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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
FunkyBoldRibena · 05/08/2014 07:17

I know a fair few artists and musicians and they worked bloody hard during their formative years in order to earn enough to tit about all day. Many still work second jobs in order to fund their bands and stuff though.

One of my old chums bought his house cash, and by that I mean he put his offer in, and turned up the next day with the cash in a briefcase to pay for it. Because he was is musician, and a bit flighty in other ways of the world, he genuinely thought that was how you bought a house.

PerpendicularVincenzo · 05/08/2014 08:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

splendide · 05/08/2014 08:05

My husband is an artist. Makes maybe 10k in a really good year (gross so after expenses and things, basically nothing). It does require me to have a proper job. Works for us, I love his work and he does the house stuff!

So I would say you need to marry someone with a decent job or be careful about your choice of parents of course!

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 08:52

I love reading mags like Good Housekeeping (at MIL's, I hasten to add) - it's full of 'inspiring' and 'aspirational' stories of women who, in their 50s, decided to tit about that they needed a change of direction in order to bring about a sense of personal fullfilment. They did that in a variety of ways - opened up a little shop selling goods they had sourced at flea markets across France, set up a charity taking old shoes to children in Africa, got a conservation job on St Kilda, that type of thing. I always get sucked in by it all and start sulking about my hard life - until I read that they either got a massively massive inheritance from their parents, or their DH is a hedge fund manager. And then I sulk some more because I have neither.

merrymouse · 05/08/2014 08:56

… or they were looking for a change of direction following a divorce from a hedge fund manager.

thesaurusgirl · 05/08/2014 09:01

It's definitely not legal and should be reported if you know that's what's going on.

I suspect rather than know, IYSWIM, Chenjin. Just don't have the certainty to report them and these people are also my clients and sometimes even my friends - am reluctant to bite off the hand that, often quite literally, also feeds me Blush.

I've just thought of another scheme titters-about in London go in for. There's a whole mini-industry in certain parts of London of babysitters for teenage children, taking them back and forth to school on long commutes and supervising them during the school holidays. Mummy's start-up dotcom employs them as "runners". Once the kids are old enough to cope on their own, the start-up is wound up, having never made any real money, but having absorbed a lot of losses Hmm.

TheWordFactory · 05/08/2014 09:23

But if the start up makes no money, what are the losses being set off against?

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 05/08/2014 09:24

Golf balls - golfers lose lots of balls. People poke around in the rough, and possibly paddle into water hazards, at golf courses and sell bags of used balls to golfers for less than retail.

I've seen them sat at the side of the road near to golf courses (but this was in Spain).

People have mentioned festivals upthread. I suppose DP is a bit of a titter abouter as he freelances his labour for a variety of stage building/lighting installation/equipment moving and set up tasks at festivals and similar events.

What he earns from this varies hugely and we can only afford for him to do this because I have a proper full time job paying a proper salary.

He has insurance and works for a small number of professional companies. There are however a lot of cowboys that try to cut corners and even use 'volunteers' as there are plenty of people willing to work at festivals for free in exchange for a ticket.

He does plant driving in the winter and over the year it all does add up to a reasonable salary, but there is no certainty and he often gets work with only a couple of days notice and can sometimes go for a few days/weeks with little or no paid work - I can always find plenty for him to do at home though Smile.

thesaurusgirl · 05/08/2014 09:30

what are the losses being set off against

Word, the husband makes a loan to the company, I think, or becomes a director or somesuch. I see it all the time, women apparently employing a team of people when their work surely turns over less than double figures in profit.

I hope I'm not giving anyone ideas BTW!

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 05/08/2014 09:33

Although golf ball retrieval seems to be quit a hazardous occupation Grin

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 10:22

or they were looking for a change of direction following a divorce from a hedge fund manager

...then that would be a different article. These are women who are still (according to what they tell the journo at least Grin) happily married but looking for "something for me" which involves titting about while someone else pays for it, lucky bugger that I am

Thesaurus - yes, difficult if you don't have proof, but if you have professional suspicion then I thought that was grounds enough to hand over to HMRC?

thesaurusgirl · 05/08/2014 10:38

That would involve reporting half the people I know, Chenjin. Half of London's top earners seem to be bending the tax rules in some way. If the worst that can happen is being required to pay up if HMRC rumbles your scheme, you can see why people try it.

The situation isn't going to change for us little people with our PAYE.

Look how many MPs 'employ' their wives. Or why no-one asked in court why Nigella's assistants had also been providing her childcare.

merrymouse · 05/08/2014 10:53

Actually it's usually ex-wives of rock stars or famous chefs whose divorce has allowed them to realise a previously secret talent for making paper hats/pasta collages/artisan loo cleaner from their South of France home.

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 10:59

I agree - but if their accountants don't report HMRC will never get in top of it. If you are a CA you have a legal obligation to report. I agree though, tax rules in this country can be all too easily bent with the right advice from the right accountant while the rest of us paye lot pay what we are due.

Olga79 · 05/08/2014 11:11

I have a couple of friends who do those sorts of jobs, they're supported by partners and seem to have no concept that it's not sustainable work on it's own. One in particular is always telling me success stories of people who have turned hobbies into businesses (I have s hobby that earns me 50-100 per month) and encouraging me to do the same. I've done the calculations, they just don't add up without either a) a long time growing a business on no wage, or b) only earning a little and topping up with tax credits.

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 11:20

That's exactly it Olga - those titting about jobs do require some other form of income, whether that be from a partner/parent/other supportive income earner, or from tax credits (which relies on household income falling under a certain bracket) - or a lifestyle which doesn't depend on you earning X during the time it takes to get the business off the ground.

noddyholder · 05/08/2014 11:45

I have decided from this that I am not titting about as earn too much have no rich husband or parents and have made a living from day one

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 12:16

You are definitely not titting about noddy Grin

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 05/08/2014 12:19

YY SirC - I am just back from France and I made DH drive us to a flea market with the express purpose of setting up some tittery-aboutery when I got home. What a load of old toot! AND you could get everything in Anthropologie...

thesaurusgirl · 05/08/2014 12:19

Noddy, there's a massive difference between being a titter-about and making a living from a creative profession. I do know people without connections or rich OHs who derive a decent income from painting, graphic design, interior design etc. But they tend to have multiple sources of income, such as BTL or teaching or providing other services alongside their main skill.

The interior designers I know regularly have their work featured in mags, but one makes most of her annual income from building project management which is really hard and really stressful work, and the other owns a portfolio of flats she rents out. The design jobs she does are just a marketing strategy, she fully admits they don't pay well on a hourly rate.

A jeweller friend makes more money from teaching beading courses at evening classes than she does from selling her pieces.

thesaurusgirl · 05/08/2014 12:24

Also people are sometimes economical with the truth because they're embarrassed.

A friend of my sister's is a single mother and tells people she's a personal stylist, but she gets those gigs in a blue moon, and the rest of the time she's a cleaner. It's just not very sexy to have to tell potential dates what pays the majority of your income.

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 12:24

So true Lonny!

SirChenjin · 05/08/2014 12:29

Also true thesaurus. DSiL used to have a 'proper' job until DBiL's career took off big, big time. Then she left to became a management consultant (a few small contracts, mainly from BiL), and then she set up a children's art publishing business, and now she and BiL have gone into business together as management consultants again. She's lovely 'n all, but hasn't worked for a good number of years now - she dabbles in various projects and has 'got into nutrition'. So would I, if DH earned anything like DBiL Grin

KiKiFrance · 06/08/2014 00:22

House buyers on Escape to the Country always seem to have titting about type jobs that enable them to work from home in any location they desire

noddingoff · 06/08/2014 04:40

Yes Kiki, and they all have a budget of about forty million pounds. I'm perplexed. I want to tit about and be able to afford the houses they look at. Or even not tit about and afford one of those houses. I don't tit about, work full time in a professional job and could work till 70 without ever being able to buy one of those unless my mummy and daddy were very rich and bought it for me.