How to save on the au pair

Lukas Clancy was having to work hard. The five-year-old publishing business he was helping to manage was not yet out of losses so his salary was being limited to £52,000 - no bonuses of course - and he and his wife were £3,000 down in cashflow every year. On the plus side, his wife was working with the Civil Service and her pension alone would cover £600,000 of the £1m they needed for financial independence. However, their overdraft was mounting up. It was their children's daycare costs that were the problem - £12,000 a year for their nanny, from which they deducted PAYE and national insur...