I’m a "homemaker" and I have no children. I get so bored throughout the day. Because we don’t have a lot of extra money, I can’t go anywhere because of the gas money, and I can’t buy anything anyway. There’s nothing close to I can walk to, and we have no yard to do yard work. I don’t even have any friends I could talk to on the phone. I don’t even have cable! I manage okay some days, but others it seems to drag on forever with nothing to do. (I do have an elliptical and work out three times a week). I also clean, but there’s not enough to do a full days work every day. I’d like something to DO instead of just watching movies or tv. I did scrapbooking for a little while, but there’s no events that happened lately to scrapbook about. 
I’m going crazy!
Oops- Homemakers*
Suggestions other than getting a job please! My husband prefers I stay home, and I’d like to honor his wishes at this point in time.
Actually, my husband has virtually no control in the relationship, which is why I feel obligated to honor his wishes. I probably will get a job in the future, maybe even in a year. Although he makes the money, I control all the money. It is deposited in my account, he has no access to it except through me. I manage everything. I’ve been working until the last couple months when I was laid off. He has always wanted me to stay home, and I never did. So since I was laid off I just decided to stay home. He would never MAKE me do anything. Like I said, I was working. He’s very understanding and I say I have more say in the relationship than he does. He just does so many things for me that, even though bored, I’d rather sacrifice that for him.
He wants me to stay home, because he feels like it is job as a man to take care of his wife. Also, when we DO have children, we have both decided I will stay home with them. He is pretty conservative, and that’s just how he wants his family to be, although like I said if I wanted to get a job I could.
Wow! I’m a homemaker, too. I, too, don’t have any children. I did have a career at one point (I’m a social worker by training and that’s the work I did when I worked outside the home).
There are so many things in your question that are true for me, too. Except my husband would be fine with me going back to work. I don’t because of a disability. I also find my day endlessly boring sometimes. My housework doesn’t even come close to filling my day (probably because of the ‘no children’ thing.) 
Don’t get me wrong…if there were children here messing up my house, I’d be thrilled.
Here are some of the things I do. I scrapbook, too, when there’s an event to document. Recently, I took some of my mom’s books and started re-doing them. She did most of her journaling on the back of the photos so you had to take them out to see who was in the pics and what was going on. Of course, I had to make a few pages for her (so she’d be sure she liked it) before she’d let me do the whole book. Now, she couldn’t be happier. Also, her books were the ‘old’ kind — from the 50s to the 80s — that were fading and cracking her pictures.
I also read tons of books. That’s one of my favorite things to do. My father-in-law gave me a book a while back and it was something I never would have chosen for myself. I LOVED it!! I was hooked and started asking everyone I know what they were reading. My eyes were opened to a lot of genres I would not have considered in the past. Some good, some not so great…but it helps me relieve the boredom. If I’m close to them, I ask if I might borrow the books (to reduce the cost) and I try really hard to return them as soon as I’m done so they’ll trust me with their books again. I also put a sticky note in the cover (and then use as a bookmark) of who it belongs to…just so I don’t get them mixed up.
I also walk over to the local elementary school (those are pretty near most every neighborhood) and ask if I can help out tutoring, reading with kids who need extra help, filing in the office, etc. It wasn’t all that interesting at first but the things the ladies in the office talk about are pretty cool sometimes. Also, now that the kids are used to seeing me around (I do this about 1-4 times a month…more if I can) they really light up when they see me. Some of the teachers have even requested to have me stop by for this-or-that. It’s kinda flattering. The office has even called me a time or two to see if I was available for a particular need. They’ve always been great if I couldn’t make it and extremely grateful when I could — as I’m an adult and they ‘get me’ (so to speak) for free.
I look up new recipes on the web to try out for dinner…dessert…even breakfast sometimes.
I call my dad a lot — he’s a glutton for knowledge of any and every kind. I asked him what he wished he’d learned in school (at any level). Then I looked it up on the web and spent a good deal of the day engrossed. Some things he said: The names and terms of all US presidents; Dates, causes, outcomes of all major wars in world history; Greatest foreign authors who were (or are) contemporary to his favorite American authors; the things they wrote; Financial information — he’s just never been all that good at money and was always fascinated by the ‘financially competent’. There are more, but I can’t think of them right now.
I’ve taken our camera outside (or sometimes inside) to see if I can get cool pictures of stuff. Bugs, flowers, people doing funny stuff, unexpected things, clouds (that’s hard…they’re usually washed out), trash (I know that sounds weird but the things people drop carelessly tell me more about them than they know). I usually pick it up afterwards…something else I got from my dad. Our camera is digital, so there’s a kind of instant gratification when I get to look at the pictures on the computer after I transfer them.
Sometimes I write letters to my relatives (not all living). I don’t send them, it’s kind of like a journal for me. It’s interesting to read them weeks/months/years later and see what I told them about what’s going on. I’m not always as good at keeping a journal if I don’t have an ‘audience’. I also write notes and letters to people and SEND them, too.
There’s a 81-year-old widow that lives in our area, so she’s always home, too. Sometimes I go talk to her and ask what family members have visited lately (she loves talking about her family), or what such-and-such was like when she was my age (or some other age). I ask about things like politics, schooling, gender issues, movies, dating, anything I can think of. She really comes alive while talking about her life, and it gives me insights, too. She is old now but I’ve learned a lot about her that I’m somewhat surprised by. She was pretty cool when she was younger. I guess some of that is the ’social worker’ in me — missing my old career.
Not being able to go anywhere (or drive, anyway) and not being within walking distance of much must be a bummer. I feel your pain. Most days I can’t leave either…not because of gas prices but my own (*sigh*) stupid body. Sorry…didn’t mean to complain.
I hope this helps. If you want to email me — homemaker-to-homemaker — you can click on my profile picture. I’m not super busy.
Wow! That was really long and I hope not too boring. Good luck!