helping a friend?

Question

I have a young friend I am trying to help out. I am making her car payments to make sure they get paid on time since I co-signed(never again) then she pays me. $180.00 per month. She is struggling for money as she just had a baby. I want to help help because she has been a life long friend but I am not giving handouts, I want her to learn and earn her way especially now that she has her baby. I have seen much improvement in her arttitude and actions lately. I believe strongly in "I will gladly help you if I see you helping yourself"!!
I have offered to let her work some of the car payment down (not all) by doing some house cleaning for me.

My question is how much should the cleaning be worth in this case? Should she earn by hour or task? I don't want to end up paying 2 hours for a clean bath tub. I want to sit down with her and work out a clean clear cut earning schedule that we are both happy with so that we are in any misunderstandings.

We are in the midwest. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Call a cleaning service and ask what they charge, and what they will do for that money. Call another cleaning service to get their opinion, so you have two to compare. Work with your friend to set standards for what "clean" means to you and how long it should take and what it would be worth on the open market. Understand that the people who work for a cleaning service get less than what you pay, because the service makes money on coordinating them and always making sure that someone shows up, and getting insurance for them. But, if you take the cleaning in exchange, and have her "pay it off" through work, that's a fair exchange.