Imagine if Betty lived near you

[Aserena]

Inspired by another thread.

Meet Betty:

• Betty earns £50k (pre tax) per year, with a stable career.
• She is mid-life and single with no children.
• She has no wealthy relatives.

What living conditions and lifestyle would you expect Betty to have, in the area where you live?

Tell us where she’s living and how she spends her dosh. Feel free to be imaginative!

Betty has gorgeous hair and immaculate make up.. with a great figure due to her yoga classes and crossfit.
She lives in a lovely cottagey type village with loads of friendly neighbours who she has round regularly for drinks and 'come dine with me' type meals.
She's always laughing and is in a book club. She also goes to a painting/pottery class.

If I were Betty, I'd be meeting up with younger men for lots of sex. And I'd have pink hair, and a tattoo (something stylish). Probably living in London, or another city. Taking a foreign language course. Maybe some volunteering. And a bit of cold-water swimming (not sure why, but it just sounds cool).

she will happily tell you that is what is missing from her life, unfortunately she’s too full on when she meets them and they run sadly

I'm not going to specify my location (other than not the SE).

In my location she'd have bought her first house in her mid 20s, which would have probably been a little 2 bed starter home. 10 years later she's probably upgraded and bought a 3 bed detached close to decent transport links for when she doesn't want to drive.

She's now paid off her mortgage, or only has a small amount left to pay since she's not had to factor in childcare costs for her working life thus far. She therefore has a reasonable disposable income and has a bit put aside for a rainy day.

I'd like Betty to have a small dog, but being on her own and working, she more likely has a cat. Probably a Persian or a Siamese.

Betty has plenty of spare time which she uses on her hobbies. She probably likes to keep fit and active, so goes running almost daily. She also likes taking care of her looks and has her hair done every 6 weeks or so, plus visits the beauty salon for nails and waxing once a month. Betty is generally slim and attractive.

Betty doesn't really like cooking for one, so largely lives on M&S "ding" dinners which have been reduced in the sale. She eats out or gets takeaways too often also as a result of not really enjoying cooking for one.

Betty might be heavily involved in volunteer work in her spare time and this plus her hobbies take up most of her spare time.

She probably holidays with her hobby group mainly in order to avoid going on holiday alone.

Betty probably has a FWB or casual relationship she sees a few times a month, but having lived alone for her entire adult life is not interested in taking things further. I don't think Betty would be into online dating and enjoys her lack of commitment, though she probably gets lonely and wonders if she will regret her decision not to have children.

I did when I was Betty!

Betty loves in a terrace house, it has ivy climbing up it. She has 2 god children who she rarely sees but keeps in touch with on social media and messaging.
She does yoga at a class on a Saturday morning then meets with her friend June for coffee around 12. She gets back, does bit of housework and chills in the back garden if it's sunny. She puts a couple of lines on the lottery, then will catch up with her friend May either on the phone or meet at the pub for an hour, then they will either both (or just Betty, will get a takeaway).
Sundays she's relaxed, will go to church if she can be arsed. More often than not though she just walks her dog boo for a 2h walk round the country and then comes back and does herself some dinner. Catches up on soaps and gets an early night

Lives

And I was holding out for Betty's Tearooms in Yorkshire!

I want to be Betty 😅

One bedroom flat but the mortgage is nearly paid off (she should have been less risk adverse and bought somewhere bigger), life is good - she has lots of friends nearby and when the mortgage is overpaid she is freer than lots of other people her own age

Love it. This is what I imagine when I imagine child free single women in their mid age on a decent salary. At least it's closer to what I know of child free single women in real life than some dowdy spinster. Other than the name, I've no idea why so many posters think she should be dowdy, the dowdiest (is that a word) people I know have kids and are married to crap men....

Betty built up a successful business in her twenties and sold it for millions. She retrained and now works (very) part time offering home-based canine massage therapy. She lives in a beautiful 6-bed detached house surrounded by woodland and a large lake and shares her home with 8 rescue dogs.

Agreed.

The closest I've ever met (being 44 and, I think, 'mid-life' myself) was a Betz (Elizabeth) I once worked with who was roughly the same age as me, possibly slightly older.

Fuck me a lot of you think older women are dull and do bugger all!

I bet she spent her 20's having amazing sex while off her tits on E - her 30's building her careers and still having flings and fun - has her own home - comfortable and affordable - mortgage almost paid off.

Spends weekends visiting friends, shopping, seeing her older parents and at least once a month going out with her gang of mates and ending up in a gay bar at 2am - often being escorted to the taxi rank by 2 drag queens, goes camping a lot - combines this with seeing friends, goes aboard alone of with mates. Works hard in a job she loves - really enjoys her life.

I am 53 - I have kids but am happily single - I don't do yoga retreats or spa breaks

You sound terribly sexist. I reported the first post for that, incidentally. It’s a horrible attitude to single women.

I thought you meant Betty Draper!

Also, what is with all the fucking yoga?

I hate yoga, but I think that's possibly because I'm not very bendy yet insist on treating it like a competitive sport.

I could murder a Fat Rascal with butter! I haven't been to the Ilkley one yet, but love York and Harrogate!

ok thanks for that Betty xx

When I had DD a rather wealthy friend sent me a tray of Betty's fondant fancies. I justified eating most of them because I was breastfeeding. I have just made a batch of Fat Rascals, which my husband prefers to the actual Betty's ones.

She would probably shop in primark and that sort of thing

ODFOD.
Ageist, sexist bilge. There’s no excuse for it.

So we all need a man, or a dog for companionship and have no life if we stay childfree?

Here in Liverpool, Betty would be living wherever she wanted to £30k is a good wage here and she would have been working her way up to that on a very liveable wage, houses start from £70k in ok areas. I'd hope that she's gone for a easy to maintain two-up-two-down because she shags as she sightsee's her way around the UK, if not the world. She values and nurtures her friendships. She is neither lonely or needs anything from anyone else. I'm not sure how old middle aged is, it could be between 38-50, depending on your pov. I know women like Betty, they are SW/SC managers, high band NHS/Council/Bank workers. If she around 50, she's taken advantage of at least one property boom, so has been mortgage free for at least ten years (two of my DD'S will be at this age). The women (and my sister fits this description) take advantage of the range of cultural meet up groups, get involved in politics (my sister in her 60's still goes on protests and last year helped to get a arms factory closed down) and never stop increasing their knowledge. She only buys PJs/socks from Primark. She shops online.

Yes! I lift weight in the gym along side all the grunting males - yoga can bite me

Would it be really cheeky to ask for the recipe? We’re Fat Rascal addicts in this house and don’t get them very often.