A Few Newbie Questions

[SignMeUp]

I also have been gifted many many things from my parents, from bouncers to diaper genies. Some give them to me, and some offer to sell them, but it is definitely nicer when they donate them to us.

I also put all enrollment fees, late fees, and late payment fees in the daycare account. It gives me money to buy daycare things with, without feeling like I am spending my personal money, and also keeps me on a budget.

I love it too, when parents pass things down to me. And it's so sweet when a three year old brings in their "old toys" for his littler friends. Though a couple of times they went back home with the original owner::

I put all late fees in my Pizza Account Somehow I lose any upset I had when I order food happyface (not to say you don't have a great idea for keeping your budget in check - you do )

[sahm1225]

Agree with cradle that quality program doesn't mean expensive toys. I've been open for 5 years now and oy a handful of things were purchased new. Craigslist, garage sales, daycare closing sales, thrift stores, etc. One of my dear neighbors knows I have a daycare so she started asking her friends to donate to the daycare.

- We had a Dcd that worked in shipping, he brought us a case of different sized boxes for the kids to build & decorate.
- My husband used to work at an electronic retail store and they used to throw away the demo cell phones so we ended up with a case of pretend cell phones.
- I asked our dentist if they could donate things for dental awareness month and they gave us toothbrushes & toothpaste
- we have a new large chain grocery store that opened up walking distance from us. We took lots of field trips there to buy fruits & veggies for the week. Then one day the manager sent their staff with lots of samples for us to try (orange juice, yogurt, cookies, etc).
- our local library will make book theme packages for us if we ask. They were even willing to host a special Story time slot for us
- one of our daycare grandmas is a bargain thrift store hunter. If we ever need anything, she finds it for us for dirt cheap!
- one of our old dcm used to work at a doctors office. She would bring us the face masks for the kids to play pretend doctor
- one of our dcm worked for an office that was tossing all their legal
Size paper. She asked them to give it to us instead of recycling it. That was over a year ago and we still have legal paper
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[misslori50]

I actually asked my friends on facebook for help. i got a bunch of great stuff that way. I traded for somethings too. When i was yard selling I was told people I was opening a childcare and people gave me great deals and even free stuff

[Childminder]

1) How do you do this on a budget? I see oh, so many things I would love to have for "my" kids, but I just can't afford them. Even trying to just buy one little thing at a time sometimes is too much for me. I'm at 50% capacity right now and even when I'm full, I just don't make very much money. How do you run a "quality" program with "quality" toys and supplies etc. on a childcare provider's salary? (My husband works but we probably make, I don't know, roughly 25,000 or 30,000 a year combined. It's enough to get by on, but there's nothing left to put back into the playroom.) I'm operating on hand me downs and old stuff right now. My own My Little Ponies from the 80s are in there. I don't think I have ever bought new. Garage sales, thrift sales and craiglist(especially the free listings). Plus I ask for or am asked by parents if they want to donate, especially old out grown toys. I have one dad that works for a printer and NEVER buy paper! Contact your local printer for roll ends and scraps

2) "I wuv you, Ms. Xxx!" How do you reply? Thank You!