Work, for yourself versus for an employer

[seasidegirl]

Just wondering what people think about the above.

Much of self sufficiency is about working for yourself and your family.
I'm working at this, not for the first time but probably the most seriously because I have a home and garden better than I've ever had.

It's only possible because my husband works and brings in enough to pay our mortgage (Tom and Barbara didn't have one!) . But still,
I don't have small children anymore to look after so could earn a fair bit of cash if I went to work as well.

Most likely I would be on minimum wage and at the moment I've got some health problems that would interfere with this. No one will employ me while I'm waiting for a (hopefully) minor operation.

So I'm working for myself right now. I've been doing lots of hours of work which I can do at my own pace with lots of breaks and fit them in according to the weather and time of day that suits me.
I'm not paying any tax on my earnings because my earnings will become savings on what we would have spent.

Like yesterday it was so wet and cold so I went into town and purchased ingredients to make my own clothes washing liquid (cheers Contadina). Cost bus fare, ingredients, potential savings unknown but quite a lot. Most of my weekly cleaning expense is soap powder.

No chickens yet but have hopes. Summer OH gets fish from the sea (he tries in winter but very little there) though and already we have wood for next winter. I probably have spent between £10 and £20 a week on vegetables and fruit so even this year there's a load of money saved. Bread making's a bit slow but most dinners are cooked from scratch.

Still I wonder if I can afford this lifestyle. We are going to live better but is it affordable?

What do others think?

[Green Aura]

I'm not wholly sure I understand what you're asking sg.

I work for myself - in that I run a small business and do as much of the Ish thing that I can. I've not earned enough money to pay tax yet, but what I have earned has contributed to the renovating costs of this place. I cook every meal from scratch, and often with ingredients we've grown. I make all my own cleaning products and personal hygiene stuff so I don't buy any of these from the supermarkets any more.

We definitely live more cheaply up here, largely due to the lack of distractions (I'm talking about shopping ) and I certainly feel more fulfilled.

I suppose the questions are
1) Are you meeting your monthly expenditure every month? If so there's no real financial problem. If not, can you do anything to correct it without doing a nine to five.
2) Is it causing problems with your OH? Or does he like coming home to home grown/cooked meals.

If you can answer these satisfactorily, I say enjoy it. Not many of us get the opportunity these days.

[pelmetman]

Dave has had his own business, always working from home for over 20 years. Initially I went out to work, had a good job and was paid a reasonable sum of money. As the business grew I gave up my full time job although did agency work for a few more years to bring in some more money. In the 90's I took the plunge and gave up employed work to join Dave with the business, we are together 24/7 which suits us but probably wouldn't be for everybody.

Neither of us could imagine working for anybody else now suppose we are too set in our ways.

Running your own business is not easy, there is always the worry if you don't sell anything you don't earn anything. There is Tax, National Insurance, VAT, insurance bills are always high as you have to insure yourself in case you become ill and can't work etc. Not only do we have our house rates but also pay business rates for the workshop, which also has to be heated so incurring higher heating bills Telephone bills are higher and today a lot of time is spent on paperwork, ordering stock etc. etc. This of course, is before we even start to think about working.

However we would have it no other way and the advantages out weigh the disadvantages. We are free within reason when we work, if the weather is nice then we work in the garden, have no one but ourselves to answer to. We both love cooking so have the time to prepare proper meals no ready meals here and grow all our own fruit and veg. We can go on holiday, visit family and friends when we want.

Yes all in all we have a very good life

[Susie]

I don't know if this is what you meant, but when I do ishy work like I think you're defining it (cooking food from scratch, starting to grow veg, work around the house etc) I do feel as if I've done something directly productive in terms of our health and lifestyle, and, yes, that (sometimes!) has a direct financial benefit in money saved (I hadn't thought of this as money earned, but yes, you're right, it is.) On the other hand I've done lots of more traditional work - i.e. paid by an employer - where I get home at the end of the day and I've contributed absolutely nothing to the greater good of mankind, I feel like I've just been shuffling round made-up meta work (although I've also had jobs where I can definitely see the direct benefit of what I'm doing.) And then with the money I've earned I contract out the life work (e.g. cooking, through ready meals etc) which I would have done better myself!

If you're up for a very long (and slightly boring and didactic, sorry ) book, I remember stuff like this being explored a bit in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - the difference between made-up "work" and actual, productive work, and how made-up "work" stops us doing the productive stuff, at home or in society.

In terms of affordability though I think Green Aura's questions are spot on.

[Green Aura]

If you're up for a very long (and slightly boring and didactic, sorry ) book, I remember stuff like this being explored a bit in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - the difference between made-up "work" and actual, productive work, and how made-up "work" stops us doing the productive stuff, at home or in society.

On my list of Top Ten all time books - not boring at all, although I, alternately, sobbed like a baby and raged all the way through. But then I am an old leftie

[Susie]

On my list of Top Ten all time books - not boring at all, although I, alternately, sobbed like a baby and raged all the way through. But then I am an old leftie

I agree! I spent the first 100 pages thinking 'this is rubbish and I will never get through it' and then by the end I was completely converted. That was the end of capitalism for me . I'm an MBA dropout, and I think it's a good job I hadn't read it while I was still trying to do the course as I would have been even more of a square peg than I was already...

[Silver Ether]

I work for myself as a Registered childminder, have done for errr 20+ years. Income plus around for my own kids. Cut my hours back about 3 years ago and found that by not working so much gave me much more time to do other stuff hobbies as well as saving money of shopping, cooking, etc ...

Remember going out to work can cost money ... transport, clothes, poss make up and hair do ... all this stuff you don't need... not if your a real ishy woman.
So being self employed has its advantages that you can make work fit your life ...

[seasidegirl]

Thanks very much for all these replies. You've given me lots of ideas.

I think the crux of the matter is that we do need more cash but I so love this life at home growing and cooking and learning more ishy things every day.

I think the answer for me is to delve deeper into ishyness and make the savings bigger. There's potential for this house to be much greener than it is, and therefore cheaper. Also I can grow like billyo and sell as much excess as I can. I've sold produce before so know the pitfalls.

I like the sound of that book very much so cheers for the tip.