The Modern but Old Style Homemakers Club

red_devil

http://homemakers.forumotion.co.uk/t382-picking-up-my-sewing-machine-today

red_devil

This is odd. Arent the homemakers at home anymore or dont they go on MSE? So much apathy after such interest. Puzzled.

Chipps

Good question. Of course this could be evidence of one or more of several things.

for example, it could prove that homemaking is not a case of sitting around with nothing else to do but watch daytime TV & go on internet forums?

or it may be that the homemakers are all really struggling financially and are residing on the frugal living and "tougher" etc threads?

I would have suggested that everyone has all moved over to the homemakers forumotion site instead, if I hadn't had an email from them yesterday to say that there was not much going on there either.

So, I don't know what's going on.

But it may be that, having established that we are not on our own, that there are others out there too, we have now gone back to getting on with things. Home making as a job doesn't have too many lunch/tea breaks!

thriftwizard

I'm a wannabe homemaker too. Basically I've been a SAHM for 23 years, though I've had "little" PT jobs on and off for most of that. I'm also a home-edder of 6 years standing; my 3 boys all went through "the system" but my girls came out of it at 9 & 13 respectively. Youngest is now 16, and I have a fledgling business, so I thought I'd take it full-time & hired myself some premises.

All I can say is, it's a good job it's only a year's lease! The sad thing is that it has paid for itself & probably would be viable, if I could give it 24/7, 52 weeks a year as new business owners are supposed to. But my home is suffering, my garden's gone to pot, I don't have any time for foraging, or enough time for writing (which I do get paid for doing) and the girls, and my elderly parents, still need me, as well as the two boys who have trotted off to uni but still need transporting; well, their kit does, and one of them particularly needs the kit as part of his course. I don't have time now to go to the auctions & country house sales that provide some of my stock, and worst of all, my creativity's suffering and that's a real bu&&er because that's what the shop/workshop is all about. I'm also spending more money than I want to be, when I haven't enough time to make my lunch or get supper in the slow cooker.

So I'm offski at the end of the lease, back home where I belong. I can do workshops from home & keep doing my market stall & writing articles, so I'll still be earning (& not paying rent & bills on the shop) but I can also make jam & wine, grow stuff, & make my home the haven I've always wanted it to be but never seemed to have the time to do when I had 5 kids at home. I expect my high-achieving, career-oriented, academic family will be upset again, but - well, tough!

red_devil

Interesting post thriftwizard.

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone l love this thread, I have a 14 year old, and have had a few part time jobs over the years which have not lasted long, I never wanted to be a mum who was always out, I love my family life, and running the house, I have been selling on Ebay but they have banned me (not my fault), and now dont know what to do, my husband says he can earn more than I ever could and to just be happy running the home, but I am sick and tired of relatives saying what are you doing for a job, when you say nothing, they look at you like a piece of sh**, but I have decided bug*er them all, I get loads of freebies, enter competitions, cook from scratch, get coupons/vouchers,get to the supermarket for bargains, I might not be earning but I am managing the families finances and always saving, bargain hunting etc, so I do my bit. Time for me to stop worrying I think and be me and be happy. Sorry just wanted to talk to you guys who are understanding.:beer:

thriftwizard

Fairyface, in a sense you are working, or certainly earning; a penny saved is a penny earned. That's what my relatives can't seem to see - it's not how much you earn, it's how much you can do with what you do have coming in that counts. Time is as valuable as money (or more so, as you can't go out & earn more of it) and their high-stress, everything just-in-the-nick-of-time lifestyle actually doesn't seem like a bundle of fun to me.
I have a feeling that "old-fashioned" homemaking skills may be rather more popular in a few years' time than they are at the moment...

[Deleted User]

Thanks for your reply, I have added your homepage to my bookmarks and gonna have a good read through it. Because I can't do the ebay any more, I am gonna really concentrate on the grocery/home cooking side of things more than I already do. I am gonna set a target to half of what I usually spend, it can be done, gonna buy up reduced goods, and use approved foods more.Had some great Freebies today, local shop is closing and left tons of stuff outside, I had 4 huge plant pots(gonna try growing some tomatoes), 2 x Window/Glass cleaning sprays, 2 x Toilet Cleaners, and 1 x washing up liquid. Didn't feel guilty, it did say all free help yourself, so I did,the pots were worth over £20, so nearly £30 worth of goods for nothing, I'm a happy lady!:rotfl:The start of my even thriftier lifestyle! Money saving feels good!:T

thriftwizard

Wow, good finds, fairyface! Things like that really make your day & prove it can be done, and it's great that they're going to be used & not just chucked out.

Having mentioned being paid for writing in my previous post, I should clarify that I write about crafts; spinning, weaving, felting & papermaking mostly, for specialist magazines & books. Occasionally about backyard chickens and/or permaculture gardening too, and I have an idea for a whodunnit novel simmering away at the back of my mind. I run a forum elsewhere where we do have cause to be alert for snooping journalists, so I know it's something people do worry about, quite rightly; please rest assured that I am NOT hunting for copy here, that's not the sort of writing I do at all and I hope I'd never stoop that low.

lissadenton

please add me-full time grandma