How much to pay 2 girls to water deck plants for a week?

[laurajetter]

I would like to ask two sisters (ages 12 and 14) one street over from us to come water our plants that are outside on the deck for a week while we’re on vacation. There are 5 plants in medium and large pots and 2 in small pots). I’m friendly with the mom, and I’ve gotten the opportunity to know both the girls well when they participated as helpers in a special needs classroom where I work… they’re very kind and responsible girls who have a great relationship with each other, that’s why I was thinking of offering the job to both of them as sort of a team effort (but also leaving it open to it just being one of them, if they prefer).

I’m stumped about how much to offer them, though! I’ve done a quick search online but got such a huge range of answers it didn’t help much. Factors to think about:

- I want to make it worth their while, but also don’t want to break the bank.

- It most likely will be both of them, so the amount each gets would be lower than if just one did all the work. I’m thinking to offer x amount per kid, but if they decide for only one to do it then that kid would get double x amount… does that sound reasonable?

- Some of the larger pots may not need water every day, but the small ones probably would on hot days (doesn’t take much for them to dry out), so they’d still need to come over anyway at least for those. If it’s a rainy day they wouldn’t need to come. Not sure how to take all this into account for how much I offer them.

Any suggestions?

ETA: Thanks for the responses so far. Another question for those talking about a price per day per girl... Do I wait until I get back to find out how many days they came over (in case there were any days it rained and they didn't need to come), or do I just pay all 7 days worth and don't bother asking exactly how many days for fear of sounding petty?

 

[Buzz Rules]

$20 each for the week.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think $10 a day is fine. My neighbor pays my daughters $350 a week to water her plants, unfortunately this year none of my daughters are available and I don’t trust my sons (she loves her plants).

 

[YachtClubWoman]

I paid my neighbor teenager $30 for the week but that included window boxes that are accessed from upstairs
20 each for that age seems good

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I was also thinking $20 a week for both of them.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I think $10 a day is fine. My neighbor pays my daughters $350 a week to water her plants, unfortunately this year none of my daughters are available and I don’t trust my sons (she loves her plants).

I was also gonna say $10/day (so each gets $5).

 

[MillauFr]

$10 each per day.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I was also gonna say $10/day (so each gets $5).

That would have been my answer too. At the ages they are this isn't like they are saving up for a car or needing to save for college or whatnot.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

$20 or $25 each plus some nice candy from a candy store (fudge or whatever).

 

[PalmettoPath]

My immediate reaction before reading any comments was $10 day.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

IMO trying to double it up if only one girl does it would come off as unfair to me and could lead to sour grapes between the girls. Just offer a flat rate per each and call it good.

Generally you wouldn't offer a job to one person to come walk your dogs for example and say "$30 per day but if you bring a friend to help out it's only $15 that you get and your friend will then get $15". If you paid for a person to walk your dog and they brought a friend to help out then that is on them to divide up how much they were being paid for the job.

Normally you tend to price it out per person on tasks like this. So if you're looking for two people to walk your dog you would say "$15 per person" if you're only wanting to spend $30 per day.

All JMO.

 

[SharonZ]

Honestly, I would give them the money and have the girls split it between them.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I actually think that many parents would be embarrassed to take $10/day, thinking it’s too much!

(Not sure if people mean $10 each X7 = $140 or $10 for both X7 = $70. Either way, a lot.)

But of course, it depends on a lot of factors.

If my neighbor tried to give my kid that much for this job, I would say no, that’s crazy, as we’d do it for free, but everyone knows kids like to earn a little money.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I actually think that many parents would be embarrassed to take $10/day, thinking it’s too much!

(Not sure if people mean $10 each X7 = $140 or $10 for both X7 = $70. Either way, a lot.)

But of course, it depends on a lot of factors.

If my neighbor tried to give my kid that much for this job, I would say no, that’s crazy, as we’d do it for free, but everyone knows kids like to earn a little money.

I agreed with the poster who said $5 per girl/$10 per day. But I wouldn't increase it to $10 per day if just one girl did it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Honestly, I would give them the money and have the girls split it between them.

With siblings and that age the eldest would probably just say "I'm older I should get more".

 

[sam_gordon]

My gut reaction was $50 for the week and they split it how they want. Assuming "a week" is 7 days, that would be just over $7/day, guessing it would be about 30 minutes/day, so the equivalent of about $14/hour.

 

[kymom99]

Honestly, I would give them the money and have the girls split it between them.

I was going to say this. For example, if one girl can’t make it every day then the other could take more. So if you pay $10 a day some days each gets 5 but the days only one girl comes she gets 10. But leave that up to them.

 

[SC Minnie]

I agree with some others. Give them a total for the job- $50 for the week or whatever. They can split it themselves. One may be able to come over more than the other which you wouldn't know. Or one may end up doing it all.

If they end some doing some extra stuff-- checking your mail, bringing in packages from Amazon, or basically seeing something that needs to be done and doing it without being asked-- I would give them a little more at the end of the week.

 

[laurajetter]

Thanks for all the opinions everyone! It brought up another question, I edited my original post to add it.

 

[mjkacmom]

I just paid my daughter’s friends $500 for a week of dog sitting/watering (plus snacks) to divide up themselves. I also paid a dog walker $140 to come once a day (so the friends could decide if they wanted to walk her, we have a fenced in yard). I have no idea who did what.