Your Lifestyle?

[fancbrd4me02]

My husband & I are college educated, my hubby has 2 masters degrees, 3 bachelors. Despite his extensive education he is having trouble finding a full time position. No children. One Dachshund. Our dogs all have health insurance.

My husband still drives the high school graduation present his Dad gave him, a 1991 Honda. I drive a 2003 Toyota. We never would buy a new car.

We live in San Diego, but in "the County" so we are livestock/farming zoned. 2.5 acres fenced with 2 houses. Although our area is rural, 4 miles from here are 2 colleges, and a very nicely landscaped city with all the shopping & entertainment anyone could want.

We live with my family. We purchased our current property 3 years ago & built 2 houses. One is my parents house, which has 2 complete studio apartments for each of my 2 twenty-something year old brothers. My twenty-something year old sister has a room in the house my husband & I live in. As a family we try to live like a small village with shared chores & helping each other out. It helps that we share billing expenses & food. The houses are not finished yet, but we recently got hot water and that cheered us up quite a bit.

We have an orchard & vegetable garden. My mother & I can and freeze our produce. We have an old barn and a cellar, which in southern california is very rare. The barn is about 80 years old and we plan to restore it whenever we get money to do so.

I forgot religion: Catholic, but one of those not too strict ones & I don't believe there is only one right religion. If that were the case a lot of people would be in trouble. lol I also believe in science!

 

[TwinMommy2009]

WOW!! Thanks for all the replies, I enjoyed reading them!!

I guess I should share my lifestyle, huh?!

Hubby and I are both young, college educated, parents of twin 7 month old boys. Stay at home mom, Breastfeeding, Babywearing, homemade baby food making, attachment parenting, etc.

We live in the country on 2.5 acres, but not too far out (The closest Wal-Mart is 30 minutes away, if that gives you a better idea). I enjoy birdwatching (obsessed!!), hiking, baking, laying under the oaks with my two boys with no shoes on.

I like make up, dressing up, and enjoying a bottle of wine, but I can go days with not so much as brushing my hair. Weeks without contact with world, other then my husband and boys. I prefer it that way

More replies, please!!

 

[lockedhearts]

Hubby is retired Air Force and is working. I have been out of work for over a year on unemployment. Hubby is a Graphic Designer but is not working in that field at present. I am going to go back to school, as soon as I figure out what I want to go for, something medical. We have one son, he is deceased. 4 Jack Russells, A German Shepard Mix and a Bouvier Des Flandres. We breed and Show Paints, Quarter Horses and Appaloosas. We have several breeds of Chickens.
We own 6 acres , all our vehicles are paid for and we only owe our mortgage and utilities.
We do wear name brand clothing, most of it comes from Consignment Stores.

 

[chickensioux]

I'm a stay at home animal care-taker. DH manages a home healthcare facility. 2 teen boys, 55 pets. Finally living my dream having all these animals to care for. Have always wanted this. 1 son in college, younger son in 11th grade, both are very good kids and give me very little (if any) grief. We all drive Toyotas. DH is my best friend although I have some girlfriends I hang with here and there. I take care of my 85yr. old mother. She can't drive but she still lives on her own, takes no meds., has a memory better than mine and gets around better than I do on most days. So I say I take care of her maybe that's not exactly accurate.....other hobbies: BYCing, reading and napping.

 

[rainplace]

We do alright. Husband is the bread winner writing software, while I've mostly been a laborer (landscaping when younger, cleaning houses now that I'm older) Our only debt is our house, which is almost paid for. We've never had credit cards or financed anything other than the house, so we're riding this financial crisis out pretty well, thank goodness. We have three children, one out of the house, one should be out of the house, and the youngest has about 5 more years. No name brands here unless I find them at the thrift store or I get them from a client. I'd like to live off the grid, my husband doesn't care as long as he can get broadband internet (so he can work). We live on an island that is quickly becoming a suburb of Seattle... good for house prices, bad for property taxes and more neighbors.

I love my ducks... a lot. Hubby didn't think he'd like them, but he loves them too. He spends a lot of time outside watching them when he's letting his mind unwind and sort out work problems. He eats right if I put it in front of him, but when it's up to him, it's cheap white bread, frozen pizza, and goldfish.

Oh yeah, we have a 94 volvo station wagon, and 90 something jeep pick-up and 82 bmw motorcycle (used for commuting).

No television channels, but we watch netflix movies.

I have a small area in the front yard where I can plant a few vegies every year (only place I get sun). Every single year my husband acts like it's a miracle that we're eating something from the front yard. He forgets we did it the year before also.

We're private people without a lot of friends. We like it that way. We're also a bit socially retarded... such dorks that we make ourselves crack up all the time

I dunno.. is that a lifestyle, and if so, what kind?

 

[key west chick]

Im 42, DH is 45. Im a certified dental assistant, but never really used it. I did work as a hygeinist assistant for awhile. DH has done everything from flying corperate jets to teaching people how to fly. (flight instructor) We have had our own business which we had to close, to him being co-owner of another business which closed. Right now he is GM for a metal fabricating shop and I work there part time. I was fortunate to be a SAHM for years while our kids were small. Lifes been great and life has sucked. We've been through bankruptcy and losing our house. Right now I drive a 98 Mercedes ML 320 and DH drives a Ford Exscursian, both paid for while life was good. Our kids have a college trust fund set up so they are good to go. We live in a fixer upper we bought with a friend about 5 years ago. Friend moved out last year so we are still plugging away.

 

[onthespot]

life style... you are assuming I have a life, and that I have some sense of style, negatory on both counts, lol
Single, work part time as a home health nurse, keep dogs and cage birds in Riverside, Chickens and horse in Norco. Run back and forth every day between the two houses, fifteen/twenty minutes each way. Try my best to keep all the animals happy and looking pretty, and get the bills paid. sometimes it is come and go with the home health work. Patient goes in the hospital, poof, no work for a few days, chickens moult, poof, no egg money. Neighbors build an addition to their garage, and to save themselves $300 they do some of it themselves, badly, noisily and close to my lovebirds, no babies for a year! poof. I just keep as many irons in the fire as I can manage without burning myself, usually something balances out something else that goes poof. New Year's Eve my car went poof. I am now driving my 32 year old pickup truck with no tail gate that gets 7-8 mpg. Not liking that at all. Will have to make some other rabbit come out of my hat for a new little old econo car. I want a Geo Metro. Sleep with a buncha poodles in my bed, crate them when I'm gone for a night shift, otherwise they are regular house dogs. Okay, WAAAAYyyy too much info... but hey, someone's gotta be last place, i volunteer.

 

[silkiechicken]

Grad student.... with the umbilical cord to parents.

 

[gudrin]

Well, my husband is a web application developer at the local university and I'm a stay at home mom/ church secretary. The secretarial work is only a few hours a week, and my daughter comes with me. We live in the country on an acre and a half. Hubby drives a 2001 Chevy S10 and I drive a 2002 Chevy Malibu, both paid for (finally!) We have a daughter, two cats and two dogs and another baby on the way. We both have our bachelor degrees, and I also have my teaching license. I wouldn't know a name brand if it bit me in the butt, aside from jeans for ourselves. Our daughter's clothes have all been given to us by a gal who has two daughters, one of which can't let things go unless she knows where they're going. We're very thankful for her. I hate licensed clothes for all of us, and prefer the plain stuff. We live off from beef that was given to us by DH's parents (who grow their own, so to speak) and we garden and are looking to expand the garden area again this year. We'd like to be able to make our own baby food again, like we did with our daughter. Shopping is a luxury, aside from the grocery store, so we make do with what we have a lot of the time. Our house is small, but the lady that owned it before us raised four kids here, so I guess we can raise two rather easily. It's only had one owner prior to us and it was built in 1946. We've had to do some fixing, but it's slowly getting there. This year the big expense was a new heating system. The old oil furnace fell apart as the guys moved it across the basement floor! Now we have geothermal with a propane back up.

We're still working our way back from the "bad job" years. My husband worked for a compulsive liar and didn't get paid for his work all the time, unless his boss's mother stepped in and gave us money. That was 2 years ago. We're just now starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel on that one.

We'd like to be more self-sufficient as time goes on, and we've been slowly changing how we do things over time.

I guess that's us in a nutshell. No chickens yet, but looking to it as we gather more random pieces of wood and the like to build a coop.

 

[chickenshagg]

I grew up in an urban environment and still live in one although many people who meet me think differently. I have a '01 ford truck but drive a company work truck most of the time. I am proud to be a union Sprinklerfitter. Work has been slow for the past year but I have still been able to meet my obligations. I'm married to a wonderful, intelligent, beautiful woman who grew up in a rural part of Sweden on land that her family has always owned. My wife is city slicked out since she left the farm and went to college. We seem to have a role reversal on whom grew up where. She drives a BMW 5 series that my brother sold me when he was working at a BMW dealership. I have two great boys(12 & 14)from my first marriage that live with my wife and me most of the time. We all take a two week vacation to Sweden every summer to visit my in-laws.

We have a two story house on two acres in a sub-division, I currently have 15 chickens and my wife has three cats. My sub-division board does not like me having chickens but they can go pound sand as far as I am concerned. We wear a lot of name brand clothes but I wear them for the quality not for a fashion statement. (Redwings, Carhardt....) I enjoy the outdoors, my oldest son likes to hunt and my youngest likes to fish so I am covered. They like to ride dirt bikes and four wheelers and are also very involved with sports. I have a friend that farms up in South Dakota so I have been able to go up to his farm and play farmer for a weekend as well as pheasant hunt in season. My long term plans are when I retire to move to my wife's family farm in Sweden and play farmer full time. I want to clean the stuff out of the barns and restock them with animals. My wife thinks I am a bit crazy but either way she will be happy to be back home by her family.

I was raised in a Christian family and my parents are still very strong with their beliefs. I am not religious at all but I am respectful of everyone's beliefs no matter what their religious belief are. I do find it ironic that the bible teaches love and tolerance but so many people do not have that for people that do not share their same beliefs. I try to be a good man all of the time and I am as honest as the day is long!