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

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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.

Oh, and thanks TheWordFactory! Have to admit, it's pretty bloody satisfying to be able to make a living at doing something I love and know that I'm bringing some enjoyment/entertainment to people's lives.

Yes I renovate houses. I never scrimp or do the neutral cream laminate floor thing ever. The people I know who do make nothing. I like to completely re model and give people a functioning long lasting home with style and longevity.

Countryfile and it's ilk show a tiny percent of a job.

Dh is a Lighting Designer, sometimes that means working at festivals backstage. If you like that sort of thing, it looks like the ideal career; indeed he loves his job.

But 90% of it is selling peripherals on Ebay, fixing mics people hired and broke, sending equipment out for kid's parties. Accounts, trying to break even and pay the rent- normal, not awful but not exciting stuff. Not well paid either (yet), though mostly because equipment costs £££££££££ and we had to invest in lots of it.

Oh and whilst there are a fair few people titting about similarly, DH has a related degree and a lot of his mates in the field are very experienced. The titters-about crowd are just an under insured PITA tbh.

I suppose I sulk a bit because at one point I did make a living from writing, pretty much. I wrote articles and short stories and stuff, and worked in the editorial department of a magazine publishing house.
Writing, these days, is a lot harder to make money at because the magazines market is much smaller and the pay for freelancers about half what it used to be. It's also true that no one wants to pay for writing any more. There's so much free stuff out there, even though much of it is shit, that a lot of people don't see why authors should be paid.

I agree with that sgb its the same with film industry and photography So many people esp young students putting stuff out there on youtube etc and selling the rights to use if for a pittance.

I don't think I work particularly hard, I'm just lucky enough to be good at what I have to do so I get to coast a bit. On paper I was living on a pauper's income when I was on my own but actually I did pretty well with it due to circumstances. DH pays the bills now and life is more comfortable that way although I have a stipend income coming soon as well.

And with us Noddy, DH will often lose work to uninsured teenagers working for free with no safety training, no backup electrician qualification..... bloody dangerous, esp. in festival environments! the good festivals promote DH when they see his credentials and insurance, the bad ones sack him.

Colleges actively go after the paid roles using free as a temptation though- very wrong. Who do you want using pyros at a packed event, qualified DH or an untrained 19 year old? (there's no law to prevent anyone over 18 using stage pyros, though if something bad happens they can be asked to show competence)

I think in the future lots of work we think of now as a 'career' will be 'titting about' (hate that phrase, horribly misogynistic).

The rise of zero hour contracts is part of a cultural shift from most of the working population being employees (with rights such as pensions) to us all becoming freelancers.

I don't think there'll be many full time employee jobs in the future. So it will become more common for people to top up their earnings or time with hobby work with minimal pay.

SGB It's bloody infuriating, isn't it?

Everyday my inbox is full of people asking me to contribute to their blogs, on line magazines etc, or give talks, seminars etc etc for free, or virtually free.

Part of the problem is that many of these things are simply not viable in the first place. And another part is that far too many are prepared to give away their stuff for free.

My motto is simple; no money, no words!

I make a living titting about. I have no inheritance, no help from parents and my partner is a SAHP.
I earn very little and could earn more in a job, but our time together as a family is more important than 'stuff'.

When I tell people what I do (which is very rarely as I'm scared someone will 'steal' my idea), they usually say, "Really? There's a market for that? Really?"

I could also expand my business, as I did before, but I ended up paying people to tit about for me and all my time was taken up with paying wages, managing and admin.
I'm much happier now titting about for myself in my scaled-back business with my scaled-back life (no TV, no iPhones etc). I've become a specialist in what I do over the years.

Having said all that, however, I am just about to start a second titting-about business on top of my main one as I feel I need a new challenge.
This one may bankrupt me and I may have to get a proper job then, but I'm prepared to take that risk as titting about in life is good!

SGB, WordFactory I agree that free content is problem. However, if you CAN write, have you thought about expanding into markets that people will pay for? Most of my writing income comes from fiction ebooks. I actually use free content myself in that the first in my two series of books is permanently free for download. People read the first free book and they go on and buy the others in the series at full price.

Sorry if the above sounds patronising, it's not meant to.

Ive tried and failed to make a living titting.
eBay entrepreneur
making wedding stationery
jewellery making.

Its not easy..
I could have made gazillions promoting my bedroom as art but Tracy emin got there first.
always late to the party me.

Shit, that sounded worse than patronising. Of course you guys can write :) I meant, that as you can write, what about expanding into paying markets if you can?

I might go and do some more writing now rather than making a tit of myself on a titting-about thread :)

Yes the Youtube money comes from those annoying ads which pop up at the start.

DSIS says he sometimes says "Don't disturb me, I'm working" and shuts himself away in his bedroom to play a game. She would hoot with derision had she not seen the money he gets.

A lot of titting-about jobs are neat tax avoidance schemes for the self-employed, higher-earning partner within the marriage. You can feed through an awful lot of household costs, including domestic staff and home improvements, through these 'businesses'.

Every time you meet a personal shopper, art consultant, interior designer, photographer, fine artist, or landscape architect, you can usually assume the other partner is a barrister, chartered accountant, or property developer.

I'd love to tit about all day. In my head, it'd be like one long holiday - lazy lie-in, leisurely breakfast, maybe go for a run, read some books, browse MN, drink numerous cups of tea, meet up with equally titting friends, all while running my social-media-interior-design-arty-farty business.

In reality, I'd probably be skint and end up panicking about how I was going to pay the bills.

Peachy I was going to mention Lighting Designers too! I know mine works very hard when he's are out there but most events are 2 days - 5 days tops.
Mine gets paid more than I do a week for a days work. Travels around the world, put up in a lovely hotel and often has paid travel day. And you get paid for the preproduction which is sitting in front of a lap top at home and then going to the pub for a lovely lunch.

So true, thesaurusgirl.

I know someone who was an I-banker in NY before going to HBS where she met her DH before going into management consulting. So far, so boring conventional. She was as uncreative as you would expect.

Her DH got moved to the Far East in his high-earning job and she has reinvented herself as a modern Asian art consultant...

Rubbish I have all of those amongst my friends and not a barrister etc as a partner among us

A friend who is an artist has a barrister ex who pays the mortgage and high maintenance for the dc. Also another artist friend has a husband who does City consultancy work - but she had a successful career doing the same before she returned to do an art degree and now tits about with a paintbrush. But I know lots of people working in creative jobs who have either partners doing creative work as well, or doing ordinary jobs like teaching. DH definitely doesn't work in any of those jobs, but he is well paid for doing niche work.

But surely if you have young children you can't tit about without partner or parents being on hand to buy clothes, food, pay for school uniform etc?
I totally get the 'poor artist living for their dream in a shared squat' but not if you have kids?

Thesaurus - that's tax evasion, not avoidance!

Some of the titting about jobs on here are jobs though - nice ones at that, but certainly not the titting about of the forager or free diving level.

Totally agree Million - it's far easier to tit about when you don't have kids to shoe and feed. I'm also guessing it's perhaps easier to tit about if you're middle/upper class - not sure how many people without mates who with the money to pay for foraging weekends or free diving instruction in the Maldives actually have the luxury of proper, real titting about - as opposed to a nice-but-niche job

I'm a lecturer. I also forage and sell jams and chutney made from foraged spoils.

Oh God, I know loads of people who tit about for money.

I need to know how to do it - I would love to get paid for titting about - but the titter- abouters I know aren't always very forthcoming in sharing the secret to their success, mainly I think because they like to give the impression that what they are doing isnt actually titting about, it just looks like titting about. They're definitely titting about, though!