NCE&PR: What to Pay House/Petsitter?

[decemberwedding07]

What do you think would be a fair amount to pay a 19 year old college student, who isn't taking summer classes, to stay overnight and clean two litter boxes? We are going to ask DH's niece to take care of our two cats and spend the night at our house for 10 days. $40/day? $50? I seriously have no idea what's fair. Her parents live about 20 min from our house (straight shot on the freeway) and I don't know if she'll want to go back over to their house during the day. If she did, that would cost a bit in gas over the course of 10 days. When I was 19, I would have jumped at the opportunity to make $400 over the summer in 10 days, but I just have no idea what's reasonable at all. Any suggestions?

**We would also either stock our house with food for her or leave her with a grocery card**

[basilosaurus]

I've usually paid whatever it would cost to board, so about $15-20/day. But I'm usually only asking friends who would likely do it for less/free.

[redheadbaker]

I'd offer $20 a day.

[kcb]

I pay 25-30/day for 3 dogs, 1cat. i provide some groceries. sitter has to stay overnight.

[msmerymac]

Jun 25, 2012 17:06:00 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I've usually paid whatever it would cost to board, so about $15-20/day. But I'm usually only asking friends who would likely do it for less/free.

Same. I get a deal because it's a little cheaper, they get easy money.

[twotrue]

I just paid $90 for 3 days 2 night. I have 2 large dogs and the sitter stayed at my house. I would think for cats $20 to $30 is very reasonable. Particularly since she is a teen with nothing else going on.

sent from phone

[emilyj]

Last year I paid a former college student of mine $200 to house/cat sit for me for 2 weeks. I bought grocery basics for her, and said she could come and go at will as long as she was there every night to sleep (she had a f/t job), and give the cat attention.

That broke down to about $14/day, with food provided for her.

[ESF]

It costs me $40 a night to board my dog, so that is what I would have said, but then I read the other posters, and apparently I pay a lot.

[basilosaurus]

Jun 25, 2012 21:46:43 GMT -5 ESF said:

It costs me $40 a night to board my dog, so that is what I would have said, but then I read the other posters, and apparently I pay a lot.

It would cost me that for the doggy daycare type boarding.

It also varies by location. My kennel in Omaha, which was awesome and free range (they even let my baby in the house b/c they liked her) was like $12/day for a large dog, discounts for longer stays. But I've paid $25/day for some shit little cage without even an indoor/outdoor run.

I did watch my neighbor's cats in high school, but I didn't stay there (I lived across the street). I think I stopped by 3 times a day. I want to say we got less than $10/day which, honestly, was about the amount of work we put in.

[ESF]

Jun 25, 2012 21:54:37 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Jun 25, 2012 21:46:43 GMT -5 ESF said:

It costs me $40 a night to board my dog, so that is what I would have said, but then I read the other posters, and apparently I pay a lot.

It would cost me that for the doggy daycare type boarding.

It also varies by location. My kennel in Omaha, which was awesome and free range (they even let my baby in the house b/c they liked her) was like $12/day for a large dog, discounts for longer stays. But I've paid $25/day for some shit little cage without even an indoor/outdoor run.

I did watch my neighbor's cats in high school, but I didn't stay there (I lived across the street). I think I stopped by 3 times a day. I want to say we got less than $10/day which, honestly, was about the amount of work we put in.

My dog sitter is amazing. She takes all the dogs on a two hour long hike every day, and just lets them all live in her house and have free roam. Maddie gets to sleep in bed with either her or her son. Sometimes her son and his girlfriend take Maddie on a second walk because they like her so much. Then every night they send me pictures. So I fork over the $40 without complaining because I don't want my dog to have to sleep on a cold floor and I want pictures. My dog is too spoiled.

Looking back, when I was in high school and would feed my neighbors' cats, I got a few bucks a day. Cats are easier than dogs, but I wasn't changing litter boxes because these were outdoor cats. I think that $15-$20/day is probably fair.

[decemberwedding07]

Thanks! Our kennel charges $35/night for the two of them... I guess anything in the $20-$35 range could be considered reasonable? We don't have TV reception, though we obviously have wifi. Does that make a difference? Should there be some sort of no TV/day hardship allowance? Oh, and we don't have a microwave... We don't have one because in the 8 years we've been here,we've never needed one, but I'm told by many people that this makes us strange and that microwaves are necessary for survival.