What's It Worth

I have a value system for every purchase in life. I weigh what I feel the price should be, by what I want to pay for it and what I think the other person should reasonably charge. I know that people need to make a living wage and retailers have an overhead, so I take this into accountability. Yesterday, I was interviewing cleaning services for my daughter-in-law, since she was at work and unable to be there. Since she has not moved in yet, the house is empty. A popular service, one with the name Maids attached to it, came to look at the house. We had done the primary cleaning but wanted it done once more. All she needed was a dusting of window sills in 3 bedrooms, wash the kitchen floor, counter tops and appliances and have 1 1/2 bathrooms cleaned. Remember.... this is an empty house. The woman walked around with her clipboard, like she was doing an estimate on building a sky scraper. After writing, and calculating and looking deep in thought, she gave me "the number". $353.08. You read it right. $353.08. I tried to keep a poker face and not laugh out loud. Was she nuts? Needless to say she was not hired. I would rather do it myself. The ER bill for pulling my back out would be less.