I charge 36-40$ per day (some are older clients). I took home 18000$ this year but had about 1700$ in daycare expenses ( I'm still in my first year so a lot of it was start up costs) and that's still not including groceries. I paid 11000$ in groceries this year but not sure how my accountant divides the number up for daycare vs for my family. I generally like to have 3 spots filled but I was down a few times to just 1 or 2 because of clients leaving unexpectedly. I have learned my lesson the hard way, now I keep advertising even when I don't have an empty spot so that when a spot does become available at the last minute I have a waiting list.