Woman praised for charging husband $250 per month for deep-cleaning their home

Her viral video is actually clever trick that women in danger use to escape financially abusive partners

A woman has received praise after revealing that she charges her husband $250 each month for a cleaning service, only to pocket the money and deep-clean their home herself.

Earlier this month, TikTok user Brianna (@themamabrianna) went viral when she shared a time-lapse video of herself mopping her kitchen floor. Over the video, she wrote: “On the first of every month, $250 comes out of my husband’s bank account. It’s for our house cleaner. The house gets deep cleaned on the first of every month.”

The mother of two explained how she had asked for her husband to pay for a cleaning service while she was pregnant and “vomiting 10 times a day while also caring for our one year old.” At the time, her husband said that it wasn’t in their budget, until a few months ago when he asked again if she wanted a regular house cleaner.

“Obviously, I said yes,” she wrote.

She told her husband that she would find the cleaning service herself, and all she needed was $250 in cash to pay their house cleaner each month. “So he’s been getting $250 in cash for me every month to pay the house cleaner, but what he doesn’t know is that I’m the one who’s been deep cleaning the house on the first of every month,” she said. “I’ve just been pocketing the cash.”

“I think I’ll use that cash to find myself a new, expensive hobby,” she added. “My husband doesn’t seem to mind those.”

The woman’s TikTok video instantly went viral with more than 6.7m views, as many users noted that her clever trick is actually a common way that women in danger are able to escape their abusive or financially controlling partners. “If you feel the need to hide money from your partner in order to plan your escape, check the resource in my bio,” she wrote, which linked her followers to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“I didn’t realise how privileged my world view was until my first thought was: ‘She’s saving to gift him something big,’ not ‘She needs out,’” one TikTok user commented.

“Sad how I immediately knew it was for a way out,” shared someone else. “I say the cleaner raises prices to $500 monthly starting this month.”

“Even if you’re in a secure relationship, always, ALWAYS, keep a secret fund only you know about,” another person suggested.

Speaking to The Independent, Brianna explained how much of her TikTok content is situational videos loosely based on real life experiences. However, she didn’t expect this particular video to go viral. “Honestly, it was to my own naivety that I didn't even think that this was possible - to be somebody's real life, the kind of situations I was portraying. It just woke me up a little bit and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, people are relating to this video,’” she said.

“As my eyes were starting to open to that kind of situation, I tried to figure out what I can do here to make it more apparent that this is not normal,” Brianna explained. She reached out to her friend, a domestic abuse advocate, who suggested that she add a link in her bio to resources for domestic abuse survivors.

While Brianna has since received thousands of comments from people relating to her cleaning video, she admitted that it was “almost heartbreaking” that so many women have been in similar situations - especially considering Brianna’s own healthy relationship with her husband.

“It's just very eye-opening because, not being in that situation and not having much personal experience, a lot of the videos that I keep posting about something super crazy - my husband never helps me or my husband hasn't complimented me - people are like, ‘Wow, I relate to this.’

“I'm like, ‘Oh my goodness, that is totally not what I was expecting to come of this,’” Brianna shared. “So, it's just very eye-opening and just so heartbreaking.”

For now, Brianna said she hopes that at least her situational videos will help women understand that these abusive situations are “not normal” and they’re “not OK”.

“I'm just trying to guide them in the right direction with these hotlines and organisations to get in touch,” she said.

According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, intimate partner violence affects more than 12m people every year. Women ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence.

Meanwhile, research has shown that financial abuse occurs in 99 per cent of domestic violence cases. The hotline defines financial abuse as a situation in which an abuser controls their partner’s finances or their ability to provide for themselves through a job or public assistance they may receive.

Many TikTokers also took the opportunity to suggest other tricks that people in abusive relationships can use to give themselves a comfortable financial cushion, such as getting cash back at grocery stores.

“Buy groceries and get cash back,” one person advised. “Buy stuff and return for cash or gift cards. Those gift cards will come in handy for groceries or house items later.”