If you have children and you work a full time or even a part time job you are already aware of how expensive child care is. In fact for many families it is not worth having two parents working because of how much money is paid into child care each month, it actually makes sense for one parent to stay home just to save that extra expense. But in some cases having a parent stay at home is not an option so you need to place your child or children in child care and the more kids you have the more expensive this expense ends up being.

So instead of paying everything that you make to child care what you are going to want to do is to figure out if there is any way that you can save money on child care. But the one thing that you want to keep in mind is that you do not want to sacrifice the quality of child care you are looking for. Just because you get a cheap price doesn't mean that you should get a cheap service, especially where your kids are concerned.

Here are some tips that you can follow to help save money on child care without sacrificing the quality of care that your kids are receiving.

Tip one:
Check with your employer to see if they offer a child acre flexible spending account. This is a special account that was created by the Internal Revenue Service that allows you to set aside money for child care out of your pre-tax dollars, what that means is that before taxes are taken out you get to set aside so much money for child care and then your income is taxed. The best part about this is that as long as you use this method the money that you are paying for child care is considered to be tax free and that also means that come the end of the year you will have a lower taxable income. But how the account works is that you tell your employer how much you want taken out of your check each pay period and they take that money out and set it aside and then you withdraw the money to pay for child care as needed. Keep in mind that not all employers offer this type of flexible spending account, but more employers are being to adopt this practice each year.

Tip two:
See if your employer has any kind of partnerships with any local child care agencies or see if they can get discounts from any of the child care agencies in your area. In some places the larger companies will often negotiate discount plans with the local child care providers so that it can help to offset your child care costs.

Tip three:
You should also look to see if your company offers their own child care services. Many larger companies are starting to offer on site child care services for their employees and if you work for the company you can receive huge discounts or perhaps in some cases free child care. The reason that these places can offer these big discounts is because they are also open to the general public but at a higher rate. And the best part is that the companies employees get first place in signing up for the day care before it becomes open enrollment.

Tip four:
Depending on how long you have worked for your company or what position you have one thing that you can do is to approach your employer about paying a portion of your child care costs. Some employers will actually pay up to 50% of your child care costs just to keep a valuable employee around. This method isn't very common and is mostly seen in small successful companies, but you won't know if this will work unless you try.

Tip five:
Ask your employer if there is anyway that they would be open to your working various hours so that you can only use child care on an as needed basis. But you can also check with them to see if they allow job sharing or even telecommuting which for the most part would eliminate your need for child care or at least cut down the days that you need child care. But these options can all be used to help juggle your schedule and reduce the amount of time that you need child care for which will cut down on your overall costs.

Tip six:
Many public schools also offer a half day pre-kindergarten program for children who are 4 years old and getting ready to go into kindergarten the following year. And for the most part this program is usually free. But it will help save you money because instead of having to pay for a full day of child care you will only need to pay for a half day of child care which costs quite a bit less.

Tip seven:
If you have really good friends that require child care or even a group of your neighbors that need child care you should consider hiring a nanny to provide care for all of your children. This is great because it allows you to share the expenses of child care with a wide group of people which helps ease the burden.

Tip eight:
See if you can hire a close friend or relative to help you with child care. If grandparents are fully retired see if they will help out and watch your kids. This doesn't even have to be full time even just having a friend or relative watch them a few days a week will help cut down on the amount of time that they are spending at day care which helps you save money.

Tip nine:
If you and your spouse work you can try to ensure that your schedules don't overlap by too much, meaning one work at night while one works during the day or even one works swing shift while the other works days. This can reduce the number of hours that your child will need care which increases the chances of getting a retired grandparent to help out because it is not a full day of care.

Tip ten:
Make sure that you look into child care subsidies. You are going to want to check to see if you qualify for any of the subsidies and programs that are offered at local, state and even federal levels. What will determine if you qualify is going to be your income level and how many members of the household there are.

Tip eleven:
Consider taking your child to a church operated child care program, even if you are not a member of any church. These can be good choices because many times the child care programs and the schools that the churches operate offer some kind of financial assistance to many parents that come there, whether you are single or married.

Tip twelve:
If you have more than one child enrolled in the same child care facility you need to check to see if they offer any kind of discounts for siblings. Many places will charge you the highest amount for one child, not to mention the highest rate that applies. But after that you might be able to get a 10% discount off the other children's rates.

Tip thirteen:
If your children are already in school for a full day you should check to see if there school offers any kind of after school program that they can attend. Many times the community or even the county offers some kind of after school recreation program at various schools for children to attend that is supervised. But some schools also offer after school child care for a lower rate than regular child cares.

Tip fourteen:
See if you can start a co-op with other parents who have children around the same age as yours. This allows for each parent to go into work or even work from home without having to worry about paying a sitter. Keep in mind with co-ops this means that you are also going to have to take your turn when it comes to minding the other kids so this won't really work for a full time job that requires you to commute in.

Tip fifteen:
If you only need child acre during the summer you should see if any local high school kids are looking for baby sitting jobs. Or you can even look for college students who are looking to make some extra money on the side or who are looking for more experience with kids because of their major.  Hiring high school or even college students can usually be done at a cheaper rate than child care centers but you still don't want to under pay them because you are still saving money in the long run.