This is scary after 5 years of being a stay at home mum. I picked up my local paper, saw a job that I could do, and decided , on a whim to apply for it. I just thought that maybe I could do a few hours paid work and treat myself to a cleaner.

I was invited to a 10-minute interview, offered the job on the spot and I start next Wednesday. This is a bit of a turnaround for the girl who proudly proclaimed herself 'retired' and vowed never to set foot in an office again, but there you go. Follow your instincts, I say....

So today I had various cleaning firms come round to look at my house.

Most of them were in the same ballpark - most would do as much or as little as I wanted with or without ironing etc. and were happy to make the specification and frequency of the cleaning fit my budget, and find someone to come at the hours I specified.

However, one of the agencies was so far removed from reality that I nearly laughed in his face and spat my coffee at him.

I should have guessed from his tone on the phone - "we don't quote an hourly rate - we come and do an inspection of the property then give a total quote, based on what we anticipate is needed to clean the house to our specifications". It's a shame for him he doesn't quote an hourly rate - I could have saved him a journey.

After looking at my wreck of a house (with 2 sick children running around causing havoc), he pronounced that I would need somewhere between 5-6 man hours per week minimum which would cost me (sit down if you're not already)

£98 PER WEEK

I'm only going to work 2 hours a week, and it would have to be a special job to finance that sort of cleaning. Plus the going rate for this area, based on what I've seen from all the others is about £10 per hour - so wrong on all counts...

Then just as I was picking myself off the floor came the funniest bit of all "Of course we start with a detailed first clean - in order to get the house up to our standards so that we can then maintain it for you. We would need a team of 3 people in for a day - cost £390."

I could if I choose be insulted by that - but I don't suppose he meant that my house was particularly disgusting - I imagine all his houses get a similar prognosis. I can't believe there are people out there willing to part with that amount of money for house cleaning.