<p>musica: We used to get the NYTimes delivered. With the LA Times. I don’t know why, but we stopped receiving the NYTimes. My parents (my father actually) had the New Yorker delivered. He would renew for 5 years at a time. His subscription ran out the week he died. I loved reading the New Yorker as well.</p>
<p>Remember how nice it was to discuss issues? My parents had several friends who could get together and talk…for hours. We talk like that as well…but at that time it was a given. And it was every week. We can’t…</p>
<p>…oh…and to clarify…We have every channel available. We have televisions in every room except the formal living and dining rooms. We talk…about everything. And read…</p>
<p>I’ve been a New Yorker subscriber all my adult life but especially enjoyed it the eight years I lived in southern California.</p>
<p>DH and I go back and forth about our local paper. It has gotten so bad and we read the NYT online. Still, there is something about heading out in my robe every morning to fetch the paper and reading it with a cup of coffee. And we do like to keep up with Mark Trail’s adventures. (And now another of the Doonesbury kids is looking at colleges; I’m guessing it will be Walden, not MIT.) I have proposed getting the Sunday Times delivered, it could last all week, and reading the comics online. He resists.</p>
<p>We have one small television, in sort of an “away room”. I have thought about putting one in the kitchen but I try to be mindful in my life and am better without the distraction. A television in every room (with all the channels) is something we could afford but do not buy.</p>
<p>I am enjoying this thread and the other very similar one. We have both the NYT and WSJ delivered every day and had been paying for access to WSJ on-line but discovered that they hiked the price from $99/year to almost $300. Cancelled that once I noticed it on the charge bill, so there is one example of something that we could afford to buy but do not see the value. Truly love the NYT on-line (except for last week’s makeover–still cannot navigate). Would consider canceling the paper delivery but for now, my boys read it at the breakfast table, which in turn prompted the older one to register for NYT alerts on his phone. Money well spent to encourage the news reading habit. Also, no matter how wonderful the on-line edition is, I stumble across articles in the real paper that I don’t find on-line, even though I know the content is all there.</p>
<p>Do not recall if it was this thread or the other discussing children who do not realize that teens cut lawns. I fear my boys may be in the same category. Some days I am amazed at the number of service and/or delivery vehicles I pass: dry cleaning delivery, mobile dog grooming, dog poo clean-up (two competing firms), the pool care companies, house cleaners, the various lawn & garden services (sprinklers, fertilizer, lawn cutting, pruning experts, arborists, etc). Am sure I am forgetting some. Many of these services would have been performed by the homeowners a generation ago. My husband doesn’t cut the lawn but shovels the entire driveway every time it snows, no matter how much snow falls. We are nothing if not inconsistent.</p>
<p>We get 3 dailies delivered every day and I have an online subscription to NYT. My H had a shock in elementary school when he discovered one of his schoolmates lived in his house all year round. In his family’s social circle, everyone went away to their summer houses.</p>
<p>“Then add in those who grew up thinking everyone, everywhere has servants and lawn guys and whatnot, and you get to thinking that if people came down into the real world sometimes, people like the family we’re helping would have a better chance.”</p>
<p>That would be like four people. Not even. And they would be six years old.</p>
A generation ago? I pick up the dry cleaning (delivery is free but I can walk it), clean the house, do all the yardwork and mowing (just under an acre, seriously gardened), clean up after the dog, paint, stain woodwork. DH takes care of the pool, does all the minor home repairs, blows the snow.</p>
<p>Don’t people find it satisfying to take care of themselves, their homes and families anymore? (We are not the 1%, but we are probably the 5%. We could pay people to do these things, but . . . )</p>
<p>"We could pay people to do these things, but . . . "</p>
<p>But what? I don’t think you need to explain each of your choices, because they are each different, but while I might get satisfaction from picking up my dogs poop (don’t have one because I work too many hours to spend what I think would be enough time), I also get satisfaction from providing gainful employment for others who need it more than I think I do. Not better, just different, no?</p>
<p>But we are doers; we like to handle things ourselves. DH is an engineer; I come from a long line of serious gardeners. (We have plenty of friends who will call The Guy at the first sign of “trouble”.) And so I asked if others might feel the same way. I didn’t intend to judge. I was surprised to read “Many of these services would have been performed by the homeowners a generation ago” when, in fact, I thought many if these services were still performed by homeowners.</p>
<p>I see, thanks. I think they are still performed by many homeowners. Many of my neighbors mow their own lawn, all walk their dogs, clean up. Most wash their own clothes, have no pool, and may not even use a dry cleaner. Many guys hang out across from my office hoping someone will drive up and hire them to do it. </p>
<p>Just wondering what the “but” was. </p>
<p>I like to think I am a doer, but I don’t keep up, and in the front yard it counts. FWIW, I handle the fruit, veggies, and perennials, and rescue most leaves for the compost, but still have enough work left over for others. </p>
<p>But I get it.</p>
<p>PS I acre is a lot of gardening! I’d love to here more! All planted? Watered by hand or irrigation? Or maybe you live in one of those places with rain?</p>
<p>I share Shrinkrap’s concerns about small mom & pop businesses. At one extreme, there are folks living off the grid, planting an acre’s worth of food and spending almost nothing. How does this impact their community? I don’t see this off the grid lifestyle as viable for a very large segment of the population and since I can’t do it (do not have a green thumb) my alternative is to be as thoughtful as possible about the money I do spend.</p>
<p>For a long time we didn’t have a place to park a lawn mower at our new residence and we pay a neighbor to mow our yard. It is a really big yard. He had just bought a super duper riding mower and just rides it down to our house after he cuts his own. What we pay him probably pays for gas for both yards and upkeep on the machine. Now we have a place to park a mower and we are discussing whether to buy one. We can pay Home Depot for a riding mower or continue to pay our neighbor to cut our grass. The discussion takes a different turn if we are buying a John Deere mower. There is lots to consider.</p>
<p>1 eta:
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<p>I’m doing my best to buy my books from the local, owner run, book store. It costs more… in some ways.</p>
<p>I am very suspicious about what Amazon does with pricing once no owner run bookstore exists. Of course, when books disappear because of nook/kindle it may not matter. </p>
<p>I’m really not sure how much of all this matters, but I do spend a lot of time thinking about it because of how old I’m getting and how many changes have happened in my lifetime. I’m turning into my grandparents.</p>
<p>2 eta: I have over-thought all this to the point I refuse to use a self-checkout. I have a lot of time on my hands these days for unproductive worrying.</p>
<p>We had full time help when my kids were growing up because of being a 2 career household. Our kids are now at school, of course, but we’ve kept her - she’s worked for us for 20 years so what am I going to do, throw her out in the snow and tell her to find a new job? So now it’s more housekeeper and light errand running (drycleaning, take the car in for service, etc), I guess that’s my splurge.</p>
<p>^^PG’s post makes me reconsider what was worrying the child about the emigration/homesteading lesson in the classroom where Bevhills helped out.</p>
<p>We have friends who did the same thing. There were an awkward couple years when the nannying was really no longer needed but it didn’t seem right to ask her to do non-nanny chores.</p>
<p>Yes, but I don’t need to scrub toilets or mow the grass to do so. I’m still very busy taking care of the house, the cooking, daily cleaning, myself, my girls, and my husband. But every two weeks a maid service comes to do the heavy cleaning and once a week the HOA provides lawn service for our piddly yard so that DH can keep working hard at what he’s really good at. Having a little paid help is not the equivalent of not taking care of one’s family.</p>