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I live in a house close to 3000 sq ft and I'm a single guy. Know why?! Because I LIKE having a large home to entertain in, something I couldn't do in a small space.
Everyone has their priorities, just because you don't agree with it doesn't make them "stupid".
It's easier to point at someone else and proclaim "stupid" - instead of taking ownership of their own shortcomings.
With my knees getting worse as I age - paying for lawn care may go from luxury to necessity. Dang genetics!
Wow. Nothing?
-- You don't order out at work, or go out for lunch instead of brown bagging it?
-- You don't ever buy an iced tea or any kind of drink drink, instead of buying six packs to take one with you?
-- You don't buy ANY prepared or pre-cooked food instead of doing all cooking from scratch?
-- Other than the hair cut, you don't pay ANYone to do ANYthing you can/could do yourself?
-- You never buy ANYthing you don't need? Nothing? Not a DVD, e-book?
-- You never go out: movies, sports event, concert?
LOL...I can answer no to just about everything you listed. I work in a store with a deli but I don't eat there. I only eat at home and food I prepare myself. I just spent one day off cooking for the week.
I never buy drinks anywhere. No Starbucks, no McD's... I don't buy six packs of anything either. I make my own iced tea and coffee drinks.
I don't buy prepared/pre-cooked foods but I DO use a box or can now and then. I also have a big garden and do canning/freezing every year. I don't eat out at all, unless I'm taking my mom to lunch for some special reason.
I get my hair cut every couple of months but do everything, except car repairs, etc., myself.
I don't by DVDs, e-books or CDs.
I don't go out much of anywhere. I haven't been to a movie theatre since Jan. '83.
I'm not spending money on anything that I don't HAVE to, as a rule. If I ever start to feel deprived, maybe....
I have my house cleaned every two weeks. I go to a nail salon once or twice a month. I have some one do my laundry. I belong to a health club. I go out to eat a lot. I buy cut up fruit at whole foods market.
The guilt wouldn't be from anybody else. It would be from feeling like a lazyass for not being able to keep my TINY home clean without hiring out for it. Seriously...it's not like I live in a mansion...I have a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, a dining room, and two bedrooms. It really shouldn't take a crew to keep it clean.
We do have two small children (6 and 4) and a bigger house (though not much bigger than yours) and regardless of how much I try to get them to do their share of chores, the house does not stay clean if I rely on them. They are very messy - especially the older one who has a perfect case of ADHD.
Even if we lived in something as small as yours, having two messy children would make it just as difficult.
If you work a full time job I say treat yourself to at least a helper for spring cleaning.
I could not agree more. House cleaning is that one thing that if you can afford to outsource, you should. It is not like cooking from scratch...because when you cook yourself, you know what you put in that meal, you adjust it to your family's tastes, you have better control over the food budget, you just add your own personal touch to it (and the love!).
But what personal touch could I possibly add by cleaning our toilets?
Of course, if we couldn't afford it, we would have to do it ourselves...or chances are, given we're often out of breath, we would just have to accept living in filth.
I am also the kind of person that would end up feeling severely miserable (yes, I would fall into clinical depression) if I never could take a moment when I just do whatever. Filling every single awake moment with something on the "to do" list is sheer misery to me. I already do a lot as is and just the thought of allocating the very last "free time" moments I have left to housecleaning, just for the sake of doing it myself and for further savings - would be too much for me.
I don't care how much more well off I would end up in retirement if I DIDN'T employ a cleaning service. Looking back, my life would have been sh**ty anyway.
I am simply glad we can hire someone to come every two weeks; and I am thinking we'd better be, given that I am working full-time AS WELL AS doing a ton of things that many modern SAHM-s simply no longer do (cooking from scratch is one of them).
By no means do I mean to divert this thread towards the highly flammable "mommy wars", but I absolutely cannot imagine how so many contemporary men have allowed themselves to be duped by the contemporary SAHM prototype.
"Honey, we'll have 3-4 kids, you'll go to work and I'll stay at home with them. Deal?"
The vast majority I have encountered DO NOT cook from scratch, in fact they do not cook at all - they confessed it themselves. Many I have talked to proudly say that their working husbands cook 2-3 times a week after work, the rest they do take-outs or store-bought pizza, etc.
The vast majority I have encountered do not use any of the economical strategies the old-fashioned housewife used to regard as simply HER job, HER contribution ho household income: the no 1 was, of course, cooking from scratch, but also sewing/patching/some basic alterations or fixing some broken clothes that otherwise are still perfectly good; keeping house clean, organizing closets, ironing, etc.
I see many SAHM-s regularly having lunch at Chick-Fil-A and Panera Bread, driving the kids to all sorts of frivolous activities (aka, further consumption) or volunteering at school for a variety of colorful/entertaining yet ultimately unimportant events.
No wonder more and more young men today are afraid of commitment. I WOULD be if I were one.
Nail salons and pre-cooked take-out meals are just two things in this category.
I was just thinking about nail salons. I do a lot of driving and noticed nail salons EVERYwhere, every shopping center -- and then some. I live in a small town in a big metro area -- and nail salons are everywhere you turn. I consider myself to be frugal. But I get my nails (and pedicure) done about once a year. Are THAT many people getting their nails done professionally, and that regularly that it supports so many salons. Wow. (Or are these places fronts for other things going on. At least in my area someone once told me the people in the salons are brought over to the U.S. specifically to work in the salons.)
As for pre-cooked meals. At first convenience food was cake mixes, cut up chicken, etc. that sped up cooking time, and junk food....NOW, you can get entire meals from supermarkets, and regular grocery stores have entire areas devoted to pre-cooked items for take home.
I find it interesting that our standard of living has gone up so 'everyday' people (not the rich who always had luxuries) will pay for these things.) Oddly enough I think it's our SOL going up to this point, that will peak it, and send it back down again, but that's another conversation)
Are there any other "everyday conveniences" that you pay for?
I suppose having a yard service cut my grass would fall into that category, too, right?
I know quite a few women who get their nails done every week. I don't often do mine because I have to type a lot as part of my job, and it wears off quickly.
At your bolded -- YES! It amazes me how many "landscaping" trucks there are now and how many people pay someone to cut their lawns and blow the leaves off their lawns in the fall. When I was growing up, that was something the KIDS had to do.
Same with washing cars. In NJ, we get this green dust all over everything at this time of year. Tree pollen, I guess. The cars are covered with it. I live in a condo now, and I was thinking of driving up to my mother's house so I could wash my car in her driveway. Then I laughed at myself because there is a car wash a quarter mile from where I live. I've only ever been to a car wash once or twice in my life. It seems so wrong to pay all that money for something you should be doing yourself in your driveway with a bucket, a sponge, and a garden hose.
It's the same type of guilt I would feel if I used canned frosting or bought fake mashed potatoes.
Oddly, I do not understand people who MAKE their own pizza. The whole point of pizza is to have someone make it for you and deliver it your house, isn't it?
I could not agree more. House cleaning is that one thing that if you can afford to outsource, you should. It is not like cooking from scratch...because when you cook yourself, you know what you put in that meal, you adjust it to your family's tastes, you have better control over the food budget, you just add your own personal touch to it (and the love!).
But what personal touch could I possibly add by cleaning our toilets?
Of course, if we couldn't afford it, we would have to do it ourselves...or chances are, given we're often out of breath, we would just have to accept living in filth.
I am also the kind of person that would end up feeling severely miserable (yes, I would fall into clinical depression) if I never could take a moment when I just do whatever. Filling every single awake moment with something on the "to do" list is sheer misery to me. I already do a lot as is and just the thought of allocating the very last "free time" moments I have left to housecleaning, just for the sake of doing it myself and for further savings - would be too much for me.
I don't care how much more well off I would end up in retirement if I DIDN'T employ a cleaning service. Looking back, my life would have been sh**ty anyway.
I am simply glad we can hire someone to come every two weeks; and I am thinking we'd better be, given that I am working full-time AS WELL AS doing a ton of things that many modern SAHM-s simply no longer do (cooking from scratch is one of them).
By no means do I mean to divert this thread towards the highly flammable "mommy wars", but I absolutely cannot imagine how so many contemporary men have allowed themselves to be duped by the contemporary SAHM prototype.
"Honey, we'll have 3-4 kids, you'll go to work and I'll stay at home with them. Deal?"
The vast majority I have encountered DO NOT cook from scratch, in fact they do not cook at all - they confessed it themselves. Many I have talked to proudly say that their working husbands cook 2-3 times a week after work, the rest they do take-outs or store-bought pizza, etc.
The vast majority I have encountered do not use any of the economical strategies the old-fashioned housewife used to regard as simply HER job, HER contribution ho household income: the no 1 was, of course, cooking from scratch, but also sewing/patching/some basic alterations or fixing some broken clothes that otherwise are still perfectly good; keeping house clean, organizing closets, ironing, etc.
I see many SAHM-s regularly having lunch at Chick-Fil-A and Panera Bread, driving the kids to all sorts of frivolous activities (aka, further consumption) or volunteering at school for a variety of colorful/entertaining yet ultimately unimportant events.
No wonder more and more young men today are afraid of commitment. I WOULD be if I were one.
Are you married?! If not, how does a single, 31 year old male who makes a decent income and has a nice house sound to you?! Boy I need to find someone who has the same emphasis on cleanliness as I do!!
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. Know why?! Because I LIKE having a large home to entertain in, something I couldn't do in a small space.
?! Boy I need to find someone who has the same emphasis on cleanliness as I do!!
