I charge my husband $250 to clean the house - but he doesn't know

"Years ago, he said it wasn't in our budget. Now he's agreed but has no idea who he's really paying."

Image: @TikTok

Brianna, known as @themamabrianna on TikTok, has a reputation for making satirical content intended to highlight the issues in abusive relationships - such as financial control. 

One of her more recent clips has now gone viral with more than seven million views, because it makes a shocking point about how some women are trapped in unhappy marriages.

And it also shares an inspiring way for them to get out.

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"I need $250 cash a month to pay the cleaner"

In the video, Brianna says that her husband gives her $250 cash on the first of each month for a professional to "deep clean" their home.

She explains over footage of her mopping the kitchen, "I asked for a house cleaner years ago, when I was pregnant and vomiting 10 times a day while also caring for our one-year-old.

"At the time, my husband said it wasn't in our budget."

But recently, he agreed to spend the money.

"Obviously, I said yes. I told him I'd get it all set up, and that I just needed $250 cash monthly to pay her."

The husband agreed, but what he doesn't know is that Brianna is keeping the money and cleaning the house herself.

"I think I'll use that cash to find myself a new, expensive hobby," she says. "My husband doesn't seem to mind those."

But at the end of the clip, she makes her real point: that any viewer who needs to escape their situation but can't because they are financially controlled, can try a similar scheme.

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"I knew it was for a way out"

In the comments section of the clip, viewers praised Brianna for highlighting that financial control is a form of abuse.

"I didn't realize how privileged my world view was until my first thought was 'she's saving to gift him something big', not 'she needs out'," one wrote.

Another added, "Sad how I immediately knew it was for a way out. I would say the cleaner raises prices to $500/monthly starting on this month."

A third shared, "I had a client who told her husband it was double what I charged, I kept her half until the night she needed it and met her on her way out of town."

Others encouraged the plan, with a cleaner even writing, "As a professional house cleaner, I feel you STRONGLY need to increase your house cleaners pay. Far too cheap ;)."

Another mum bravely shared how she purchases gift vouchers for different shops at the grocery store, so her husband believes she's just bought food for the family. 

And an advocate wrote, "From someone who works at a domestic abuse shelter thank you for what you do!"

Originally published as I charge my husband $250 to clean the house - but he doesn't know