Your Lifestyle?

[agnes_day]

my husband and i are fairly boring..overly conservative (not talking about politics, just every day life) , we will have been married 18 years next week..we have 7 kids, 1200 square foot house, used suburban..he works 6 days a week and i am a housewife..i spend a lot of time on here and also sewing, cooking/baking, going to garage sales and the flea market, thrift stores, atwoods...we are far from wealthy, but we are making it! we arent starving or under a bridge, so we are at least one step ahead.

 

[NellaBean]

28 year old single female....own a little old farmhouse on an acre or so. Lots of animals, millions of chickens.....Drive an old firebird by day and big ol ram truck by night. Liberal lefty lefty here

Grew up in Los Angeles, lived there for 25 years and moved out to East Tennessee a few years back. No kids, boyfriend that lives out of state.......and no kids planned, he doesn't like them either (whoooooo). Probably will relocated to Ohio if it works out with the man and we get hitched

College educated, worked at animal shelter for 8 years....now work at a corporate office doing boring boring stuff. In the air conditioning where I don't have to deal with whackos and emotional drama day in and day out.

 

[welsummerchicks]

living the life of a kept woman, but am a man, waiting for my multi-millionaire sugar daddy to die, so I can move to his island in the Pacific near Fiji and spend the rest of my days getting even richer creating fake Biblical relics.

Kidding.

 

[justbugged]

I would best describe my self as 51 going on 16 "Ultra Conservative Bleeding Heart Left Wing Liberal". Mostly a live and let live gal that is stuck in suburbia. We don't participate in politics. I feel more like a third party observer most of the time. Both DH and I were raised as very Conservative Christians. In order to be considered part of the church you must be active and go to all the meetings and preach the word. DH stopped doing this many years ago, and I have too have stopped in the past year or so. For me it is all or nothing when it comes to church. I didn't fit in there either. We have had 3 kids, and we got to raise 2 of them. The kids are both married and we love our children's choice of mates. DD married an off the plane 6'6" Dutchman, and DS married a girl that is an awful lot like myself at that age. DiL has a rare form of MS that doesn't seem to ever be in remission. DD and hubby live in the city, and SD and wife are about 5 miles south of us in the country. DD just graduated from the University of Washington this past June with a BA in Technical Communications. DS works for the County road operations, and loves his full time job. I homeschooled both kids until they started Community College at the age of 16. Both DH's and my parents are still alive, and both couples have been married for over 50 years each. No grand babies yet, and I am way okay with that idea. I can't say that I ever want them either. DD might have them someday, but DiL will not be having any ever.

I was raised out on an Island in Puget Sound, until my folks moved us to the city as a young teen. My parents had goats and chickens when I was very young. DH was raised in the Suburbs by English emigrant parents, and is the most comfortable with that kind of life. I still want the deep country or else downtown. I love extremes. I am sure that is why I have a Komondor and Yorkies.

DH travels for work usually leaving on Monday and returning on Friday. He has been doing this now for 13 years. We have been married for 28 years now, and this has worked for us. I don't have to cook dinner during the week, and he gets a man cave with room service. Neither us has a college degree, but I do have vocational training in floral design. I have never worked very much in the industry. I didn't fit into the local flower shops need to be main stream Christian belief thing, and commuting to larger town is a pain when your homeschooling the kids. I worked for five years in banking, but when that ended, I just have not been able to figure out what to next.

Now I am dealing with Fibromyalgia to a point where I can't seem to do very much. I can't remember not being in pain. I was diagnosed in 1986 with Fibromyalgia. But I often wonder if it is more than that. I know that it won't kill me, and so keep trying to keep doing something everyday. I just never seem to get as much done as I want to. DH and I are "do it your selfers". His dad is a contractor, and DH can fix just about anything. He is a master mechanic, and trouble shooter, also teaches and has stared in training videos. He is one of just a few guys that does what he does in the country. He has traveled to Canada, China, Japan, The Philippines, Australia, Germany, and Panama for work. Mostly he stays here in the states. I have traveled with him some, but I am not up it anymore. I would love to travel more , but my feet just won't let me now. DH's favorite vacation is staying home.

I am the crazy one in my family. My Mother described me to an Uncle as a shopaholic, and dogaholic, and to a nephew as an angry bitter woman. I have shopped garage sales and thrift shops for years. I haven't been to a mall in longer. The past 6 or 7 years I don't shop in any store that doesn't have electric shopping carts, and I don't like or shop Walmarts. It hurts to much to spend time walking around a store. So if I need something it is in grab and go. I do a lot more of my shopping on the net now. I have say that when I do get something I like talk about it. I don't care about brands. I just want quality that will last, and it also needs to fit, and have a purpose.

I cook, quilt, and have a spinning wheel, and of course the pets I have a Komondor (11yo) plus 5 Yorkies, 3 puppies that are for sale. 5 feral rescue cats, a 75 gallon fish tank, that has an 18" eel plus a bunch of other large fish in it, and of course chickens. We have had chickens off and on for years. We rented a house for 3 years while renting this house out ( long story as to why), and when I came back I didn't think that we could have chickens here. So that spring I lost my llamas, goats, and chickens, not to mention 2000 square feet of house and 5 acres. About 2 years ago the neighbor across the street got chickens for their kids 4-H projects, and I went d@#@%, me too, so went out and bought myself up some of the rarer breeds of chickens and now have chickens in the backyard. I am still not sure how many, but it is more than I should have for the size of property and coop. So I keep telling myself that suburbia is a nice place to live.

I can't say we are off any grid, but as long as I had running water, I could so do it. We also raised 28 meat bird this year. I always grow some vegies every year. I hang the clothes out to dry in the summer, and stay I home a lot so that I don't have to use gas. I think I drove 3000 miles from last October through this June. I have a 2001 Volvo station wagon that is almost paid for bought used, and 1985 Volvo diesel sedan paid for. We need a pick up truck, but that is not going to happen until the wagon is free and clear. Our house is the biggest expense. We owe some on a 90% heating system, and very little else. I would love to downsize and life with less, but DH is very comfortable, and is not about to change. He has a point about neighbors, right now they are the best.

Things I wish different would be I wished we had bought land when we first got married and I wish that I had a college education. That isn't that many regrets. Okay I wish that we had more kids too. I still know that I didn't have anymore than I could manage on my own though. We talk about moving out of country when DH retires, there is a town in the mountains of Ecuador that sounds ideal. THe weather is about 82 year round and health care is better there than here. The cost of living is much less. All those things add up. I worry that I just won't be able to handle all the work to do it by then.

 

[justbugged]

Double post

 

[agnes_day]

Quote:
quit trying to live vicariously through me!!

 

[gettinaclue]

I am 36, happily married for 12 years to a wonderful man 6 months my junior (though he looks 10 yrs older - snicker). We only owe on the house and a small loan on hubby's 401K. We have 10 chickens - they just started laying. First egg just a few days ago and I think a second chicken may have just joined in...hopefully. One pomeranian, one cat.

I drive a 12 year old stationwagon - bought new a week after the dealership got it in and is paid for - the compressor just went adios last week. It's the first car trouble we've had from it besides a bad alternator and a dead battery a few years back. DH drives a 10 year old merc marquis that was given to us by the in laws after his car died and couldn't be fixed. We are incredibly grateful for it too. We couldn't have afforded a new one.

I make our own detergent, make dinner from scratch when possible, bread baking, crochet, knit, sew, garden pitifully, wanna be canner, terrible housekeeper, wood chopper - thanking the Good Lord for the Splitter, mother of a 12 and 5 year old, practical joker and most importantly, a Christian.

I don't know exactly what "crunchy" is, but if it means wanting to live more self sufficiently-then that's me and my family. We were lucky enough to pay off most all of our debt before the "economic downturn" aka - the depression we are living in - and were able to make it one one income when I lost my job for about 8 months.

We live paycheck to paycheck - like most people, but I can honestly say we have never been happier.

I work part time so I can be home with the kids more and the childcare bill is getting ready to go away completely when school starts. HURRAY!!!!!!!! DH works full time, pulls A LOT of call and over time and has recently started washing the dishes without being asked or me being sick!!!! WoooHoooo!!!

I wear what is comfortable and what I like, namebrands don't live at my house unless the grandparents buy it for our kids. DH lives in old clothes to do projects around the house when he isn't working. We rarely eat out.

I would love to be able to produce enough electricity to go off grid...but I don't know if we could ever make enough for the air conditioner LOL. Gotta have it on these really hot days, and those cold winter days. We have been researching this for a few years and aren't ready to move on it yet.

Interesting thread!

 

[NewHopePoultry]

Im 21, married for almost 2 years. Have a beautiful baby girl.
We live paycheck to paycheck, sometimes its hard, but we alway make it.
My husband used to work at a youth home for troubled teens, but they closed their doors, so now he works in a hot factory.
I stay at home with our daughter.
I am a HUGE animal lover, my husband not so much.
We currently live in town, but hope to move out in the country.
No name brand clothes for us.
We have 1 truck, a 1989 GMC, it looks rough, but it runs.
I breed fancy mice as a hobby.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I'm 46 Sharon is 45. We are just getting into a very relaxing enjoyable point in our lives. The kids are grown and out on their own, the house, land cars (except for one)are paid for, utilities are pretty much our only bill. I'm an enginner, Sharon is an accountant and we spend every minute together other than work hours. Even then we have lunch often. All the years of pinching pennies is really paying off now.

4 dogs all rescues, a bunch of poultry.

sold 8 young peafowl this weekend and made next weeks gas and feed money, home grown boneless chicken thighs cooked on the grill, rice and garden steamed veggies for dinner with a bottle of wine. Life is very good here.

Steve