It’s not even the end of March and already I find myself making summer camp plans for the kids! It seems early to me but the upside is that I’ll have it organized sooner. It also leads me to take a look at our summer budget and since child care is such a large component of that, now is a great time to review it.

Oddly enough, I find that coordinating schedules is the trickiest part. Weeks spent with grandparents, holiday time, various camps and supplemental child minders for camps that are not full day make for a complex process to align a myriad of schedules.

Our typical budget includes $800 per month for child care however this summer is 10 weeks long! At approximately $200 per child per week we would quickly blow through the budgeted $1,600 and edge towards $4,000. Along with summer child care, our holiday budget takes a beating and our home and vehicle insurances are due.

The good news is that we save for our big holiday, summer extra travel and insurances through monthly budget allocations and by planning our big holiday over the summer weeks we won’t need child care for those weeks. All in all I think we can come in slightly under budget for summer child care which is a good thing because I think our summer travel and holiday will be a little over budget! Fingers crossed for kind exchange rates.