Too cheap? Price increase?

[snufflepuff]

I currently charge £3.50 per hour (£3.20 for one mindee because she was my first and her Mum asked for my fees way before i registered and had looked in to it properly) Others in the area generally seem to charge between £3 and £4

I have a friends LO coming to me for one day as her usual minder has taken the day off. When i quoted my fees she was surprised, and couldn't believe my fees included snacks and lunch. She said her CM charges £3.75 and that she has to take snacks, lunch, nappies etc for her LO. I thought perhaps she was a more experienced minder or used to be a teacher or something but nope, she has been minding just under 2 years and had no previous qualifications or experience in childcare. (Whereas i have a level 3 and have worked in nurseries and as a nanny)
So i'm now thinking i should be charging a bit more? I have only been minding since March so its a bit soon to be putting fees up just yet. How often do you increase your fees? And by how much? Do you just send a letter out to parents to say that as of x date fees will be £x per hour so their new payment will be £x ?

[mama2three]

i took the cowards way out and existing mindees rates have stayed the same , but Ive increased my rates for new enquiries!
My rates are fairly average for my area at £30 a day including meals - but I had a lo whose cm was on holiday last week , and they only pay £20 usually!

[Ali56]

Hi snufflepuff, I've just put my fees up to £4 hr, but i do include drinks meals and snacks, parents provide food for babies and nappies etc I prefer it this way as then all Lo's eat the same, parents can choose to provide own food if they wish but i don't reduce the price!! Depends on where you are and what the going rate is :) :)
you can increase fee's at contract renewal time, but make sure you charge all new mindee's the going rate! I usually give parents up to 3 months notice by letter, I think thats fair. Its not unusual to have mindee's on different fee's as not all contracts renew at same time and some c/m's charge different rates according to amount of hours or age of child.

Ali

[snufflepuff]

Thank you ladies. I think my main concern is getting the £3.20 mindee level with the others- at the moment she is the only one who brings her own lunch (Mum knows that the others pay more and have lunch included) so i think i'll tell her i'm putting my fees up but that i will give lunch. I'm not in a hurry, i know her Mum is really struggling finanically at the moment and i don't want to upset her, but perhaps in a couple of months i'll tell her that fees will go up in the new year- plenty of warning that way and time to get her tax credits etc sorted out. Then when the other mindees contracts are up for yearly renewal i can put theirs up a bit, perhaps just 10p per hour.