I usually use 50% of what I could earn as the amount to plan on as my earnings. Remember some of what you can claim you would have been doing anyways such as paying utilities, etc. Some years it is more or less but a good ball park figure to think about. The idea being if a child pays $25-30 a day then $15 is for meals, craft supplies, etc. and put away for replacing equipment and the other $10-15 is income and then multiply that by the number of kids in care. Also you will lose the benefits of work so may have to find an alternate source and pay, etc. so other things to look at. Biggest mistake in this business is a person taking what they were paying in childcare fees and thinking ok well if I just stay home and instead of paying $200 a week in daycare I care for 5 kids that is $1000 of income ok better than my job. They forget not all of that is income. But $500 a week isn't shabby either.