Separating Food???

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

Do any of you separate your daycare food from your family foods?

I just recently started doing this and a part of me feels selfish and the other part feels justified.

I buy mostly brand name foods for my family and I have just started buying the off brand foods at the beginning of summer for the daycare kids. I was spending a lot in food and most of their weekly tuition was going for food with very little in my pocket for bills (especially during the summmer!).

I feel my husband's pay buys our groceries and if we want to buy the more expensive foods for our family, we should...but is this selfish?? Parents in our area don't like to pay any more than they have to and I'm already pretty cheap. I try to make sure I serve the same foods during daycare the only difference is I serve my kids the brand names and the daycare kids off brands (store brands). Once in a while I have something my kids want that I don't have for my daycare kids and I let them because it's their house, their food...is that bad?? I always have something else to serve my daycare kids and a lot of times my 9 year old daycare girl pouts because of it....but seriously, I only get paid $75/week for 11 hours a day, 5 days a week for her (I have her sister too so I give the mom a discount for having both...$150/week in the summer). I'm feeding her breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack every day on $75/week!

Seems justified to me at how little I get per week with the hours I have the kids....Just curious how everyone else feels about it..

[momma2girls]

Do any of you separate your daycare food from your family foods?

I just recently started doing this and a part of me feels selfish and the other part feels justified.

I buy mostly brand name foods for my family and I have just started buying the off brand foods at the beginning of summer for the daycare kids. I was spending a lot in food and most of their weekly tuition was going for food with very little in my pocket for bills (especially during the summmer!).

I feel my husband's pay buys our groceries and if we want to buy the more expensive foods for our family, we should...but is this selfish?? Parents in our area don't like to pay any more than they have to and I'm already pretty cheap. I try to make sure I serve the same foods during daycare the only difference is I serve my kids the brand names and the daycare kids off brands (store brands). Once in a while I have something my kids want that I don't have for my daycare kids and I let them because it's their house, their food...is that bad?? I always have something else to serve my daycare kids and a lot of times my 9 year old daycare girl pouts because of it....but seriously, I only get paid $75/week for 11 hours a day, 5 days a week for her (I have her sister too so I give the mom a discount for having both...$150/week in the summer). I'm feeding her breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack every day on $75/week!

Seems justified to me at how little I get per week with the hours I have the kids....Just curious how everyone else feels about it..

WOW!! THis is such low pay!! Is this the going rate in your area???
I know we buy Schwan's stuff, I do not serve this to daycare, so I guess I do seperate daycare's food a little bit- I only make about $2.50 an hr. and I can only do so much on this pay!!! Let alone all the extra stuff you are buying, TP, kleenexes, soap, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, paper towels, batteries, books, toys, napkins, arts and crafts, ink, colors, color books, craft items, the list goes on and on and on.......

[momma2girls]

Do any of you separate your daycare food from your family foods?

I just recently started doing this and a part of me feels selfish and the other part feels justified.

I buy mostly brand name foods for my family and I have just started buying the off brand foods at the beginning of summer for the daycare kids. I was spending a lot in food and most of their weekly tuition was going for food with very little in my pocket for bills (especially during the summmer!).

I feel my husband's pay buys our groceries and if we want to buy the more expensive foods for our family, we should...but is this selfish?? Parents in our area don't like to pay any more than they have to and I'm already pretty cheap. I try to make sure I serve the same foods during daycare the only difference is I serve my kids the brand names and the daycare kids off brands (store brands). Once in a while I have something my kids want that I don't have for my daycare kids and I let them because it's their house, their food...is that bad?? I always have something else to serve my daycare kids and a lot of times my 9 year old daycare girl pouts because of it....but seriously, I only get paid $75/week for 11 hours a day, 5 days a week for her (I have her sister too so I give the mom a discount for having both...$150/week in the summer). I'm feeding her breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack every day on $75/week!

Seems justified to me at how little I get per week with the hours I have the kids....Just curious how everyone else feels about it..

Do all of your families need you 11 hrs/day?? THat is terrible!! You don't even make $2.00 an hr. It's only a little over $1.00 an hr. that is pathetic!!! I don't know how you are living and still doing daycare on this amt. plus everything you put into it- at this rate I would be so negative after taking off everything at the end of the year!!

[JenNJ]

Nothing wrong with that. I cerainly do not share all of my family's food with daycre kids. I have a meal plan for daycare hours and stick to it. Just because I have homemade chocolate chip cookies from a neighbor doesn't mean I am passing them out to my daycare kids.

[safechner]

I bought two separate brand names/brand store foods for my daughters and daycare kids. I don't serve the same foods for my daughters and daycare kids since I have two breakfast/dining rooms. Both of my daughters eat their breakfast/lunch in the dining room so the daycare kids can't see what they eat in the dining room when they are in the breakfast room. My daycare kids love to eat all of their foods from store foods so I don't have any problems with that. I don't think it is selfish because you need to buy crafts, colors, paints, curriculum, etc. It is not cheap to buy materials like that.

[melskids]

well, me personally, i wouldnt give my kids cookies and juice boxes in front of DC kids who are getting carrot sticks and water.... but if your giving your kids pepperidge farm 100% wheat bread, while the DC gets walmart wheat bread, that i dont see a problem with. however, in our house we ALL get store brands...

[Pammie]

I agree - I see nothing wrong with keeping your daycare food separate from your family food! In fact, it will help you tremendously on your taxes when you claim your food expense to be able to document different items

I've always had foods in my home that were for my family exclusively - and only rarely would any of the dc kids ever even notice. When one of the dc kids whines about it - and it's always a school-ager - my response is that they have special treats and things at their home that they don't have to share with everyone at daycare, and "whatever" here is the same. That's an explanation they seem to accept. However, when my own kids still lived here, just out of courtesy, they weren't allowed to eat things in front of the dc kids that they didn't want to share (but they could take the food into the tv room or into their bedrooms)

But now since my own kids are living away, I just hide any goodies/treats that I don't want the dc kids to see/beg for:-) Out of sight, out of mind::

[MarinaVanessa]

All of my DC food is kept seperate from my families food. I have a shelf in my pantry designated for DC only and one in my fridge and freezer as well. I also keep my families snacks (cookies, "good" cereal, juices etc.) in a pantry in the garage so the DC don't see them and ask for them. It also keeps my own household from eating them up all of the time. I don't however let my own daughter have "Family" food during DC hours. It's too much a temptation for the DC kids for her to be allowed to eat it in front of them. She knows (5yo) that if she wants "good cereal" (fruit loops, special breakfast etc) that she'd better get up early with me or she'll have Cheerios (or whatever I'm serving the DC kids) for breakfast.

I don't see anything wrong with seperating the two foods though. I even pay for DC food seperately than my family's food even if it's the same trip. Makes things easier for me to keep track of for tax purposes.

[Pammie]

I'm feeding her breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack every day on $75/week! .

Just curious why you serve breakfast plus a morning snack? I've found that when I started skipping the morning snack, kids ate better lunches, and I saved lots of money from not serving the snack, and not throwing away so much food at lunch time that the kids didn't want to eat/weren't hungry for.

Here I serve breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, and afternoon snack at 3:45. No more than 4 hours between meals, and the kids seem to do just fine.

[Bizzymom1111]

Are you on the food program? That helps alot! I buy my food at SAMs club so everything is in bulk- I don't really separate food. I guess it seems like too much work to do that when you already have to prepare meals for the dck's. IMO! Check out the food program though-also, I'd probably be charging more then $75/week especially when your serving that many meals and snacks!

[MarinaVanessa]

Just curious why you serve breakfast plus a morning snack? I've found that when I started skipping the morning snack, kids ate better lunches, and I saved lots of money from not serving the snack, and not throwing away so much food at lunch time that the kids didn't want to eat/weren't hungry for.

Here I serve breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, and afternoon snack at 3:45. No more than 4 hours between meals, and the kids seem to do just fine.

Not sure if she's on the food program but if she was then you have to offer it. For those like me that aren't actually on enrolled on the food program but still follow it's guidelines (what a child should be fed to stay healthy) then offering breakfast, AM snack, Lunch, and PM snack is the recommendation.

[melskids]

Just curious why you serve breakfast plus a morning snack? I've found that when I started skipping the morning snack, kids ate better lunches, and I saved lots of money from not serving the snack, and not throwing away so much food at lunch time that the kids didn't want to eat/weren't hungry for.

Here I serve breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, and afternoon snack at 3:45. No more than 4 hours between meals, and the kids seem to do just fine.

wow! i wish i could get away with that! breakfast is 8:30, lunch 11:30-12:00, and snack at 3:00. they dont finish any of their meals, and are contantly complaining theyre hungry and begging for food. the SA are the worst and driving me bonkers this summer!!!!

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

WOW!! THis is such low pay!! Is this the going rate in your area???

The going rate in my area for one full time school age kids is $100/week...I am not sure what kind of discounts other daycare's in my area give a family. I get $100/week for the 2 school girls during school days for before/after care where I average about 4 hours each day with them during school so that equals out to about $2.50/hour each during the school year. This was one of my first families and yes, I cut her the BEST deal and I know I could be making more on them..I'm just afraid if I raise my rates on her, she will find other means of care and these girls are good kids. Plus she ALWAYS pays without issue and never uses any free days even though they are offered if the kids are not here. Now if these kids were "monsters" I wouldn't bother, .

I get $125/week for my infant-Pre-K. I have one full time 10 hours/day and one I get $100/week for part time care 5 hours/day..plus my school age neice just for the summer (she's 10 years old)...so I can afford to opperate but yes, all those extras do add up...I have been buying the oriental trading crafts to keep the kids busy...saving on food is a must.

[misol]

Totally nothing wrong with this. There is nothing in the food program or licensing standards (not in VA anyway) that indicate the use of specific brand names so you are well within your right to do this. Especially if your daycare kids are like mine and you end up throwing away most of the food you serve them anyway

I typically buy a mix of name brands and off-brands for my own family. I tried the method of buying all off-brands for dc kids but I found that I ended up wasting MORE money because the off-brand items would spoil before the dc kids could get through them. So now I am back to feeding them what we eat.

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

wow! i wish i could get away with that! breakfast is 8:30, lunch 11:30-12:00, and snack at 3:00. they dont finish any of their meals, and are contantly complaining theyre hungry and begging for food. the SA are the worst and driving me bonkers this summer!!!!

Same here! My 9 year old daycare girl is VERY picky...if she doesn't like our main meal, it's peanut butter/jelly, which EVERY day she doesn't like my main meal so she gets a sandwich plus all the sides (fruit/veggies) which she doesn't touch...she says she's not hungry when I ask her if she's going to eat it... but then not even an hour later she's asking me what is for snack!! EVERY single day. Drives me batty!

No, I don't do the food program...I know i should be, but honestly I have been VERY overwhelmed with everything I need to catch up on..I don't want to start it right now. (I have a family of 4 girls and keeping up with everything is very difficult right now!).

For tax reasons...don't you guys get a standard meal rate instead of saving all grocery receipts? That's how I did it last year.