And she cleans rich houses. The story of a housekeeper of one of the richest people in Ukraine
The topic of servants in the 19th century is truly inexhaustible; it is not possible to cover it in one article. But if I don’t eat it, I’ll bite it :)
So, the story about the servants is dedicated to Wodehouse fans.
Servants in the 19th Century
In the 19th century, the middle class was already wealthy enough to hire servants. Servants were a symbol of prosperity; they freed the mistress of the house from cleaning or cooking, allowing her to lead a lifestyle worthy of a lady. It was customary to hire at least one maid - so at the end of the 19th century, even the poorest families hired a “step girl”, who on Saturday mornings cleaned the steps and swept the porch, thus catching the eye of passers-by and neighbors. Doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals kept at least 3 servants, but in rich aristocratic houses there were dozens of servants. The number of servants, their appearance and manners, communicated the status of their masters.
(c) D. Barry, "Peter Pan"
Main classes of servants
Butler(butler) – responsible for order in the house. He has almost no responsibilities related to physical labor, he is above that. The butler usually looks after the male servants and polishes the silver. In Something New, Wodehouse describes the butler this way:
Butlers as a class seem to grow less and less like anything human in proportion to the magnificence of their surroundings. There is a type of butler employed in the comparatively modest homes of small country gentlemen who is practically a man and a brother; who hobnobs with the local tradesmen, sings a good comic song at the village inn, and in times of crisis will even turn to and work the pump when the water supply suddenly fails.
The greater the house the more does the butler diverge from this type. Blandings Castle was one of the more important of England"s show places, and Beach accordingly had acquired a dignified inertia that almost qualified him for inclusion in the vegetable kingdom. He moved--when he moved at all--slowly. He distilled speech with the air of one measuring out drops of some precious drug. His heavy-lidded eyes had the fixed expression of a statue"s.
Housekeeper(housekeeper) – responsible for bedrooms and servants' quarters. Supervises the cleaning, looks after the pantry, and also monitors the behavior of the maids to prevent debauchery on their part.
Chef(chef) - in rich houses the Frenchman often charges a lot for his services. Often in a state of cold war with the housekeeper.
Valet(valet) – personal servant of the owner of the house. Takes care of his clothes, prepares his luggage for the trip, loads his guns, gives him golf clubs, drives away angry swans from him, breaks up his engagements, saves him from evil aunts and generally teaches him to be smart.
Mistress's personal maid/maid(lady's maid) - helps the hostess comb her hair and dress, prepares a bath, looks after her jewelry and accompanies the hostess during visits.
Lackey(footman) - helps bring things into the house, brings tea or newspapers, accompanies the hostess during shopping trips and carries her purchases. Dressed in livery, he can serve at the table and add solemnity to the moment with his appearance.
Maids(housemaids) - sweep the yard (at dawn, while the gentlemen are sleeping), clean the rooms (while the gentlemen are having dinner).
As in society as a whole, the “world under the stairs” had its own hierarchy. At the highest level were teachers and governesses, who, however, were rarely considered servants. Then came the senior servants, headed by the butler, and so on downwards. The same Wodehouse describes this hierarchy very interestingly. In this passage he talks about the order of eating.
Kitchen maids and scullery maids eat in the kitchen. Chauffeurs, footmen, under-butler, pantry boys, hall boy, odd man and steward"s-room footman take their meals in the servants" hall, waited on by the hall boy. The stillroom maids have breakfast and tea in the stillroom, and dinner and supper in the hall. The housemaids and nursery maids have breakfast and tea in the housemaid"s sitting-room, and dinner and supper in the hall. The head housemaid ranks next to the head stillroom maid. The laundry maids have a place of their own near the laundry, and the head laundry maid ranks above the head housemaid. The chef has his meals in a room of his own near the kitchen.
Jeeves played by Stephen Fry.
Children with a nanny
Henry Morland, A Lady's Maid Soaping Linen, OK. 1765-82. Of course, the era is by no means Victorian, but it’s just a pity to miss such a charming picture.
The washerwomen came for water.
Maid in the kitchen in a rural cottage. Judging by the photograph, she is still a very young girl. However, at that time, 10-year-old children were sometimes hired for work, often from orphanages (like Oliver Twist)
Hiring, Salary and Position of Servants
In 1777, each employer had to pay a tax of 1 guinea per male servant - in this way the government hoped to cover the costs of the war with the North American colonies. Although this rather high tax was only abolished in 1937, servants continued to be hired. Servants could be hired in several ways. For centuries, special fairs (statute or hiring fairs) functioned, which brought together workers looking for a job. They brought with them some object that signified their profession - for example, roofers held straw in their hands. To seal the contract of employment, all that was required was a handshake and the payment of a small amount in advance (this advance was called a fastening penny). It is interesting to note that it was at such a fair that Mor from Pratchett’s book of the same name became Death’s apprentice.
The fair went something like this: job seekers
lined up in broken lines in the middle of the square. Many of them were attached to
hats have little symbols showing the world what kind of work they know
sense Shepherds wore scraps of sheep's wool, and carters tucked them behind their crowns.
a lock of a horse's mane, an interior decorator - a stripe
intricate Hessian wallpaper, and so on and so forth. boys,
those wishing to become apprentices crowded like a bunch of timid sheep into
in the very middle of this human whirlpool.
- You just go and stand there. And then someone comes up and
offers to take you on as a student,” Lezek said in a voice from which
managed to banish notes of some uncertainty. - If he likes your look,
Certainly.
- How do they do it? - asked More. - That is, how they look
determine whether you are suitable or not?
- Well... - Lezek paused. Regarding this part of the program, Hamesh does not
gave him an explanation. I had to strain myself and scrape the bottom of the barrel
repository of market knowledge. Unfortunately, the warehouse contained very
limited and highly specific information on the sale of livestock wholesale and
retail. Realizing the insufficiency and incomplete, let’s say, relevance of these
information, but having nothing else at his disposal, he finally
made up his mind:
- I think they count your teeth and everything. Make sure you don't
you wheeze and that everything is fine with your legs. If I were you I wouldn't
mention a love of reading. This is alarming.(c) Pratchett, "Pestilence"
In addition, a servant could be found through a labor exchange or a special employment agency. In their early days, such agencies printed lists of servants, but this practice declined as newspaper circulation increased. Such agencies often had a bad reputation because they could take money from a candidate and then not arrange a single interview with a potential employer.
Among the servants there also existed their own “word of mouth” - by meeting during the day, servants from different houses could exchange information and help each other find a new place.
To get a good place, perfect recommendations from previous owners were required. However, not every owner could hire a good servant, because the employer also required recommendations of some kind. Since the servants' favorite pastime was washing the masters' bones, the bad reputation of greedy employers spread quite quickly. The servants also had blacklists, and woe to the master who ended up on it! In the series about Jeeves and Wooster, Wodehouse often mentions a similar list compiled by members of the Junior Ganymede club.
“It’s a club for valets on Curzon Street, I’ve been a member of it for quite some time.” I have no doubt that the servant of a gentleman who occupies such a prominent position in society as Mr. Spode is also included in it, and, of course, gave the secretary a lot of information about
their owner, which are included in the club book.
-- As you said?
- According to paragraph eleven of the institution’s charter, each person entering
the club is obliged to reveal to the club everything that he knows about his owner. Of these
information makes for fascinating reading, and the book also inspires
reflections of those club members who are planning to go into the service of the gentlemen,
whose reputation cannot be called impeccable.
A thought struck me and I shuddered. Almost jumped.
-What happened when you joined?
- Excuse me, sir?
-Did you tell them everything about me?
- Yes, of course, sir.
-- As everybody?! Even the time when I escaped from Stoker's yacht and I
Did you have to smear shoe polish on your face to disguise it?
-- Yes, sir.
-- And about that evening when I returned home after Pongo's birthday
Twistleton and mistook the floor lamp for a burglar?
-- Yes, sir. On rainy evenings, club members enjoy reading
similar stories.
- Oh, that’s it, with pleasure? (With) Wodehouse, Family Honor of the Woosters
A servant could be fired by giving him a month's notice or paying him a month's salary. However, in the event of a serious incident - say, the theft of silverware - the owner could fire the servant without paying a monthly salary. Unfortunately, this practice was accompanied by frequent abuses, because it was the owner who determined the seriousness of the violation. In turn, the servant could not leave the place without prior notice of departure.
In the mid-19th century, a mid-level maid earned an average of £6 – £8 a year, plus extra money for tea, sugar and beer. A maid who served directly the mistress (lady's maid) received 12-15 pounds a year plus money for additional expenses, a livery footman - 15-15 pounds a year, a valet - 25-50 pounds a year. In addition, servants traditionally received a cash gift at Christmas. In addition to payments from employers, servants also received tips from guests. Usually, when hired, the owner told the servant how often and in what quantities guests were received in this house, so that the newcomer could calculate what tips he should expect. Tips were distributed upon departure of the guest: all the servants lined up in two rows near the door, and the guest gave tips depending on the services received or on his social status (i.e., generous tips indicated his well-being). In some houses, only male servants received tips gender. For poor people, giving out tips was a nightmare in reality, so they could refuse an invitation for fear of appearing poor. After all, if the servant received too stingy a tip, then the next time the greedy guest visited, he could easily give him a dolce vita - for example, ignore or change all orders guest.
Until the early 19th century, servants were not entitled to days off. It was believed that when entering service, a person understood that from now on every minute of his time belonged to his masters. It was also considered indecent if relatives or friends came to visit the servants - and especially friends of the opposite sex! But in the 19th century, masters began to allow servants to receive relatives from time to time or give them days off. And Queen Victoria even gave an annual ball for palace servants at Balmoral Castle.
By saving, servants from wealthy houses could accumulate a significant amount of money, especially if their employers remembered to mention them in their wills. After retirement, former servants could go into trade or open a tavern. Also, servants who had lived in the house for many decades could live out their lives with their owners - this especially often happened with nannies.
The position of the servants was ambiguous. On the one hand, they were part of the family, they knew all the secrets, but they were forbidden to gossip. An interesting example of this attitude towards servants is Bécassine, the heroine of the comics for Semaine de Suzzette. A maid from Brittany, naive but devoted, she was drawn without a mouth or ears - so that she could not eavesdrop on her master's conversations and retell them to her friends. Initially, the identity of the servant, his sexuality, seemed to be denied. For example, there was a custom when the owners gave the maid a new name. For example, Moll Flanders, the heroine of Defoe’s novel of the same name, was called “Miss Betty” by her owners (and Miss Betty, of course, gave her owners a light). Charlotte Brontë also mentions the collective name for maids - "abigails"
(c) Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre"
The situation with names was generally interesting. As far as I understand, higher-ranking servants - such as a butler or personal maid - were called solely by their last name. We find a striking example of such treatment again in Wodehouse’s books, where Bertie Wooster calls his valet “Jeeves,” and only in The Tie That Binds do we learn Jeeves’ name – Reginald. Wodehouse also writes that in conversations between servants, the footman often spoke about his master familiarly, calling him by name - for example, Freddie or Percy. At the same time, the other servants called the said gentleman by title - Lord So-and-so or Earl So-and-so. Although in some cases the butler could pull the speaker back if he believed that he was “forgetting” in his familiarity.
Servants could not have a personal, family or sexual life. The maids were often unmarried and without children. If a servant happened to become pregnant, she had to take care of the consequences herself. The percentage of infanticide among maids was very high. If the father of the child was the owner of the house, then the maid had to remain silent. For example, according to persistent rumors, Helen Demuth, housekeeper in the family of Karl Marx, gave birth to a son from him and remained silent about it all her life.
Illustrative photo
PHOTO: Flickr/by WageIndicator.org - Pictures from Pa
Let me tell you something that everyone is wondering: how rich people really live.
I worked for a cleaning company for more than two years. I had a flexible schedule and a good salary. I never perceived this work as a career, I did not identify myself with it.
I didn't spy on my clients. But when you regularly clean their houses, you willy-nilly notice things that are very unusual for you.
I drove up to these houses along small winding roads, and there were gnomes and green “carpets” all around - everything was like in a fairy tale. I parked my car in a special parking lot far from the clients’ house: so that, God forbid, the oil from my car wouldn’t ruin the look of the asphalt for them. I enjoyed the view of the pier and the boats that sparkled in the bay opposite their houses. I cleaned the house and went to a new address. I had 20 clients. Two or three houses a day.
A few months into my employment, my boss asked me to clean houses “slowly.” (We don't say that, of course. We call it "more carefully.") There was a lot of turnover at the company, and the boss explained that I needed to stay in the houses for longer periods. The company received hourly wages for our work.
If I cleaned houses faster than other girls in my department, clients no longer wanted to pay for their “inefficient” work. The stakes immediately began to seem too high to them.
Therefore, I tried to simply “kill” part of my working time. I looked into the master's nightstands and tried to understand through them the essence of the American dream. Then, having nothing else to do, she got to the cabinets and looked at the empty wine bottles.
I also saw how many pills they take every two weeks. Doctors had once prescribed them for treatment, but now it was their way of relaxing.
Rich people have pills for everything: pain, anxiety, insomnia, depression, impotence, allergies, high blood pressure, diabetes. A pile of medicines. My personal favorite is the testosterone boosting cream. (I had to look up what it is. This thing eliminates the lack of libido in women. You apply the cream anywhere on your body except the genitals.)
Hustler porn was regularly filmed in one of my clients' homes. All the nightstands contained bottles of lube, piles of underwear and cum-stained sheets. Someone even tried to cook here: one day I found a pan filled to capacity with beef. The whole house smelled of caramelized ham.
Other clients had a separate refrigerator with food for their cat. This boorish animal even had his own bedroom!
Next to the porn house there was a garden house. Across the road. Both had large garages the size of living rooms and ocean views.
I was in the garden house every second Wednesday. This is rare. The owner spent most of his time at the hospital, so it was always clean. Unless it was necessary to shake off the dust and wipe the dining table.
His wife died many years ago. I guessed this from the photographs placed throughout the house. They were made in the 80s. But every trifle that she had once collected continued to be carefully stored in its place.
On the cork board in the kitchen were sticky notes with her to-do lists: “Get a new hose from the courier,” “Find someone to seal the cracks in the sidewalk,” “Install a new latch for the gate.”
She was forced to do “manly” things because her husband spent 24 hours a day at work. And this is what it all led to.
The bathroom has two sinks. One still has a hairdryer connected to it. It hangs on a special hook. On his side was a cup with a comb and all the medications he took in the morning and before bed. Each time they were different.
Opposite the sink was a wicker shelf. On it stood a painting of their eldest son. He is wearing a green scarf and a beard. He shows the "victory" sign. And the signature: “Don’t stand and cry on my grave. I'm not there. And I'm not sleeping." This is how the owner of this house starts each day.
The amount of money my clients spent was amazing to me.
In one of the houses I saw a receipt for a blanket I had just purchased. It was more expensive than my car. I vacuumed children's rooms larger than my entire apartment.
Rob, the demanding client I went to on Fridays and who adored me, spent $3,000 every month on TV and the Internet. For Christmas he sent me a card with $100 inside.
I usually never met my clients. I once saw a lady from a porn house one time in a store. She was wearing a huge coat of wool dyed red. She was choosing a steak. I stood five meters away with cough syrup and baby juice for my daughter and pretended not to notice her. But she had no idea who I was. I knew that right now she was being treated for a persistent genital infection.
I saw a woman who uses testosterone cream in a restaurant. A tall, slender lady in good shape, with fluffy blond hair. She was wearing high heels and had too much makeup on. She met her lover in a restaurant. They smiled at each other, but did not hold hands.
One day he left a bag at her house and didn’t pick it up until the children and their dad returned home.
This bag contained a vibrator and lube. I stood opposite this couple at the bar and thought: how sad it must be to lose your libido.
After a while I got used to the loneliness that reigns in these houses.
I’m used to the fact that wives start smoking and cheating on their husbands on the same day when they leave the city for several days.
One such client kept a box of cigarettes in a freezer in her garage. Long thin cigarettes. I don't remember the brand.
Her entire pantry off the kitchen was stocked with low-fat soups, crackers, and salad dressings. There was never anything in the refrigerator except water and salads.
My most important client asked me to come to him twice a week for a few hours. Besides cleaning, I did a lot of other things: folded the laundry of his mother, father and two small sons, ironed it.
His mother came out of her office next door just to pay me and ask about a midwife in town. “I’m pregnant,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m telling this to you, you’re the first person who knows about this, other than my husband.” She was afraid that my master would find out about this. That is, she did not think that he would be happy with the idea that he would have a brother.
While I put away her stainless steel appliances and wiped down the granite countertops in the kitchen, she and I chatted.
She said that she wanted to give birth at home, despite her advanced age. I told her how dangerous it was, using my own example, but she didn’t believe me.
A week or two later I noticed blood stains in the toilet. She told me that she had a miscarriage. Now I saw a completely different person in front of me: hunched over, “nailed” to the ground. I don’t even know what else to say here.
After a while, I quit the cleaning company and began working for my clients without intermediaries. It was more difficult, but
I got the opportunity to not have to deal with idiots who asked me to clean their house in a “special” suit while they walked around naked.
I stopped spying on my clients. There was no need for this now: I cleaned their home quickly, and I didn’t have to while away the time doing nothing. They all send my daughter and I gifts for the holidays that we could never buy on our own.
And I vowed that I would never again want to have a house that was too big for me to clean on my own.
During the crisis in Rublevka, it became unfashionable to boast of wealth. But the life of the local inhabitants has not changed much. Despite millions of dollars in losses, Rublevka, as before, hires servants. And he moans in the old fashioned way: they’re stealing!
True, if earlier it was about the theft of diamonds and sapphires, today cunning housekeepers steal from small things: shampoos, creams, lipsticks and socks.
She went to the store and didn't come back
"I was very lucky. My people - drivers, house help - have been working for me for many years,” says writer Daria DONTSOVA. And then he adds terrible details: - But now it’s so difficult to find good workers! I go to a fitness center in Zhukovka (an elite village on Rublevka - Ed.) and talk to people there. Recently an outrageous incident occurred. I knew this couple - the man was so handsome, the wife was pleasant... They hired two people from neighboring countries - a husband and wife. They lived with that family for a year and worked around the house. And recently the owners’ daughter came home and found her mother and father killed. The servants are missing. One writer friend’s driver, after working for two weeks, went to the dealership supposedly to bring a new car. It still drives like that. A friend found a housekeeper through an agency. On the first day I asked her to go to the store. She took the money and did not return. Well, this is funny!
But many are not laughing. The crisis has greatly shaken up the maid market:
Today it is much easier to find a common language with housekeepers. The crisis has dampened the ardor,” says Olga, a typical resident of Rublyovka, who asked not to indicate her last name. - People who come by recommendation are terribly spoiled: they were driven to work in their previous place by car, they will not cook food, this should be done by the cook. Pay them for vacation and sick leave. Am I a government agency?! Before the crisis, one nanny quit because we took not her, but the second nanny, with us to warm countries. Now she wouldn’t waste her work like that! There are plenty of workers. But the main thing is to find decent ones. My friend recently fired her housekeeper because she was stealing from petty items. First, lipstick began to disappear, then creams. But you don’t go to the police because of such trifles.
Are Filipinas perfect?
And there are a lot of such stories on Rublyovka, and in other rich houses.
My friends from Rublyovka complain about swindlers,” says Dima Bilan’s producer Yana RUDKOVSKAYA. - Previously, they stole diamonds, but now they “modestly” dismantle the wardrobe: some will lose their dresses, some will lose their shoes, some will lose their handbags. One friend from Rublyovka complained that socks were disappearing. Branded. Moreover, the owners do not immediately notice the loss - these Rublev ladies have large dressing rooms, you can get lost.
Special conversation about Filipinas. The fashion for maids from this country appeared on Rublyovka five or six years ago. They say that the foundation for the secular trend was laid by singer Alexander Malinin, who back in 1999 gave an exotic housekeeper to a socialite he knew. And off we go. Several agencies brought exotic servants to wealthy Russian homes in batches. Among the obvious advantages of Filipinas, modesty, cleanliness and ignorance of Russian are noted. This means that you can discuss any issues at home - no one will wash your dirty laundry in public. However, the fashion for exoticism quickly faded. Filipinas began to be imported in industrial quantities, without checking their reputation. And they began to take everything out of the houses. And it is impossible to find them.
Who has a chance to get a job?
Rublyovka does not like to work with relatives, even distant ones. This is the first rule.
Now people from the outback of Ukraine simply go in droves to work in elite houses, but they have very little chance. Muscovites have an advantage.
There are a lot of overweight women. Nobody takes them for three reasons: a) unaesthetic; b) poor health; c) move poorly. Of course, no one invites models either. Ideal parameters - up to size 48.
Victims share on blogs
Money and jewelry. This is the simplest thing you can take out of the house and still keep your job.
Clothes, handbags, shoes, socks.
Food (vegetables), alcohol, tea bags, nuts.
Detergents, shampoo.
WHAT HOW MUCH
During the crisis, Rublyovka agreed: “I want to pay not 40, but 35 thousand rubles!” - says the owner. The question of five thousand is now with us with every order,” says Mila KOSTENKO, psychoanalyst at the agency “Impeccable Personnel” (selects workers exclusively for VIP clients). - The point is fundamental: they pay less and are terribly happy. Rich people do not allow themselves to be controlled.
Average salary of workers in Rublyovka:
Gardener - 30 thousand per month (before the crisis - 35,000)
Housekeeper - from 30 to 40 thousand per month (before the crisis - 35,000 - 45,000)
Governess - 40 - 45 thousand (before the crisis - 35 - 40 thousand)
A good Italian chef earns several thousand euros.
There is a system of fines. For example, for disclosing family secrets the fine is a month's salary.
Standard staff: a security guard who looks after the territory of the house. Gardener. An individual who controls the heating and air conditioning system. Cook. Personnel Manager. One or two nannies and governesses. At least two housekeepers. Total: 8 people. The volume of work is enormous, because the average house on Rublyovka is up to three thousand square meters.
Which stars were hurt?
The house servant really got on my nerves! - TV presenter Lera Kudryavtseva complains. - They became especially angry during a crisis. Dishes, food, and I’m not even talking about jewelry disappear. For example, my housekeeper ruined an expensive white fur coat. I asked to clean the thing from street dirt and warned: you can’t wash it, just clean it with a brush. And she washed it! The fur coat stood up like a stake. And this is worse than theft! Another housekeeper ruined the microwave: she scrubbed the silver-plated panel with a rough brush!
The lead singer of the Chelsea group, Arseny Borodin, also suffered from a swindler-housekeeper:
I needed an assistant who would wash, clean, and cook. Friends recommended a woman from Ryazan. Fifty years. Respectable age. And then I discovered that I had lost 80 thousand rubles, silver souvenirs that friends had brought from the USA. The housekeeper, of course, disappeared and turned off her cell phone.
Andrei Appolonov's housekeeper made a lot of noise. The lead singer of “Ivanushki” caught the servant stealing and turned her over to the police. It turned out that the lady had long specialized in home thefts. Singer Olga Orlova was robbed by her nanny. Larisa Dolina's housekeeper took out all the jewelry.
But Lada Dance insured itself against such a misfortune by opening a recruitment agency for elite houses and developing a whole strategy against dishonest assistants:
My household workers do not have access to money or jewelry. “We ourselves lead people into temptation when we throw away rings and clothes,” the singer is convinced. - A person himself can forget, lose. It will seem to him that the servant did it. I myself had a case when I decided that the ring had been stolen, and then found it in my bag.
Maria is 45 years old and she is a housekeeper in a rich family, where she is paid 30 thousand rubles. For the owners, this is not much money, but she considers her salary to be very decent: almost all of her friends receive much less.
I found this place through friends. As a rule, people do not submit such advertisements in newspapers and the Internet and do not apply to a recruitment agency, because they need a proven, reliable person. I have a higher education, but it so happened that recently I worked in a store, and then it closed. I never thought of becoming a housekeeper, but then a friend said that one family couldn’t find a woman to do housework. I always liked doing housework, and I decided to try my luck.
There were quite a lot of requirements: over forty, but not elderly, not beautiful, but with a pleasant, preferably Slavic appearance, cultured and well-mannered, hard-working, honest and quiet. And you also had to know how to cook. I didn’t think I’d last long at this job, but I’ve been working for a year and a half now. Only those closest to me know that I am a housekeeper, but not because I am ashamed of my occupation, but because my employer set such a condition. He is a well-known person in the city and does not want me to talk about how he lives. The attitude towards me is quite normal, not friendly, but not official either; I have the keys to the house, and I hope they trust me completely.
I don't clean a two-level apartment from top to bottom every day, my task is simply to keep it clean and tidy. I also cook - usually once a day, lunch or dinner for two days. Today I cook lunch, tomorrow I cook dinner. I go grocery shopping with a list given by the hostess. Checks are returned to me on the same or next day. I eat lunch where I work, and nothing is deducted for it.
Saturday and Sunday are days off, but if you need to come at any time, you pay extra for it. Two or three times a year, the owners leave for about two weeks, and then I have a vacation, which, however, is not paid. During the holidays, I usually receive gifts: on March 8th, the owners gave me a beautiful box for needlework; on Easter, a bright Easter-style set: a pepper shaker and a salt shaker.
I am divorced, my children are adults and live separately, so I spend, essentially, only on myself. The rent is 3,500 rubles, and little money is spent on food thanks to free lunches in the owner’s house. I am interested in machine embroidery and, taking into account consumables, I spend about 1,000 rubles on it. per month. For now, I don’t have enough skill, and later, when I get better at it, I might try to sell my products via the Internet.
I’m not particularly keen on cosmetics; I buy only the essentials from perfumes and household products, so this expense item is small - about 300 rubles. per month. I spend 300 rubles monthly on mobile communications. (subscription fee). I spend about 1,500 a month on transport, but if I call or go on business with my owners, they compensate me for these expenses.
I am attending language courses with the goal of trying myself as a housekeeper abroad, What I spend 6,800 a month on: I study two languages, English (I already studied it at school and at university) and Spanish (new). I don’t like the Karelian climate, I love warm countries, and there’s still some romance in my soul, and besides, I don’t think that at my age you can’t change your future.
I save part of the money: I buy euros for about 11,000 rubles. per month. The person I work for has only foreign currency accounts, in dollars and euros - he said it himself. He repeatedly noted that there is no need to store in rubles; such advice in the press is a deception. In general, if you even move around other circles and hear snippets of conversations, you can understand that ordinary people and those “higher up” live in completely different worlds. They tell us one thing, but they know another.
So, Maria’s salary is 30,000 rubles. The expenses are:
Rent - 3,500 rubles.
Cosmetics, perfumes, household needs - 300 rubles.
Language courses - 6,800 rub.
Mobile communication - 300 rub.
Transport - 1,500 rub.
Hobby (machine embroidery) - 1,000 rub.
Purchase of currency - 11,000 rubles.
Total 24,400 rub. Maria has 5,600 rubles left for other expenses.
For reference:
Homeowners or housewives who do not want or cannot, due to various circumstances, maintain cleanliness and order in the house on their own, sooner or later come to the conclusion that they need a housekeeper, onto whose shoulders they could shift, if not all, then the lion's share of the work. share of homework.
If ten years ago it was believed that only members of the upper class could afford an au pair, now, despite the crisis, many people with average earnings have housekeepers. Their services no longer seem prohibitively expensive, but they save a lot of time and effort.
The simplest and most common option is a visiting housekeeper. As a rule, one or two visits from a housekeeper per week are enough to keep the house in order. A typical list of duties performed by a non-residential housekeeper most often includes cleaning premises (dry and wet), washing and ironing clothes, taking care of the wardrobe and putting it in order, watering flowers, washing glass and performing one-time errands around the house. The salary that a housekeeper receives for performing this work for the day, in Moscow for example, is approximately 1,200 rubles (per exit). Housekeepers are often found through word of mouth, but recently a more civilized way has become more common - through special agencies, where housekeepers undergo special courses and an official contract is concluded.
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