter for two kiddos on Care.com runs from $10 to $25 per hour and full-time daycare runs about $384 a week for two kids in my area.
If you work 40 hours a week and have a 25-minute commute each way, you’ll need the sitter for 44.2 hours a week or 191.4 hours a month. That comes to a grand total of $1,914 to $4,785 a month. Even the cheaper option, which is daycare, will set you back $1,664 a month. You can also go with a full-time nanny, which Care.com estimates at $615 per week or $2,665 a month.
No matter what way you slice it, that’s a serious draw on anyone’s paycheck.