What % of your disposable income is your cleaner?

[roses2]

My cleaner has just gone back to her home country and I’m debating whether or not to replace her.

I’ve worked out I am paying her 25% of my disposable income after bills etc which seems quite high. The rest of my disposable income goes into our savings with the odd treat like a takeaway once every 3 months or a long haul holiday once every 5 years (we have a small annual holiday to the Mediterranean each summer to see MIL).

What % your leftover income are you paying your cleaner and at what point does it stop being worthwhile? I think I am close to reaching that point.

2 hours every fortnight. It represents less than 0.1% of disposable income.

depends what you mean by disposable income? you seem to have a very narrow definition as it doesn't include eg clothes, socialising, or even your annual mediterranean holiday.

I understand your question but for us, the cleaner is such an essential expense because we are so time poor, that her bill is just part of "the bills" like the electricity bill.

So it's deducted before I get to my disposable income rather than being part of the disposable income.

We have very little disposable income after "the bills". But we'd rather have the cleaner than the money.

About 2%? We pay £136 a month.

I gave up my cleaner last year. I found the rates of cleaners going up and up. Near me £18-20ph is the norm with 3 hours minimum. Also finding someone really good and reliable was hard. I worked out I’d rather spend the money on other stuff.

0%

If I really struggled to afford a cleaner I don't think I would have one. Or maybe cut it down. Or just have a one off clean once in a while.

Around 1%, but we have a cleaner/housekeeper who is in for a few hours twice a week. I would sacrifice many things before letting her go.

Try managing without for a bit, you might find you can use the money for some handy cleaning products or things to make your life easier.

2% of my monthly income. I certainly wouldn’t have one if the % was that high. It’s a luxury I’ve only recently invested in

Surely if your DH isn't working then he can be doing the cleaning anyway and you don't need a cleaner?

Same here. I’ve just worked it out and it’s around 20% if I include it in our disposable income but I’m disabled and can’t clean like I used to so it’s essential for us. We just treat it like any other regular bill.

Not if he cleans anything like his mum! I was brought up in a house where my parents clean every day. His mum hoovers once every 3 months. Me and DH have very different views on what clean means.

Ours is 140 a month. So that is circa 10% of my income after mortgage, bills etc. I think of food, vet bills, car expenses and petrol etc as part of 'disposable' income bit it's probably not really.

Yes, but what does he do all day then?
He isn't working, so isn't contributing financially liek he used to. There's no reason why the cost of the cleaner can't be cut and made into his "job"... a list of things that need doing weekly (bed linen, groceries etc), things that need doing daily (wiping surfaces, dishes etc) and things that get done a few times a week (laundry, hoovering etc).

If he goes back to work, ye can agree and budget a cleaner again?

Wow, at about £20 an hour for a cleaner your disposable income must be over £80k a month. If I had that kind of money I’d have my cleaner round every day!

Thank you for doing the maths, this reply stopped me in my tracks too 🤣

We don’t consider our cleaner part of our disposable income. For us it’s a necessity so is part of our monthly bills budget (£100 pm).