Do you buy your groceries separate?

[LittleMunchkins]

Just curious, when claiming for food expenses, how do you keep it separate? Do you buy stuff for your family and then the daycare on a different bill? I forgot to save all of my receipts this year, so I guess I am SOL to claim it.

[little rascals]

I buy everything at the a same time and then just highlight what was for the dayhome. I not sure if thats the way to go because this is my first year doing taxes for a dayhome so I hope that is fine.

[Bugaboo]

I pay for everything separate which usually means I have two orders at the store.

[Spixie33]

I am not sure how you could put it on a separate bill because the daycare food and family food intertwines.
I cook a large batch of food that lasts for my family's dinner as well as the daycare's lunch the next day. Also snacks I might buy go to my own children as well as the daycare children so not sure how that would be possible to keep separate or on different receipts.
My accountant said that some portion of my groceries is covered. I forget what percentage.
basically I save all my grocery receipts and enter them into my spreadsheet and then I give my accountant the spreadsheet every year and he does some sort of formula for whatever portion I am allowed to claim.

[Play and Learn]

I am not sure how you could put it on a separate bill because the daycare food and family food intertwines.
I cook a large batch of food that lasts for my family's dinner as well as the daycare's lunch the next day. Also snacks I might buy go to my own children as well as the daycare children so not sure how that would be possible to keep separate or on different receipts.
My accountant said that some portion of my groceries is covered. I forget what percentage.
basically I save all my grocery receipts and enter them into my spreadsheet and then I give my accountant the spreadsheet every year and he does some sort of formula for whatever portion I am allowed to claim.

Same here.

[fruitloop]

I buy all the groceries together. Come tax time I charge $7/child and this gives me a rough estimate as to how much I spent on groceries for the year for them. It's worked well so far and I've never been audited for it (knock on wood) and I save all my grocery receipt so that if I ever do...they can figure it out, lol.

[lori123]

I think its close to 25-35% depending on how long your kids are here, how many kids you have...I think also I have charged $8-10/child in the past. I can't recall the exact amount, that is up to my accountant to figure it out ....I keep all my receipts, and don't buy separately....that would be more chaotic for me - i would rather keep it all together and then add it up and submit the final total figure to the accountant to take a percentage out of it. Hope that helps!

[playfelt]

I buy all the groceries together. There are several ways you can calculate daycare meal expenses. One is to make up your menu and then cost it out - which pulls from the grocery bills the daycare items. You can also use your entire grocery bill and then portion it out using the formula that 2 snacks = meal and 2 kid meals = an adult meal. So for instance one meal and two snacks = 2 meals per day per child so 10 meals x 5 days = 50 daycare meals. You do the same for family which will be different for everyone depending on if you pack a lunch to send to school or work with hubby or if they eat out. Include the weekends for your family. Take the total of meals eaten and divide that number into the total grocery bill to get a per meal price and figure out the daycare percentage. I have done it different ways and given my current family situation it works out to about 50% of my grocery bill is daycare since it is just my husband who doesn't take a lunch to work, myself and one child at home. Remember if you order out for pizza that can be added to the grocery total since it accounts for 1-2 meals or add the meals served up weekly and jut don't count only a snack for a pizza meal (the assumption being you had a drink or dessert from food already in the house). It sounds a lot more complicated then it is but the key is that as long as you can substantiate that you used some sort of method consistently for the year to determine your claim then your claim will likely hold up in an audit.

[mom-in-alberta]

If you are buying items specifically for the daycare, but checking out on one bill; separate the items at the register, and get the cashier to "sub-total" in between. It creates a visible division on the receipt, on which you can indicate which purchase was personal and which was for the daycare.
That said; I also just claim a portion of everything.

[mlc1982]

The $7-10 that a couple of you speak of ... is that per child, per day?? And that would be a total for breakfast/lunch/snacks I'm guessing??