Petrol money for cat sitting - WWYD?

I'd probably ask a neighbour/someone else. If there's no one else I'd put it back on her and ask how much she thought she needed to cover the petrol used.

WChookS

She's doing you a huge favour. I wouldn't object to paying petrol money at all, and would be offering something a lot more generous than a fiver's worth of wine.

I'd quite happily give her £20, as my cat hates the cattery and I'd love to have someone who'd look after him.

Did she offer or did you ask? I think I agree with Knownowt, it is a pretty big favour and worth paying for

L
xx

I'd happily pay too but off my own back - I think it's incredibly petty to ask.

We cat sat for the neighbour opposite for 4 days (so 20m away!) and they got us 2 lovely gifts from their jollies. We weren't expecting anything as we know they'd do the same for us but it was nice that they appreciated that looking after their cat twice a day was worth a gift as it were.

You've had issues with LG before yeah? Do you even trust her to look after him properly? ? In your case I'd offer her a tenner and that'd be the end of it. No wine and no gifts <scrooge icon>

Hope you have a lovely hollibobs

I'd pay her the petrol money as she is doing you a favour and going out of her way to feed the kitty (although I do think it's a bit rude of her to ask)

WKNS

I went for a bottle of champagne and a massive box of chocs if I remember rightly.

Oooh, a range of opinions there! OK, I will email her and ask what she thinks is reasonable. I would have got her a souvenir too FWIW.

Voldemort, you're not far wrong actually but there's not really anyone else I can ask. There was someone I worked with in my old job that used to do it but I don't see her very much anymore so it feels wrong to ask her to do me a favour.

Wow, a bottle of lambrini and a flamenco cd. i wish i was your friend ?

I'd offer petrol money and buy a gift. Perhaps a nice bottle of wine or a book token, whatever the persons interests are. She is saving your cat the trauma of going to a cattery and going out of her way to do it.

As to how much petrol money I'm not sure I'm useless at that sort of thing.

I'd never expect someone to go out of their way to feed my cats for free. I always give my friend money and a gift, even though she asks for nothing, she does us a huge favour.

I usually give the equivelant of 1/2 to 2/3 of the cattery fee we would have paid in a combination of gifts and cash.

Actually i just remember - KN has rather gallantly not mentioned this, but she posted about it not that long ago, and that was to give her immediate neighbour 50 euros to do the same job, which if i remember correctly was still cheaper than a cattery anyway.

Maybe she asked for "petrol money" to get you to acknowledge that she was actually doing something for you - you seem to think that taking time out to drive 2 miles each way to someone's house each day to feed a cat is nothing.

Even feeding cats that are walking distance involves going to their house instead of doing whatever else you would have been doing.

I'd give her £15 and a bottle of wine. And I'd be very grateful.

Hmmm. I do things like this for mates fairly regularly and I'd be embarrassed if someone offered me petrol money and I certainly would never ask for it. Happy to accept any gift they bring me back but wouldn't be offended if there wasn't one.

A friend of mine came round twice a day to feed our cats when we were away for a week once. She worked about 100 yards from our house and lived less than a mile away, but we still gave her £70 for doing it (the money we would have spent on cattery fees).

We personally felt that it would have been an inconvenience and responsibility for her, and also she was helping us, not only by looking after the cats, but being a "presence" in the house whilst we were away, so people would see someone coming and going from the house daily.

She never asked for anything, we offered.

Fark me, £70? I would have felt terrible accepting it. That, to me, is the other end of the scale!

L
xx

its only for 4 days though. it's not like they're going on a round the world trip

i'm going to buck the trend a bit here and say i think LG is being a bit of a tightwad asking for money. if i were her i'd've filed that under 'and you can maybe do me a similar favour one day.'

having said that i'd probably still give her something to keep the peace

Exactly, KtC.

It's not that big a favour is it?

Given that she's got to get in her car and drive there, I think it is quite a big favour, tbh. It's not just popping next door with a packet of Go-Cat but several hours of her time.

Is LG a friend? If so I wouldn't dream of asking for petrol money - it wouldn't occur to me I would be 'out of pocket' as doing a favour for friend is part of what friends are for?! If LG isn't a 'friend' then I'd consider the arrangement less of a favour and more informal agreement and as such then I would expect to pay expenses.

She is a single parent to two children with an ex who gives her bugger all. For us we would much rather her have the money than the cattery.

several hours? its only 2 miles away

So 2 miles there, 2 miles back, then check house, feed cat and change water etc, all four times. I think that's easily a few hours, isn't it? Depends where they live of course- two miles across London could take a few hours on its own ?

I was feeling fairly similar about the £20 for 16-20 miles TBH - that's a pretty bad fuel economy! If it was me I would never expect or ask for petrol money and the person who used to do it wouldn't accept money the first time, so subsequently I would always just get a nice bottle of wine/box of chocs. Voldemort was pretty much dead on the money in that this is someone that I've done a fair bit for in the past and would expect to in the future, hence why I was a bit surprised. Hey ho, I'll email her and see how much she wants. I'll probably still get her a souvenir (not flamenco music either, something nice for her flat I should think). Thanks for your input all.

nah, i wouldn't thought it would be anything like that

to put it into context, i drive a 16 mile round trip to work every day. so if i fill my car up at the start of a set of shifts, which costs about £35, i can drive that six times and still not have run out of petrol...

obviously if it is london, it could be different...

hurumph. a streetka. it has a 1.6 engine and valves and everything

i don't really know about petrol costs/mileage either, so i could only relate it to myself. but 16 miles shouldn't burn that much really...if it cost me £20 a day to get to work i'd be a bit depressed, it only takes about 20-25 mins

If i was looking after a friends cats i wouldn't ask for petrol money, however if we were asking someone to go out of their way to do that then we'd give cash and a gift. probably 30-50% of the cost of a cattery.

i'd also pay our next door neighbours who are about 6 metres from our house.

16 to 20 miles would cost about £2 in petrol ?

I do think it was rather odd of the girl to ask for petrol money, but if she wants it, its only fair to give it to her. Personally I'd rather have given her a thank you gift afterwards (which would probably have been worth £20).

If I were asked to cat sit for a friend I would do it with NO expectation of payment but in the knowledge that the favour would be returned in some form when I needed it.

Isn't that what friends are for?

I wouldnt wxpect payment either - I would give a gift such as the bottle of wine. I hate all this Im giving up my time for you I want paying - what ever happened to helping someone out just because? Such favours are usually repayed anyway so its swings and roundabouts.