<p>A friend started cleaning houses after her children went to school. Flexible hours, almost no overhead and lots of job opportunities in our neighborhood. She was able to contribute financially to taking care of her family.</p>
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<p>Not sure what you mean by “anymore.” My MIL grew up in a milieu somewhat similar to what bevhills describes – apartments in urban areas, fathers went to work, mothers did not work outside the home but supervised housekeepers, cooks, and nannies and spent their days either doing volunteer work or pursuing their own interests. I suspect a version of that lifestyle was always the norm in certain circles, particularly certain ethnic backgrounds. Her mother (meaning my H’s grandmother) would have been surprised to see her granddaughters cook / clean / take care of children *without outside help. I think this is a function of socioeconomic background and culture, not necessarily a “new trend.” It’s not what I came from, but that’s irrelevant.</p>
<p>I’d also note that the Home Depots and Lowe’s of the world are still a fairly new thing. I’m not convinced that all-the-men-of-yesteryear were necessarily do-it-yourselfers either. I think there are some people who simply enjoy those things and others who don’t. I grew up with a father who had zero interest or skill in anything DIY. The idea of him changing his own oil or tinkering with the car or hanging up a picture would be laughable. That’s just how he was; luckily he made enough he never had to deal with it, and it was no big deal that he didn’t have those skills.</p>
<h1>222 - Yes. My grandmothers were homemakers who supervised household help. For a long time I thought not having household help was an important political statement. Now I have no idea.</h1>
<h1>223 - The local mom & pop hardware store used to explain to the dads how to do these things. Then they recommended a tradesman to repair the damage. At least, that’s how it worked in my childhood home.</h1>
<p>Let’s not forget also that many many people did every chore for their household (and still do nowadays) not because it was “satisfying,” but because they had no other option. People in general have always been happy when something comes along which makes their work a little bit easier. There was a passage in one of the Little House books where Pa surprises Ma with a sewing machine. She is THRILLED, because it turns out she always hated sewing and this machine was going to make her life a bit easier. </p>
<p>Many people who do all the work involved in maintaining a home would likely be very happy if they could pay someone else to do it so that it can make more time for things they enjoy doing or provide more quality time with their families. I did all the bathroom cleaning in our home growing up (ALL of it). You better believe that when DH began making enough money to hire a cleaning service I was thrilled to take him up on it. I haven’t scrubbed a toilet or a bathtub since, and my life is no less satisfying for it. ;)</p>
<p>Actually, I do enjoy doing my own housework. And I’m arrogant enough to think I do it best of anyone. But I see it as a job, even though unpaid.</p>
<p>ETA- I do find it satisfying :)</p>
<p>I now have to link to this:</p>
<p>[Grueling</a> Household Tasks Of 19th Century Enjoyed By Suburban Woman | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source](<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/articles/grueling-household-tasks-of-19th-century-enjoyed-b,1519/]Grueling”>Grueling Household Tasks Of 19th Century Enjoyed By Suburban Woman)</p>
<p>^^ Ha! :)</p>
<p>
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/12/19/reviews/991219.19kummert.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/12/19/reviews/991219.19kummert.html</a></p>
<p>ETA
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<p>I like straightening up the house and keeping it pretty and uncluttered. That’s a daily challenge. I want it to look the same when it’s just DH and I as it would if we were having visitors. That is satisfying to me.</p>
<p>Scrubbing toilets and bathtubs, mopping floors and dusting ceiling fans is something I can happily live without. I had my fill and I’ll give up a whole lot of luxuries before I ever part with my housekeeping service.</p>
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<p>All I can say is thank Goodness for the Kindle. ;)</p>
<p>From PG’s link:</p>
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<p>No doubt.</p>
<p>I have one of those niche hobbies.</p>
<p>PG, my “anymore” (your post 222) referred to someone saying “Many of these services would have been performed by the homeowners a generation ago” as if that were no longer the case.</p>
<p>I am with alh. For me, the best thing about having a someone clean for me was that it forced me to keep things picked up when I had two little boys on the loose.</p>
<p>Now please excuse me while I go stir my soap.</p>
<p>^^^^LOL, good one.</p>
<p>Women in earlier generations worked from sun up to sun down.</p>
<p>Women still do, although sometimes they don’t do that work in their own homes.</p>
<p>There have been several “who works hardest/most hours” sorts of threads. A lot of you are working really hard, even when it’s not physical labor.</p>
<p>ETA: kindle and vacuuming books. After a huge purge when the kids left for college and another when we moved, we have a very small permanent library. The new books we buy and read usually get donated to the library or friends. The goal for the permanent book collection is to get everything in book cases with glass doors to avoid the dust issue as much as possible. We are almost there. Yep - a very niche hobby.</p>
<p>I seem to have inadvertently started something by leaving a few words out of my sentence. Sorry!</p>
<p>When I said “Many of these services would have been performed by the homeowners a generation ago.”, I should also have included …… in this town, so:
Many of these services would have been performed by the homeowners in this town a generation ago.</p>
<p>It was more a commentary on the changing times. I realize that many (most?) people still perform these tasks themselves, and when I was growing up in a very similar town, almost everyone handled these chores, but they have since been outsourced.</p>
<p>So back to the original question of this thread, “Is there anything expensive that you can afford but don’t buy?” We could afford a bigger house, but we don’t buy it. When we moved here, our first house together (H and I each owned a house as single professionals before we met), we decided to get a “one salary house” so that we wouldn’t be house poor. Good thing, because I was able to work part time after the kids were born and still could afford the house. Now, when we can afford more house, we can’t bear to leave our perfect neighbors and friendly community where kids play outside without an adult, ride bikes to school, and have friends and classmates of all colors and religions. Now, if there were another thread asking what secret do people not know about you, I would say they don’t know we are those 1 percenters. Doubt that the neighbors know. Our own kids don’t know. (As 1 percenters, however, we don’t “do” anything “to” anyone else. I think we meet our goal of giving more than we take. We care for ourselves and our children, we give generously to charity, we volunteer in our schools, church and community, we thank God for all our blessings, and we really don’t like it when people criticize the 1 percenters.</p>
<p>Sorry, I always get confused about the REAL NUMBERS when people talk about 1%ers or 5%ers or 10%ers or even median incomes. Below is a link for reference. It is interesting in that it has an adjustment, based on family size–single person vs. married couple vs family of 3. It doesn’t adjust for families larger than 4 people.</p>
<p>[Does</a> your family make over $232,000? Congrats, you?re in the top 5 percent](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/does-your-family-make-over-232000-congrats-youre-in-the-top-5-percent/]Does”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/does-your-family-make-over-232000-congrats-youre-in-the-top-5-percent/)</p>
<p>We were happy also to have bought a house that we could afford with one income. It was a good thing because I stayed home with the kids for many years and since then have never worked more than part-time when I re-entered the workforce. At this point, we COULD buy a nicer house in a better neighborhood, but are happy where we are and have no plans to move.</p>
<p>Love this thread, so much resonates with me. I grew up as I say it, too poor for hot lunch but too rich for free lunch. Scraped by in college and medical school. Learned frugality so much find it hard to break habits and have not loosened up much despite having plenty of money. Perhaps one reason we have plenty of money is because our needs and wants are relatively low. We taught our son about what something is worth having, not just having it because we could afford it. Includes not getting the latest, greatest electronics, and just about everything else.</p>
<p>I moved to this thread from the splurge thread. So many things I won’t spend money on- fancy branded clothes, shoes, purses. </p>
<p>Stylists instead of cheap haircuts. Manicures. All that beauty stuff, cosmetics…</p>
<p>H got rid of cell phone plan to go with $.10 minute phones because we don’t use them that often. </p>
<p>Travel- we stay at moderate, not top hotels- so much easier to have the free breakfast. Look for deals on airlines and trip packages.</p>
<p>Wines. Gourmet versions of foods. H can’t generally taste the difference anyhow.</p>
<p>House cleaner. Past experience was that they did not do as thorough a job as I did. Now- do it about once a month when it is convenient (or when having guests).</p>
<p>Electronics. I would replace a lot if H would.</p>
<p>House. We renovated and kept as much as we could plus put in moderate everything. One workman told us how he was involved in a $250,000 bathroom redmodel- we redid our whole house for a fraction of that! It is amazing how much you can spend on so many things. But is isn’t worth it. I suppose we could have spent more and it would be noticeable but spending a lot more wouldn’t be. We want simple, informal stuff. </p>
<p>Furniture. We downsized and kept pieces we could use. Mismatched, some inexpensive, informal. Would definitely make the BEFORE pictures in a magazine.</p>
<p>H wanted to replace the CFL flood lights with LEDs. I told him the energy savings (for acceptable to me bulbs- I despise the LEDs with a bunch of dots) was only 2 watts and that LED prices will decrease. And I want 100 watt replacement LEDs, not just 60 watts in lamps for reading…</p>
<p>The 1% thing. Annual income versus net worth. We worked hard- including a lot of years studying instead of having more fun in college than most- to have the financial security. We could have afforded private college for son but he only applied to 3 and went to our flagship. I couldn’t see the point of having children only to send them away to boarding school (although during his teen years it was seeming like a much better choice…). Our public schools were better academically than any private ones.</p>
<p>Enough for now. Time is one thing I spend far too much of- on CC.</p>
<p>I still use a 4-year old dumb cell phone. But I love my latest smart TV.</p>
<p>Yep, we COULD get new iPhone5S but are pretty OK with the iPhone5 and will re-evaluate in less than a year, when the contract is up.</p>