This childcare saving tip is one that had never crossed my mind. First of all make sure that your daycare or babysitter is the best value that you have available to you. Now I say value because these are your kids and I don’t believe that cutting the quality of your children’s care to save a couple bucks. With that in mind over spending is overspending so if you can save some money by changing daycares or babysitters and you are able to maintain a expectable level of care do it.
Now that you know you are getting the best value for your children’s care we are going to look at another way to save even more. It may be possible for you to set up a dependent care spending account through your employer. This is not only powerful but a seemingly untapped resource for saving money. The dependent care spending account allows you pay for daycare and babysitters with pretax money. This tip has the potential of saving you up to 30% on your childcare expenses without changing anything you are currently doing. The ability to spend pretax money on expenses is one of the easiest ways to save money without changing your lifestyle or spending habits.
My wife and I have our first baby on the way so this idea really jumped out at me. Though we are planning on my wife being a stay at home mom some kind of childcare always will always popup in the expenses from time to time. I have never used this tip personally but it does sound like a great one. If you are able to successfully employ this money saving solution please let me know.
Here is a link to a page with much more info.
http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/taxes/cut-your-child-care-costs-14246/
