How much housekeeping money to charge to my stepdaughter?

alwayspuzzled

£240 a month also sounds fair to me. Perhaps it would help if the 3 of you could sit down and discuss the costs of running a house. I know my OH struggles to comprehend quite how much it all adds up to (or more to the point how littles left!) and he's a grown man.

FATBALLZ

If it's just the 3 of you in the house £240 sounds about right. Good discount over private rental costs but not so cheap as to be a free ride.

wontfallforit

Hiya OP,

Adding to the consensus that 1/4 to 1/3 of take home pay would be a reasonable amount.

She'd be lucky to secure independent accommodation where she can house, feed, heat and wash herself for that little

Doom_and_Gloom

I think £220 is a little too much but I say that as someone who used to be in a flatshare and spent under that a month on everything including rent and CT (I left my parents home just before I was 17 but had to come back not long before I was 19 ). Saying that it was difficult living with 4 other people who had different opinions about things, that I had to tidy after, had little respect for anything that wasn't theirs etc.

I do think she should pay the keep if she is there or not as it will be a good lesson as to what a landlord would expect. I always had to give in my share of the rent if I had been there every day of that month or not! There is no way around it as if she doesn't pay rent when she is in her own place she will simply be kicked out and you should hold this attitude as long as she is healthy and has a job.
We had a system that allowed friends/partners over but if they stayed more than 3 days out of the week then they had to pay for a weeks rent (£25/week when shared over 6 instead of the usual £30 for 5 of us so has to give £5 to each person) as this covered the extra. No one ever said this was unfair as they understood that there are costs that must be met when you have your own place and by being there they were adding to them.

If you want to you could do it as a day by day pay system like a hotel where she has to give you the money to cover that day before she is allowed to stay? This might go down better as she won't feel like she is being ripped off. However in all honesty I don't think this method would teach responsibility at the end of the day and at 19 she should know better.

(sorry for any spelling errors)