Chefguy, so if you end up cooking enough for two or the meals, in your once a week shopping trip, do you think, “Pot roast tomorrow with leftovers, and chicken on day four with leftovers to get us through the weekend,” and eggs, cereal, salad, sandwich stuff to fill in? I’m a very organized planner in the virtual world (on my computer), but the real world (the one with objects in it) baffles me.
Do you feel that this sensible, frugal approach is typical? Some of us are accustomed to be more self-indulgent than you. In retirement, our income may go down or it may simply not rise as predictably as it did during our first (in my case) 67 years. We would like to cut down on expenses to make our money go farther. What do you not understand about that? Or is it simply that you can’t make the effort to understand circumstances that do not apply to you? That’s possible. A lot of people are like that.
I meant to say earlier that I do and will continue to do freelance work. But I don’t want to HAVE to in order to meet basic expenses. I have NO debt and will not acquire any.
Yeah, something like that.
Another good way to trim the food budget. Buy a turkey or whole chicken. Roast it, have dinner, cut all the meat off what’s left and refrigerate/freeze it. Stick the carcass into a pot of water with veggies and herbs and simmer all day until you have a good stock, then strain and save the liquid. Use the meat for sandwiches, pot pies and save some dark meat for a hearty turkey soup. I think we estimated that we ended up getting 17 meals out of our Thanksgiving bird (an 18 pounder).
I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not going to wear business clothes when I’m retired. Hell, I plan to put on pants as little as possible.
That’s what we do also - and I’m not retiring for a few months yet. Buying lunch meat at the store is cheaper than going to the cafeteria at work - but buying a big chicken for 99 cents a pound and using those leftovers for lunch is a lot cheaper than inferior deli chicken at $7.99 a pound on sale.
Another benefit of planning meals is that you can get all the necessary ingredients on one shopping trip, and having a meal planned discourages you from taking in or going out.
There are a number of food blogs that will give you some planning around a “rubber chicken” or “rubber roast” - i.e. stretching a single piece of meat over a week without feeling like you are eating the same meal over and over again.
Once you get the hang of it, if you are any sort of cook at all, you’ll figure it out. (One of the basic tricks is to do something ethnic with it each night - chicken served mexican style taste very different than one served with red curry and rice - so if the first night you do a simple roast chicken, the second night you heat up the leftovers with some fajita seasoning and serve it with cheese and salsa, the third night you make a red curry sauce for it and some spinach and serve it over rice, the forth night you use the carcass for chicken noodle soup, you have four nights of dinner from one chicken). With a beef or pork roast you might do roast one night, BBQ the next, tacos the third, spaghetti with meat sauce the forth.
(search terms are stretch roast recipe, stretch chicken recipe or rubber chicken recipe)
Our Christmas ham fed us half a dozen meals - family of four - it was a big ham. Including bean soup and split pea soup, ham and eggs, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. I find ham to be one of the least versatile things to stretch, but for the sake of the ham bone twice a year, we will eat a lot of ham (and it freezes well to be dumped into eggs on a Sunday morning - just cube it up and throw it in the freezer). I don’t like doing it with turkey at all, but that’s because my kids aren’t fond of turkey and I don’t really like turkey soup.
ThelmaLou, first just enjoy the getting the kinks out and actually relaxing. Sit in the sun, play with the pets, enjoy the stress leaving your body.
My dad ‘retired’ at the age of 47. He’d worked and worked (and was successful) at jobs he hated. I didn’t put retired in quotes b/c he died. He actually really started to live. He’s 65 now and healthy as hell, but in those years, he’s managed my parent’s finances thru some horrible things, <FUCK YOU ENRON, BRASSYPHRASEMOM HATES YOU FOREVER>, went back to school and is now a CFP, learned how to do stained glass work, and has flipped houses with my mom.
I would say, look at this as a pause. Enjoy it. Love it. See it as a place to unwind.
He always says “I’ve worked harder since I retired than I did before. But I never minded it.”
I don’t know how expensive running a car is in Texas, but simply having one over here costs quite a lot, what with fuel, insurance, Vehicle Excise Duty, depreciation, etc. So it might be worthwhile checking if using public transport and taxis would be cheaper.
Indeed, now is the right time to be considering if you need to move to somewhere where you will be able to cope when you are less mobile / unable to drive /etc.
Well, I enjoyed my retirement while it lasted. I just got an offer for some freelance work “for a few weeks,” but I suspect it will turn out to be months, years, or indefinitely. It will just be a few hours a week, so I’ll have plenty of time for my yoga, etc., classes. And riding my bike. I’d be a complete idiot to turn it down as (1) I don’t actually have any specific plans/unfulfilled dreams/bucket list, and (2) it’s easy/good money doing something I can do with my eyes shut (after 37 years of experience). [I solemnly promise not to become emotionally involved with this organization.]
In Texas you have to have a car. Public transportation is completely inadequate, especially if you ever actually have to BE anywhere. If you don’t, then then it’s fine.
I moved into this lovely rental house three years ago and told my landlord I plan to stay here forever or until I croak off, whichever comes first. He is a prince. I even made him my alternate executor, as I’m without heirs to speak of. (But I do still have hair.)
That sounds perfect. Plenty of time, no emotional involvement, and a little extra money so you can let your nest egg grow or do a little splurging and not need to worry too much about getting half a dozen meals out of a chicken.
That sounds awesome! The nice thing about your new gig is that you can just stop if you end up wanting to. Yay for you!
Excellent!! You got yourself the brass ring! YAY!!
Well, never mind, then.
Hooray for the temp/part-time. Sounds like a perfect fit for you.
One thing you might be able to do now that you have a couple of extra hours per week (and the time investment is actually short-term, because it involves learning a rhythm): figure out the cycle of sales. I buy a semi-specialty dog food. I know it goes on sale every 2 months. I have figured out how much the dogs use in 2 months, so I buy that amount when it’s on sale, and save 15-20%. Ditto paper towels, or cheese, or any number of other regular purchases with a long shelf life. Plant some tomatoes and peppers and a little patio garden of herbs. I find that many home grown foods are more expensive than buying, but tomatoes, peppers, and fresh herbs are cheap to grow and expensive to buy. And I don’t really coupon per se, but I will spend 15 minutes and a little ink and paper matching the weekly grocery specials to the printables from free coupon sites. That’s usually worth $5-10, and a worthwhile time investment.
Obviously, you also have more time to plan ahead now, too. If you have to go to the bank, you can combine that with a stop at the grocery store next door to buy their loss-leader specials instead of rushing home to walk the dog. You can spend the day babysitting a nice stew and freezing portions for another day (or bread, or whatever.)
Definitely look at your auto insurance policy - if your new work arrangements have reduced your annual mileage, you can probably lower your premium. Safe driver courses offered through organizations like AARP can also save you some money. Investigate the discounts you can get through an AARP membership - they may offer you more on the back end than the cost of membership, on anything from rental insurance to hotel booking.
And have fun! I’m so glad you seem to have found the sweet spot between relaxing in retirement and still remaining engaged with things that keep you engaged!
Y’all are very kind. Thanks for the nice responses.
don’t forget this & let the new job get to you!
congrats on your retirement, no matter how brief.