I pay my sitter $8-$10 an hour. She drives almost 20 minutes to get here and my den is more or less picked up when I get home. My son refuses to go to sleep for her and with that second wind, he is still bouncing off the walls when I get home. He does, however, fall asleep within 3 minutes of me getting home - couch or bed LOL! She's an amazing girl who just finished high school while taking mostly college courses her senior year. She's an awesome role model for my 12 yo dd and my 23 mo son has the biggest crush on her. She is well worth every penny!
Also understand that "dates" with dh are usually something free, or extraordinarily cheap so we're not spending $100 dollars for a night out. We'd rather spend the time together than the money. We don't go out to eat to talk over other people, and rarely ever go to the movies. We'll go night geocaching and then stop at a Borders, grab a couple of drinks and a travel book and sit on a couch together, things like that.