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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want to know how all these people earn a living titting about all day?

268 replies

Pipbin · 03/08/2014 19:32

Seriously, there is a guy on countryfile right now who is an expert on foraging, and there was another guy who was a free diver. Not to mention the two women who were artists.

I want these jobs. I want to spend all day just titting about and somehow still earn a living.

OP posts:
Pipbin · 04/08/2014 07:59

So is titting about all a front for people actually working really hard? Don't destroy my illusions.

What about the guy in Shed of the Year who had a booth that he built which he tours round the country with a singer inside singing to one person at a time? Now that is titting about. He doesn't even do the singing. He just has a very beautiful box.

OP posts:
ImaMonet · 04/08/2014 08:00

Ffs

*read an article about it.

I am not Yoda.

ProfYaffle · 04/08/2014 08:06

You can earn a living from foraging. Some supply posh restaurants with stuff like wild mushrooms and wild garlic, some write books, do walks/experiences etc. Have a look at foodsafari in Suffolk, it's all a bit 'I saw you coming', people are willing to pay a small fortune for a 'food experience'.

I'll happily give you Folk in a Box though, it wasn't even a shed

ProfYaffle · 04/08/2014 08:09

On FoodSafari; 'Mushrooms in a Day', £160 per person! Shock There's also Wild meat, wild food, Urban foraging and coastal foraging.

noddyholder · 04/08/2014 08:12

I think you have to follow your passion whether lucrative or not You only see the successful ones in TV. I decided in my late 20s that twitting about was my calling and never looked back!

FunkyBoldRibena · 04/08/2014 08:14

Yes titting about IS a front!

I could be seen to be titting about - I teach foraging, jam making, natural art and organic horticulture amongst other things...but it is after years of research, practice, doing it for the love of it, making huge mistakes and all of a sudden people pay you to teach them how to do it. Most of the pre-work was done whilst working full time in other jobs.

I counted up my 'volunteer' hours that I have done since professionally titting about and it is over 1500 in nearly two years, which smoothes the way for the paid work.

And now, people will pay me a goodly amount to come and do big workshops - which may take a day or two to run; but involve a week's prep, and pack down, and admin - and I get around a quarter to a half a month's wages from it compared to my old full time work. Two to three of those a month, plus regular weekly workshops and I pull in enough to carry on titting about.

Nobody sees all the hard work in the background - you don't just learn these things by standing next to a hippy.

I'm off now to tit about with old reclaimed blocks and teach some kids to build a seating area. Grin.

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 04/08/2014 08:21

It's the "consultants" that come into school work to do a "project with the kids" that make me both Angry and Confused. How the hell? (And who do I have to shag to get a gig like that?)

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 04/08/2014 08:25

Oops, didn't mean you Funky. It was a specific example at my place of work where the actual staff members could have done the job twice as well, without a consultancy fee, for a project no one understood or actually wanted.

Pipbin · 04/08/2014 08:28

Funky. That is exactly the kind of titting about I mean.
Don't let on it's hard work. Make it sound more like you waft about in fields wearing a long skirt and having curly hair.

The women who tit about seem to have beautiful long curly hair.

OP posts:
noddyholder · 04/08/2014 08:32

This always makes me laugh. It's like people who say I could do that when confronted with a piece of art that has sold for ££££. As I always say Why don't you then? You have to take a risk/leap of faith at some point which is the bit where mist people falter and stick with security which I understand but it will never get you into the tit league Grin

TheWordFactory · 04/08/2014 08:38

I know lots of women who don't really need to work financially, so tit about.

Quite a few have some sort of life-style blog/on line business. One teaches floristry to other wealthy women. One offers to help you optimize your social media use. Quite a few 'design' things (gardens, homes etc). One gives lessons on how to be team-players (she actually got a contract with a massive bank and earned a fortune). At least two will help you cull your wardrobe and decide what clothes you need to buy...

That said, most of them do make some money. Not a living, but then they don't need or probably want to make a living. They just want to do something that interests them and to be something, other than a SAHP.

To be fair, when I gavfe up work as a lawyer many years ago to write, I suspect it looked much like I was titting about. But I have made it my living...

Eastpoint · 04/08/2014 08:39

Said sculptures. They are less expensive than I remembered.

To want to know how all these people earn a living titting about all day?
TheWordFactory · 04/08/2014 08:42

noddy that's a fair point in some ways.

Some of the titting about is skillfull. I couldn't, for example, teach floristry.

I think the big skill, is turning a bit of titting around into hard . I'e run several blogs/web sites for profit and it's pretty labour intensive (the web eats content) and the zeitgeist changes from moment to moment.

merrymouse · 04/08/2014 08:51

So I think there are probably 5 types of 'titting about'.

  1. You tit about all day because you are very talented and you make loads of money because people want to buy what you produce. Sometimes you have to be interviewed and go on publicity tours.

  2. You are very talented but have another job because what you do is well thought of but there isn't any money in it.

  3. You seem to tit about a lot, but you don't actually spend that much time titting about because you are actually running a business and you spend a lot of time doing what any business person would do.

  4. You seem to tit about a lot but you don't actually spend a lot of time titting about because you don't earn much money and although you live the simple life, the simple life is hard work.

  5. You tit about all day because somebody else pays the bills. Or maybe you just tit about when you feel like it because titting about isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you are married to somebody famous you will also have to do interviews.

noddyholder · 04/08/2014 08:53

The women who don't need to work make no money it is essentially a hobby. I laugh when they call themselves interior designers after a 6 week course in matching stripes and florals. You definitely do work hard as a freelancer you have no one to fall back on but I love the freedom.

MarshaBrady · 04/08/2014 08:55

It does seem to take a fair of effort to produce something that is swapped for enough money to give you that lovely stretch of free time.

Different if there's some one else funding it. However you still have to get people to take what you offer, even if it is rearranging flowers or whatever, so even if not much comes in it's not without skill.

StealthPolarBear · 04/08/2014 08:58

Drspouse:However I used to live in a hipster part of London where there was a local currency. The offered/wanted pages were all full of "Offered: crystal healing. Wanted: a plumber".

Pmsl at this. One has a blocked chakra, the other a blocked loo!

AlpacaLypse · 04/08/2014 09:02

.

SirChenjin · 04/08/2014 09:07

You need a wodge of old, inherited money, or some other form of income such as dividends from Great Aunt Agatha's estate - then you can waft around doing all sorts titting without having to even vaguely worry about the cost of a pint of milk.

TheWordFactory · 04/08/2014 09:09

I suspect every titting-about area, is divided between those who have a real talent for it and work hard at it and those for whom it's just a legitamised hobby.

The world of writing is full of people who spend their years taking courses and setting up blogs to 'show case' their work aka a short story they wrote three year's ago.

ILickPicnMix · 04/08/2014 09:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 04/08/2014 09:11

I know someone who works for a "tit abouter". Said TA doesn't like travel, so friend is always going to fashion weeks, meets with people at the top of the retail industry (and staying in 5star hotels) however, TA is shite with money and sometimes forgets to pay staff and some homeworkers ( me). But at least my scarf featured in vogue. That paid a few bills.

MarshaBrady · 04/08/2014 09:14

The hard part is when dc turn up, then the free time is not free. Full time involvement comes at a hefty price.

Again, easier if someone else is paying the nanny and true wafting can occur.

DontGiveAwayTheHomeworld · 04/08/2014 09:18

Pmsl at showcasing a short story. And in all that time they never seem to write anything else.

I guess I look like I'm titting about - writing science fiction, so I get to keep my head in the clouds. Sod all money in it though Sad

TheWomanTheyCallJayne · 04/08/2014 09:26

Was the forager Fergus?

I know several foragers who make a living from it. Obviously they don't pay much for food but they teach classes and write articles, go on tv and gee rally live quite cheap lives anyway.

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