How much should I charge for house sitting?

Question

So I'm going to house sit for one of my mom's friends and it'll be for a week. It's 40 minutes away from home and I'll be sleeping there as well. I already house sat for her a month ago but it was for the weekend. She paid me $20/day. She has a cat, but all I need to do is feed the cat, let it outside when it wants, clean its litter box, and fill its water bowl every day. I'm wondering if I should raise the amount of money because I'll have to go back home a couple of times and I need money for gas. So if I should raise the price should it be like $25 or $30 or should I just keep it at $20. Also, she lives in an area where there isn't anything for miles around, so if I wanted to get out of the house I'd need to drive there and it would take about 10 minutes.

Answer 1

I had a professional (bonded) pet sitter come to my home 2 times a day for 1 week.

She cared for our 3 cats.  She traveled about 5 miles from her house 2 times a day (total of 20 miles a day) She fed the cats twice a day, and spent time with them playing.  She did not spend the night.  She charged us $20 a day.

She said if we would want her to spend the night it would have been $25 a day.

She also got the following information, which you may want to have this woman give you too:

Name of the cats vet and their phone number.

Who to contact in case of an emergency, or how to reach her in case of an emergency.

She also asked for their eating schedule and she kept close to it.

The other thing I liked – She left a daily notebook on what happened.

Example: Cinnamon had a fur ball, Kenmore slept on my lap, Bullet greeted me every time I came in the house.  

May sound silly, but it made me feel good that someone was paying attention to my pets and cared for them well.

I left snacks and pop for her.  She also brought in our mail and rotated the lights so it looked like someone was home. She was Great.

She has a nice little business going on.

Answer 2

$25 is good!

Answer 3

take into consideration that while you are there if you will be cooking, doing laundry, watching t v or showering you will be causing her money in utilities that would not be used if there was no one there. i recently had a house sitter who did not charge me but she ate everything in sight and my electric bill went up $45.00