What did you pay

Just had the bill from the vet for Lily, £43.54 ! More than double yours tiggypiro

Tegan, that sounds reasonable for this affluent area. It costs £85 for any tradesman to cross the threashold or, outside, £100 to cut my 50ft long hedge annually, £500 for outside painting (2 doors, 6 small windows).

Blimey, Tegan sounds like he needs to charge that much because only one person a week accepts his prices!!!! More fool him!

I know - but this wasn't complicated radiator-installing, pipe-changing stuff, just fitting a couple of new valves, fitting a new thermostat on the boiler and bleeding and flushing the radiators. Treble your quote!

Ana; there's plumbing work and there's changing tap washers!

Penstemmon; there's probably 2 hours work to do. I know someone that charges @£120 for a full days work but thought I'd get a quote from someone that's a qualified plumber, just to be on the safe side. My ex [an engineer] always used to say I never appreciated him doing so much work on the house; I do now . How many elderly people are being ripped off by people I wonder?

Good grief! my DD2 would not need to work if SiL charged that much!!

Tegan, I couldn't possibly hazard a guess, not being handyman/woman.

But we did ask a close family member to do some plumbing work for us recently and I couldn't believe his hourly rate! . If that was 'mates' rates' I hate to think what the usual charge is...

£260 [cash in hand please]. Must think I was born yesterday . Anyway, the heating system has sprung a leak so I'm calling out a heating engineer tomorrow and, hopefully I can sort the dripping taps out while he's here.

Tegan it will usually depend on how straightforward or otherwise the jobs are. SiL charges about £150 per day (he starts at 7:45 if customers let him and works until 6:30) so not bad value, about £15ph. However if he thinks you have not got much money (e.g.a pensioner) he charges a token fee....bit of a softie!

Boiler service: £100

Cut & colour:£80 (hairdresser comes to my house)

No pets

No piano

Cleaner £9 ph

Decorating: £150 ( & that is cheap) per day plus materials ..top class work!

Surrey

£70 - £80 max? Go on, how much?

What would you expect to pay for 1:replacing 4 tap washers 2:fitting a new handle unit to the toilet cistern 3:fitting a toilet seat, loo holder and towel holder 4:5 picture hooks and 5: fitting two dog gates into the kitchen doors? [just had a quote; would love to know what people think]

Dry trim £10 in my part of Northern Ireland.

Here in North Essex :
Cut & Blow £27 (top stylist)
Boiler - we pay £150 a year to cover all plumbing and heating and have claimed every year (local company)
Window Cleaner - £12 (every 6 weeks, 4 bed detached)
Decorating is DIY
No piano or pets

All in all not too bad.

South Midlands

Hair £12.50
Boiler comes with contract
Gave piano away when we moved
No pets
MOT £30 and no retest charge if fails
Burglar alarm test and maintain £40 a year
TV Ariel fitted on very high roof £140
Electrical engineer came to house to fix problem with car £50
Do own decorating and housework.
Fencing and DIY stuff delivered free
Window cleaner £35 but we have lots of windows and some are very high!
Car parking 50p per hour free at the station
Even BT turned out promptly and fixed the problem which well might have been down to us!
Nothing is expensive round here and the service is excellent. We don't have any of that sucking in of teeth and being told what a big job it is, they just give us a straightforward quote.

Compare this to where we used to live:

Hair £45 and all the faffing too
Wouldn't open the car bonnet under £250
Window cleaner - forget it
Tradesmen - if you can get them to quote they didn't turn up on time.
BT - left us without a line for about 10 days
Car parking - too much!

Do we like living here? You bet

Cheshire:
Window cleaner every 6 weeks (weather permitting) £7.50
Wash, cut and blow every 5 weeks, £33
Boiler service £50 and he says it's unnecessary to have it done annually
No pets
Gardener £15 per hour - weather permitting
Decorator - scared to ask!

im in the south east....

window cleaner £10 a month

gardener £20 a fortnight during the spring and summer months just to cut grass

dry hair cut £20

vet bills for my cat...ie vaccinations and flea/worm treatment

Icy

I will accept 'sprightly' however. Given that I ski-ed 35 km yesterday.

Hey apricot who are you calling an old dear? Nobody calls me that and lives!

Shampoo, cut and blow dry, £15.

Paid £450 to have a valley gutter fixed on the roof.
Now have a bill of £1080 to repair the repair!
Can't afford to decorate.

Durham, believe it or not.

Thankyou aka. No dog any more sadly, but not getting another one.

M74 very pricey if you get it from the vet, only £3 something from pet shop.

Hair dry cut £14 shampoo/cut/blow dry £25
brand new boiler
piano sold years ago[ after last child refused to play any more]
no dogs teeth [indeed, no dog] but cat put to sleep £45
decorating usually done by ourselves
South Oxfordshire