Charges for meals

[Little Dots]

I know everyone is different but how & what do you charge for meals?

I looked into putting my kids in childcare before I decided to go back to child minding, I'm originally from yorkshire & now live in east cambridgeshire so fees are very different, the one I looked for charged 50p breakfast/£1.00 tea which would be a quick meal (sandwiches/beans on toast/pasta then yoghurt/fruit) and I had to provide a packed lunch or could pay for dinner at £1 (simple sandwiches etc) My kids would have been in childcare 7.30am - 6pm with no proper hot meal there 22mth & 3yrs old.

Wasn't keen on this but my mum charges nothing (in yorkshire) she provides full day minded kids with a hot meal at dinner, then a snack for after schoolies and day kids, variety of things soup/sandwiches/things like that. She only charges £3.25 an hour or £28 full day.

What do you charge if anything & what do you provide? Tia

[lpatters]

I haven't started CM yet but I am going to provide meals and snacks and include the price in my hourly fee. I will provide cereal or toast for breakfast, a sandwich or something on toast (scrambled egg, beans etc..) for lunch with a yogurt or fruit for after and a cooked hot dinner with veg (roast, spag bol, fish pie etc...)at tea time. My snacks will be something like fruit, dried fruit, cheese, breadsticks, carrot/cucumber sticks with dips etc....

[natlou82]

Hiya, I provide all meals included in my daily rate. Breakfast, snack am, lunch, snack pm and dinner. Either lunch or dinner will be a main meal (depending on plans for the day) and the other a lighter option. My main meals consist of things such as roast dinner, spaghetti bolognese, stews, pies etc. light meals can be sandwiches, something on toast, soup etc. my daily fee is £35 7am-6pm which is the typical rate in my area. Good luck :-)

[Little Dots]

From asking around the rate here goes from £3.50 to £4.00 per hour, no one charges day rates as far as I can see or have been told, and most charge for meals, even the top end ones.

I was thinking a normal hourly rate of £4 per hour to include all meals/snacks/drinks but a 10 hr day rate reduced to £38 saving them £40 a month. But do a 2hr set rate for before school at maybe £7.00 as most wouldn't take up the full 2 hrs, then a 2 hr after school rate of £7 with snack or a 3hr rate of £10.50 with a 'tea' something light so slightly less than my day minded children as they don't require all the eyfs stuff?

Or would you charge more for before and after school?

With a £3 charge for every 30 mins they are late collecting for all minded kids.

Then if they attend nursery etc maybe give them the option to pay full hours whilst there and there place will be secure of to not pay whilst there but if I got a full time mindee or a 2hr funded place then days that nursery closed or holidays this place may be taken and would be a if I had space? Or just to charge half day fee for nursery/playgroup age?

So confusing!

[FloraDora]

Everybody serves different food, depending on their age and food likes and dislikes of LO's so what somebody else charges may not be the same as you.
You need to know accurate costs for tax purposes too.
I accurately costed each meal on my then 2 week menu. Then averaged out the cost of breakfast, lunch and snacks.

This is a really good task to do as it shows up which meals are costing a lot too and you can then think about changing them. Now I try to ensure my snacks particularly, stay in price. It is very tempting to try new things with expensive ingredients, but my Dh ( he is the chef) always costs new meal ideas or biscuits and we discuss if we want to include.

Another thing that works for me is to actually show parents costs to me of food.
My LA wanted to audit me ( I receive 3/4 funding) and so I took their advice and show costs of food in my invoice even if they are on a full day or hourly charge including food. I then credit them that cost back if it is inclusive.
It reminds me that my profit is not as big as I think ! But my parents have commented on what a good deal they get, considering meals are inclusive.

It's very tempting to go along with what others do, but it's much better to actually do the figures for you, the food you serve and then if parents query it you have a meal breakdown spreadsheet to show them.

I keep costs down by always making from scratch, growing my own wherever I can and baking all bread, biscuits and cakes. It helps Allergen wise aswell as we know what is in all food served here, because we put it in!

[Little Dots]

I'm planning on doing costing and i currently make everything for my family from basics, except bread as I cant make it. I am planning on starting growing veg with my own children this year.

I was going to charge more because of food rather than have them pay per meal they are here, further complicating things if there not (do they still pay for a meal if they were sick that day?) Making invoicing easier as well. Maybe I need to do a sample menu and cost it all out before looking at exactly what I am going to charge to cover these costs rather than it being an additional fgee on top.
Thanks for the input floraDora x

[moggy]

I just include all meals and snacks in my fee.
do not want the discussion with parents about prices/cost/what they actually eat/wanting packed lunches/etc.

As it is all included there is no worry about 'what if they don't eat their dinner'/'what if child goes early and misses dinner'/'what if child is off sick'. It just keeps it simple for me. If the child is there for the meal then they have it, if not then they don't. I offer snacks if we have time and if they want it but if we are busy and they are playing happily we might miss snack. If I was charging 50p per snack, or whatever, I would feel I had to offer it even if it did not suit us that day!

I am frugal with all our foods, grow our own, buy good quality but simple and cook from scratch.
I only have little EYFS mindees, though, so they actually don't eat very much in terms of quantity.

[natlou82]

Like moggy I chose my method to keep things simple and straightforward. I do a daily rate for the same reason (although I'm aware there are downsides to this method) and it works for me. Before school is £5 but no one uses me at present as school breakfast club is only £2 and I'm not willing to compete and I like a quieter start to the day. After school I charge a set session fee of £10.