Meal prices

[JueQ]

Hi, I know someone else has recently posted something similar but would like to know what people charge. I currently charge £2 per meal like the school meals. For under 2's I charge £1.50. I think most people charge pretty much the same in my area. I have 4 2 yr olds in my care. One of them will eat loads and I feel the need to charge £2. The others pick at their food and are quite fussy. I haven't yet put their prices up as they've just turned 2 but feel I will be over charging. I know it's swings and roundabouts and one of my 2 yr olds eats more than a 4 yr old so it's difficult to judge. Does anyone else charge different prices. I have an 11 yr old in my care and eats me out of house and home and wondered if I should have another charge for older children?

[Muddy Puddles]

Muddy puddles,
I charge £2.15 per cooked meal for all children regardless of age.Other childminders in our area charge less.I currently provide cooked meals at the end of each day to children in years 3 5 and 6.In order to meet the needs of all the children at that end of the day I prep all the veg at breakfast time set out utensils and use a slow cooker cooking from scratch but just turning it on.(like most people I guess.)
I aim to dish up cooked meals at 5.00 children having cooked meals can't be collected until 5.30.
Parents do try it on "can you feed x and I'll collect at 5.00"answer always no.
Children are more involved in food preparation during the school holidays when we have more time. This has worked well for a few years now.

[gef918]

I charge the same price as the local schools for school age children, younger children area about 50p cheaper.

[bunyip]

I cost the food into the overall fee, so I can offer a straightforward price with no 'extras'.

Interesting that so many CMs set food charges in relation to school meals, especially as school catering giants benefit hugely from economies of scale.

Recently I sat idly perusing the menu at some appalling soft play centre where my grandchildren were attending an equally appalling party. I don't think I'm bragging to suggest that I (and indeed most CMs) offer a better quality of food than soft play prisons. I did a quick tot-up of the number of meals, snacks and drinks I provide, and worked out the parent would have to pay £12+ per day to get the equivalent amount of (somewhat crapp1er) food if they had it prepared and served by one of these places - ie. anyone other than a CM.

I frequently wonder whether parents, Nutmums, the UK government, Daily Mail, et al consider all this when they bang on about the "high cost of childcare."

[FloraDora]

I charge the same price as the local schools for school age children, younger children area about 50p cheaper.

School meals run by county catering are heavily subsidised by the fact that they can negotiate prices because they are ordering in high volume. School cooks angst over keeping within budget all the time ( ours loved it when we developed a kitchen garden as all the veg we gave her was free so meant it was easier for her to keep in the daily / weekly budget ).
Even overheads like maintenance, buying equipment was at the lower end because of bulk buy, future of orders etc..

So it isn't realistic for CM's to base on school prices surely?

In our efforts to appear similar to big competitors I feel a lot of childminders are selling themselves short on pricing meals.

Like Bunyip, my daily price includes food and drink which I costed before setting rate. Luckily my DH bakes bread, biscuits, muffins, maltloaf etc.. All from scratch and we grow all our veg, salad and a lot of fruit which keeps costs down.

I've decided that childminders are a cross between a business person and a charity!

[Chatterbox Childcare]

I charge £2.50 per meal - hot or cold which includes a piece of fruit and pudding. Breakfast is £1

[JueQ]

Thanks for all your input.

I currently don't put food prices (other than AM and PM snacks) in my prices as I didn't want to encourage everyone to stay for tea. No one ever wanted to stay before and now 1 does, they all do. My problem is I've got such fussy eaters. I'm like Muddy Puddles. I organise a healthy, fresh cooked meal, quite often with the use of the slow cooker or oven and steamer and offer a lovely, tasty meal, only for kids to whinge and moan and want sausages and fish fingers. I purchase high quality meat and fish from local sources and markets which isn't cheap - only for kids to moan they don't like onions, or broccoli, or gravy etc. Winter months were stews made from lean braising steak, fresh veg and potatoes only to get thrown in the bin and children going home hungry and then parents cooking them pizza etc. Kids win! I can't compete when kids know they are getting fed the crap they love because parents can't bear for the little darlings to be starving all night. I feel my efforts of encouraging good eating habits are a waste of time and money. At weekends I like to prepare meals like lasagne or bolognese sauce and can't win with everyone on that.

I have made a strict rule with children that if parents confirm they will eat it, I prepare a meal to suit all. If they leave it it's their problem. Still have waste which I hate!

I agree with all of you that school meals are subsidised and I shouldn't put my prices the same but I know this is the comparison that parents make. Other end of the scale is that 1 parent sends pack up for lunch then pays for tea. Problem is children are looking at what I'm eating and other mindees have and ask why they haven't got the same. Can't win!

[bunyip]

Call me "cynical" (it's been said before ) but I have a growing suspicion that some parents think they pay CMs to give their lo's the healthy food, toilet-training, dummy-deprivation discipline, and behaviour management, etc, etc, etc. they don't get at home - and somehow expect their children to benefit from this complete lack of consistency.

I'm getting sick of children who:-

1. are supposed to eat 'proper food' but sit at my table making fake wretching noises and telling me about the cr4p TV ding-meals they get at home.
2. pee all over my soft furnishings when their toilet training is "going so well".
3. cry for a dummy all afternoon ("she only has it at bedtimes now") and I see it in their mouth before mummy even has them strapped into the carseat.
4. don't settle/dislike it here - simply cos I do what the parents request and don't let them walk all over me to get their own sweet way.

[JueQ]

Call me "cynical" (it's been said before ) but I have a growing suspicion that some parents think they pay CMs to give their lo's the healthy food, toilet-training, dummy-deprivation discipline, and behaviour management, etc, etc, etc. they don't get at home - and somehow expect their children to benefit from this complete lack of consistency.

I'm getting sick of children who:-

1. are supposed to eat 'proper food' but sit at my table making fake wretching noises and telling me about the cr4p TV ding-meals they get at home.
2. pee all over my soft furnishings when their toilet training is "going so well".
3. cry for a dummy all afternoon ("she only has it at bedtimes now") and I see it in their mouth before mummy even has them strapped into the carseat.
4. don't settle/dislike it here - simply cos I do what the parents request and don't let them walk all over me to get their own sweet way.

Ha ha! So true for all of those. My hubby gets sick of other people's kids peeing all over our downstairs when parents send them in pants. Yes the dummy thing - I've taken it away from kids and see parents shove it in their mouths the second they are out of my care. I think parents often want a personal nanny and not a childminder. They need to pay for that priviledge then!