so my lovely childminder is baby-sitting for us tonight-how much should I pay her?

[CatIsSleepy]

dh tried to ask her yesterday how much she wanted for baby-sitting as she is kindly holding onto dd tonight while dh and I go out to celebrate our anniversary....but apparently she was 'evasive' and didn't really specify

was thinking £5 per hour, does that sound right?

This wont be much help but I used to get £5 a night!!! But that was 20 years ago!! I imagine it's gone up a lot since then!
I would have thought it would depend on how long you'll be....if your only gonna be say 2 hours then £10 is a bit crap considering she will prob have given her night up. On the other hand if you're all night then id say £5 an hour was pretty fair....not sure what minimum wage is now???
She was probably evasive because of embarrassment. I hate talking about money.

Sounds low to me, but it will vary by area. In my area surrey/berks £10 per hour is not unusal.
I would suggest double the childminding rate and round up to a note, say £20.

well she's normally pretty straightforward about stuff so was a bit surprised she didn't give dh an answer
mind you i wish I'd asked her myself
we'll be out for about 4 hours so would work out at £20

we pay her £35 per day to mind dd but I appreciate evening is normally her free time so am happy to pay more

£10 an hour, really? blimey that's steep
we live in SE London mind you nor surrey or berks

We pay £7 an hour and taxi home (Central London)

well she's looking after dd in her house so no need to pay a taxi fare...

I would ask her at end of evening what you owe her

if dd is at your cm, i take it you will have to uproot dd when you pick her up after your night out, ie when she is asleep

isnt it easier to get bs to come to you?

£10an hr is the norm where i am as well

yes we'll have to uproot dd to take her home but have done this before eg when we have spent evening at my sister's and she's gone to sleep in the travelcot

dh and i both work in london so are treating ourselves to a rare night out in town-seemed easier in this case just to leave dd for the evening with our CM
seems easier for the CM

it'll be our first night out together in actual proper London (as opposed to locally) since dd was born and I'm quite excited!

i suggested £5 as when we were looking around for babysitters a while ago i think that's what one 'professional' babysitter was charging

not just me being stingy honest

hope you have a lovely time (sure much needed) as as you are both in london does make more sense for dd to go to bed at your cm

as I said i charge £10ph, but depends on your area etc, I would ask her, maybe send text and ask what she you owe her so you can get cash out of bank

Well I'm guessing she's over 22 so national minnimum wage is £5.52 so I would pay her more than that what about £6 an hour - works out at (£24 - so would give £25 and a bottle of wine ) Have Fun

thanks imananny
yes maybe I should just ask her! wish she had just told dh yesterday tbh, i hate guessing games...

dynamic-that sounds like a good idea

I'm in SW London and charge £8 phr for a minimum of 4 hours. Some people think I charge too much and others think I don't charge enough but I am happy with that amount. However since she is doing it in her own home then more convinient for her.

I wouldn't 'leave it to her' as such as you don't want to be caught out...("sorry, can I bring you that extra fiver on MOnday "). Also, you wouldn't want an awkward situation to happen which could be a bit disruptive to your normal working relationship. I would say £7-8 is fine for London, but I personally think some discount is okay (£6?)if it's at her place.

When I baby sat for a family I mind for, they paid me £7 per hour ( I was evasive and didn't want to say anything!) which suited me fine!

I am in east midlands and charge £10 an hr with a min of £30 on weeknights and £40 on weekends.

thanks for all your input

so in the end I texted her before I left work...and she said she really didn't want paying bless her
told you she was lovely!

but would like to get her a little something to say thanks...trouble is i have no idea if her and her dh drink wine or if so what they like...and bought her flowers and chocolates for her birthday a couple of weeks ago so....so what can I get??

she must be lovely

how about a pamper voucher if you dont want to go down the wine/flowers/choc route

did you have a nice night?

An M & S voucher?

I charge £9 per hour - SW london

But I'm a CM so see it as overtime