Food Allowances for the maid while employers are on holidays.

Posted by fukiku (182 days ago)

I would always leave my maid a HK300 cash when me and my hubby goes away for a 3 or 4 days holidays. Then, whenver we come home from the trip..She would then give me a list of groceries showing that the HK$300 wasn't enough for her. If we go for a 2 week holiday, I then leave her HK$500 but she would then give me list again that totalling to another HK$500 which I find it too much cost.

How much money do u leave for your maid when you and your spouse goes off for a vacation like 3-4 days or 2-3 weeks. I was wondering if my Filipina maid is ripping me off.

Find what you are after in our Hong Kong A-Z Directory

Posted by kittycat2 (182 days ago)

Don't you ask her for receipts? I would...

Posted by mrsl (181 days ago)

Like you, we leave about $300 if we are away for the weekend, $1000 if we are away for more than a week. We have never been away for much more than 10 days, as she usually goes home when we leave for 2 weeks. If she told me that she did not have enough money, I would definitely ask for receipts as she is also free to help herself to whatever is in the house, including a freezer full of chicken and fish.

Posted by cara (181 days ago)

$300 for 3 days seems reasonable.
$500 for two weeks seems on the low side. I wouldn't have enought for 2 weeks with $500.

Posted by ldsllvn (181 days ago)

we give ours $1,000 allowance for the month - so that makes $250 for a week, on top of her salary - she does not eat with us - apart from breakfast stuff, spices, rice, she buys her own. Most people only give something like $500 for the month, full stop! so I would say your allowance is generous..

Posted by cc77 (181 days ago)

I'm a helper and my opinion is: HK300 for 3 to 4 days is enough if she's alone and need not to buy something else ASIDE from her food. HK500 for 2 weeks is definitely enough (again if shes alone)

BTW, is she allowed to cook her own food while you're away ma'm? If yes, then HK500 isn't really bad. Do you leave her alone or she still has to take care of your kids (if you have )in their activities while you're on holiday?

Posted by smallfry (181 days ago)

It depends - the amounts you mention are more than enough if her diet is a local one (eg shops at the market, doesn't buy imported meat or expensive produce). It might not be enough to sustain a largely imported/organic foods type of diet.

f she normally eats the same food as you and wishes to eat the same food while you are away then you'd know whether that can be done within the allowance you've given her.

If you expect her to eat more frugally (ie less expensive food) while you are away you need to tell her that the allowance you've given her is all you are going to give her for food and if she wants to eat more expensive food then she needs to pay the additional costs herself.

Our helper gets $500 food allowance a month and budgets accordingly. The food she buys is cheaper that ours (eg she buys rice in bulk from the market) and we have very different diets. She could not afford to eat as we do on that allowance (but neither does she want to - her tastes are different and she prefers her own food). She says that $500 p.m. is sufficient to eat a healthy and varied diet of her choice.

Posted by ldsllvn (181 days ago)

on a separate note, I personally dont think that $500 is enough, smallfry, but that is of course your choice what to pay the helpers and I respect that.. Could you at least buy her rice? We give $1,000 a month and she uses our rice, breakfast stuff, tea, coffee, sugar, jams, bread etc as well as spices.... not showing off or anything - just think even $1,000 is quite tight..

Posted by smallfry (181 days ago)

You could be right ldsllvn - i have been thinking about raising the amount as i have noticed that my own shopping expenses seem to have increased lately (although, as i said before, the items on my list are quite different from those on her list).

The conversation I mentioned above (in which she said that $500 was enough) occurred just last week after i returned from the supermarket, saying how expensive things had been getting.

I will revisit the point with her and, most likely, raise her allowance but I agree with her that if you eat local produce (as she does) you'd be surprised at how much less it costs.

When she started with me I bought a starter kit - oil, 5kgs rice, condiments (soy,etc - although she is free to use ours i thought she might like bottles of the most commonly used ones in her room where she eats), noodles, fresh fruit, veg, some chicken wings and fish (enough for 6 meals) and various other bits and pieces and the total was less than $300. I was surprised at how much I got for that amount - and that was at the supermarket. Apparently the savings are even bigger if you shop at the wet markets.

Having said that, I would hate to feel that I was short-changing my helper (who is excellent) and so will raise her allowance if only to make myself feel better!

Posted by cara (181 days ago)

this isn't meant sarcastically or nasitly (just a preface in case it comes across that way....)

of course the stuff on her list is different, it HAS to be. she doesn't have the same disposable income that you have for "luxury" foodstuffs. i'm not saying that you only eat food from 360 or Oliver's, but she doesn't have much choice but to choose cheaper food, does she?

we DO shop at the markets for fresh fruit and veg. we buy frozen meat from the wholesaler. we DO live frugally, but i would just be afraid that at $500/month our helper would be living off instant noodles or just rice and a few veg. (that's only $125/week!)

our helper eats what we eat. i think in the beginning she was not as take with our food but her tastes have changed and widened since she's been with us. before working for us, she only ever cooked chinese food or filipino food. now she cooks indian, thai, lebanese, italian, mexican, indonesian, korean...

Posted by meiji (180 days ago)

I leave $ 2000 with our helpers for 1 week vacation. They don't spend it all, but it's for emergency cash.

Our helpers are allowed anything in our kitchen. On top, they usually spend $ 500 for 1 week for the two of them. Bread, meat, vegetables, rice and pasta and fruits.

About $ 200-300 is spent on the the day before we return to stock up on our foods, and milk and bread and soup ingredients for our consumption.

Posted by ldsllvn (180 days ago)

good job smallfry, glad my note changed something!

Posted by smallfry (180 days ago)

Cara

The food on her list is different from choice as well as need. When she started, she had the choice of eating with us or a food allowance. She chose the food allowance (as did our previous helpers).

Perhaps the biggest difference between our households is that cooking is not one of her main jobs - she might cook simple meals for the children but mostly i do it. i like cooking and buy good quality produce ( I also do the food shopping in our household). She will sometimes share a meal - curry, stew etc that I have made and always is given cakes and other home made treats - the children are particularly keen on her tasting anything they have made - possibly more so than she! When we go away, which we do frequently, she is free to help herself to all the perishables in the house.

She does eat simply but, importantly to her, eats what she wants to eat. I think that she sees my purchase of $35 leeks and $40 (for 6) eggs from NZ as unnecessary. I don't think that she'd spend her money on those imported items even if she had more to spend.

There have been many threads on this forum about appropriate food allowances and I don't wish to hijack this one.

However, I do get tired of the judgmental nature of many of these posts. Just because it is different to what happens in your household doesn't make it unfair or abusive. i personally would feel far more uncomfortable forcing my helper to eat a range of exotic foods than providing a food allowance that other expats say is inadequate (but my helper says is sufficient!).

Posted by cd (180 days ago)

we don't give our helper any extra money for himself if we go awy as he has $500 food allowance a month. As with smallfry, the choice was given to him as to wether he wanted to eat our food or have an allowance, he chose the allowance, as did our previous 2 helpers.
To the OP, if you normally give your helper a monthly allowance then you do not need to give her extra when you go away, if she normally eats with you, then I think waht you give her is adequate. Next time you go away, ask for receipts. If you can see on paper that she really can't get by on that amount then you could increase it.

Posted by cara (180 days ago)

as i prefaced my message, it wasn't meant judgementally. if she is happy and you are happy, then all is fine. i NEVER said that you were unfair or abusive.

PERSONALLY, i don't think it is enough. we thought it would be cheaper for us if she ate what we ate precisely because i didn't think (and still don't) that $300, $500 or even $700 is enough. i base this on the fact that i lived here for almost 4 years as a single person and lived VERY frugally. (ie. i earned less than $15,000/month and i paid $7,000 in rent). i needed more than $1000/month to eat, and so i believe that most people would.

Posted by mrsl (179 days ago)

fukiku, I forgot to add that we used to leave separate cash for emergencies, but quickly learned that there was always an 'emergency'. We now have an arrangement with a neighbour that our helper can call her if she needs any extra money, her helper can do the same and come to us when she is away. There has not been an emergency since we switched to that system.

Posted by beancurd (178 days ago)

I think the best way is to make a petty cash book that shows the incoming cash and outgoing expenses and have the file for the receipts in order to avoid wondering if you are ripped off or not.

Posted by kittycat2 (176 days ago)

2 things:
Remember food costs have gone up massively in the last few months, wherever you shop.

If you give the majority of helpers a food allowance they will count it as part of their salary (understandably) and will try and economise where possible to have some extra $ leftover. I have never given my helpers a choice - they but whatever they want from the housekeeping money, and leave me receipts. This way I hope that they will eat a healthy diet, and not try and save while loving on instant noodles.

Posted by kittycat2 (176 days ago)

Loving on instant noodles....the mind boggles...

I meant living, obviously.