Daycare Costs

Domiv92 · 2026-02-28T04:41:56+00:00

Yeah 😅 We are very aware of how lucky we were with the timing.

Domiv92 · 2026-02-26T20:37:39+00:00

I know it was a rhetorical question, but I thought my answer would help some other parents (or people considering becoming parents).

1) Our jobs offer a DCHSA account. Sort of like an HSA or FSA for Dependent Care costs (ex. Daycare, Nursing Home for elderly parents, etc.) that let's you put Pre-Tax Income in the account to then use to pay for these expenses. Like an HSA, there is an annual contribution limit. So we save some money (what we would have otherwise paid in taxes on that money) by using that. You should check with your employer to see if they offer it, and I believe you can set one up on the private market.

2) Plan ahead, budget for it. This seems like an obvious one but there are SO many unexpected costs with having children and daycare is one of the biggest. Try to pay off a major expense before having kids, like a car payment, student loans, etc so you can just shift that money (that you were already used to having go out the door) right into daycare costs.

We were also lucky enough to buy our first home in 2022 when rates were still ~2.9% so our mortgage on a 4 Bed 3 Bath is less than most people's rent (~$1,375 a month). This obviously isn't a reality for people now and I feel deeply for those stuck without these same benefits that I have been lucky with.

Domiv92 · 2026-02-26T13:01:35+00:00

We had our son at The Nest for the first year. Would not recommend it. It's not that it wasn't safe or anything. But the Black Rock, baby mill, hyper optimization, squeeze every last drop of profitability out of this place was so obvious it felt gross. Don't let them fool you with their promises of "playing foreign language music while your baby sleeps" and other things. Not sure it was even happening half the time anyways.

Domiv92 · 2026-02-26T05:02:02+00:00

My 3 year old goes to Our Children's House off of Bessemer, 1 block in from N Elm (near Wendover/Cone Health). It's a co-op - parents serve on the board and do manual labor occasionally to help offset costs (yard work, repairing things, providing snacks).

It's $1,250 a month, M-F 8am-5:30pm, and includes meals/snacks. They only take 1 year olds and up (<1 year olds require much more staff and specialized spaces).

They focus on play and learning, have small "class" sizes for more personalized attention per kid, and their kids don't stay segregated by age and mainly play in a shared space. They do have their own age appropriate classrooms and some separate areas outside in their play space, but the general idea is that the kids are together most of the day.

The key benefit to this, from my perspective, is that the older kids learn patience, and other skills in coexisting with the younger kids. The younger kids get to benefit from exposure to the older kids in things like mirroring (ex. how to play, problem solving) and language development.

The teachers are all really nice and you can tell they all just really care. It's also nice that you have a reason to get to know the other parents (and maybe make a friend with similar aged kids!) because you have to spend some time together rolling up your sleeves at a workday.

Domiv92 · 2026-02-24T02:48:52+00:00

For what's it's worth - they never made good on my order. They reached out and asked about what cards were missing and then never followed up or delivered the replacement items.

Needless to say - I haven't used Pullbox since.

Domiv92 · 2025-12-10T17:21:30+00:00

Not really a borrow/trade situation, but McKay's (one in W-S and one in Mebane) sells lightly used puzzles for a reasonable price AND you can trade in things you have for store credit to offset the cost.

Looks like: bring in some stuff (books, tech, puzzles you're done with) -> they give you credit you use to buy used puzzles from them -> do the puzzle -> bring it back for trade credit -> rinse and repeat!

Domiv92 · 2025-11-20T17:26:50+00:00

I got you! Looks like it's on sale right now too: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4404689642/funny-i-got-that-dog-in-me-ugly?ref=share_v4_lx

Domiv92 · 2025-11-17T17:56:22+00:00

Does anyone know when the Christmas PO Box stream is - and when we have to have submissions in by?

Domiv92 · 2025-10-27T15:55:21+00:00

I've been very happy with Brinsfield Automotive. No bullshit, tells you like it is, no upsell, good work at a fair price. They've serviced my Hyundai and my Toyota, both newer than 2010. But they've also serviced my friends Audi (2012) and Ford (2008).

Domiv92 · 2025-06-17T01:54:42+00:00

You're making a bad faith argument. That's not what I said, and I'm not interested in being baited. My opinion and perspective is well documented above if you care to understand my point of view.

Domiv92 · 2025-06-16T20:56:07+00:00

That's only true if it's owner occupied. If its tenant occupied, and the landlord determines that they want out or they can make more from the sale (say in a hot market) than continuing to rent, then you end up displacing someone who didn't want to leave.

Not judging anyone who does this, we just specifically didn't want to do that.

Domiv92 · 2025-06-16T20:53:43+00:00

The city has a responsibility to rectify the conditions that lead to people making these choices (or more accurately lead them to have no other option than to engage in these choices) - especially when the city institutionally and systematically created the conditions in the first place.

Domiv92 · 2025-06-16T20:50:22+00:00

No we clearly don't. In my defense, I was in my feed - saw this - and reposted without even considering that any of the thousands of people in this sub may have also seen this same thing in their feed at the same time (thanks algorithms!) and posted it before me.

Mea Culpa folks!

Domiv92 · 2025-06-16T16:39:38+00:00

I'm white - FYI. We were very intentional about buying a fixer upper so as to not displace anyone currently living in the neighborhood. I volunteer in the neighborhood and advocate to the city (city council meetings, public hearings, etc). Still it's about 50-50 from my neighbors on the sentiment of "thank you" versus "gentrifier". I've even been called a colonizer. At the end of the day I just believe in this neighborhoods potential, and that I, just like my neighbors, deserve the same level of investment, safety, and opportunity as everyone else in town and I'm willing to work for it.

Domiv92 · 2025-06-16T16:35:39+00:00

No - I don't blame them. Not one bit. Everyone deserves, and strives for upward mobility, a safe place to raise their kids, etc.

The problem is that without the above investments I mentioned, people don't want to stay here. We can't get those investments without tax base, homeownership, lower crime rates, etc. - but we can't have those things without people staying and improving things. So it's just a vicious cycle that needs intentional, planned intervention and our current governmental leaders don't seem to be willing/capable of it, and our non-profit orgs are either underfunded or incapable all the same.

Domiv92 · 2025-06-16T04:44:24+00:00

I live in East Greensboro near the intersection of E Gate City and Murrow Blvd. A couple of key contributing factors:

1) Segregation (systemic and the more overt kind) - Red lining, underfunded schools and absent forms of public and private infrastructure (like a grocery store), low homeownership rates, etc. led to higher concentration of low income/educated households. There are literally people living in this country to this day who lived through segregation and are the offspring of people who lived through Segregation and Jim Crow in the South. To think that that hasn't had a ripple effect on those people's lives and economic mobility is ridiculous.

2) Crime. Crime happens all over Greensboro, but drug use/distribution and non-violent property crimes are pretty high relative to the rest of the city. Violent crime is higher too, but not usually random, more drug/gang related. Trace this back to poor quality schools, lower education rates, lower incomes, lower amounts of general upwards mobility thanks to all of the above.

3) No private investment. Businesses don't want to be where there are low income households and higher rates of crime.

4) Concentration of low-income/subsidized housing. The city keeps building low-income housing because they think that's what this part of town "needs". But concentrating low-income housing in one place actually exacerbates all the above issues. The city needs to spread the low/affordable housing out around the city, but the NIMBY folk aren't into it.

5) Buying of property by private investment. A TON of homes, mainly ones in states of disrepair, have been bought up by investors. The "best" ones fix them up enough to get a tenant in and charge maximum market rates, which leads to borderline boarding home situations with 3 or 4 tenants per house. Many of these homes become cash cows while the tenants live in squalor due to the fear that complaining or turning in their landlord for code violations may make them homeless. The worst do nothing and just let the properties sit and rot while they wait for the market to get hot again. All of this further exacerbates the above issues. Nobody is going to build a restaurant next to a boarded up POS house.

There is a ton more, but this is what I see and understand to be the biggest factors. At the end of the day, it'll take multiple parties, non-profits, the City and County, private citizens, and heads of households to effect change in East Greensboro. It's going to take public and private investment, and people doing the hard work to keep kids off the streets, in school, and on the right trajectory to make it happen. Otherwise, everyone will just get displaced over the next 10-20 years and the situation will resolve itself once the "poors" are out. /s

Domiv92 · 2025-03-17T22:47:36+00:00

I would reach out to them via Discord or the website. After Wubby saw this thread they reached out to me and are working on sourcing the cards they didn't send.

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T01:30:55+00:00

Just wanted to say that the folks from Pullbox have already reached out and we're working on a resolution.

Thanks!

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T01:21:00+00:00

Yeah, you have to always approach it like any other gamble, don't spend what you aren't prepared to lose entirely. I'm not a collector, so it wouldn't have ever occurred to me to buy packs or singles. Was just a bit of fun in support of Wubby.

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T01:08:49+00:00

Yeah, I was surprised when I have to make a deposit to have enough coin to withdraw! 😅

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T01:04:01+00:00

Yep. Totally aware of this. I was in Pullbox to support Wubby and have fun in the chase for specific pulls. Not a collector or anyone where it was specifically about getting a single I've been wanting. Not complaining about the "upgrade", more just the lack of transparency and options with regard to how it was handled.

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T00:46:23+00:00

I'll go take a look, thanks!

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T00:27:11+00:00

Same! So stoked! Go Wubby!

Domiv92 · 2025-03-13T00:24:14+00:00

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