Comments On Article: We Are Almost There

If you would like to share your comments for article We are almost there, this is where to do it! 

Click the Reply To This Topic button below to post yours.

I think it's smart to live as if you're on social security before you retire. We didn't do that as that didn't occur to us. But for the last 4 years before retirement my husband tracked our spending and figured out what we would need to live on. So far we are doing ok and not spending over what we planned for. My husband was hoping we'd go under budget but he's really not to good at that. I did suggest he'd try to find cheaper things for the phone & internet, etc. He insists we need DirecTV.  I would've gotten rid of it years ago. I'm hoping he'll eventually realize there are good alternatives (I did bring that up a few years ago but he wasn't convinced).

I don’t really do seasonal cleaning  now since I try to clean the outsides of the windows a couple times a year when I find time and turn or flip my mattress every other month or so, that sort of thing. I clean out closets and cabinets when I find time but I will get more regular at that once I retire.  I feel more energized to clean when the weather is cool, I admit that!

I am glad you mentioned getting SS a month later - I had forgotten that!  I will retire early next year so I need to have that money set aside  My husband retired early due to health so I should have remembered that extra month wait l for SS. He passed away last year so I get survivor benefits but at age 70, which is when I will retire, I will have to choose my SS or his.  I will choose whichever is higher of course.  I am already dealing with bills for one so I feel prepared for that.  Right now I  have his SS and my paycheck but I am streamlining my expenses to get ready for retirement.  I also want to avoid touching my retirement savings but as I understand it, I will have to start withdrawing at 74 or about then, per law.  I believe I can reinvest it but not in another retirement account.

I’ve paid all but a little bit of debt off and that should be gone in a couple of months.  We had no debt until his health issues got serious.  We never know how old age will hit us!

Gr.Donna,

You are very smart to think about the timing of receiving your SS. I had to take early retirement and only had 2 months to "work the numbers".  Thankfully because I have always stockpiled and budgeted the gap month didn't affect me very much.

I spend more in the summer on utilities and food because of stockpiling and canning/processing but those bills are lower thru the other months because we are eating what has been stockpiled and processed.

Thankfully we grow big gardens and get a lot of things like grapes, pears and apples from people that have them but don't want to do anything with them.

Our gardens this year were slow to take off but are producing well now.  I will confess to not weeding these last few weeks, for me the heat and humidity were just unbearable.  My yard work has suffered too but at least it is mown and I will run the weed eater in bits as I can in the cooler weather.  We can't winter garden here, too cold. But, my beets will stay in the garden until much cooler weather and they will be fine, the cabbages also.  

I think you are going to really love being home together in retirement.

When my husband retired, we were aware we needed to be ahead in or money, and we had money to cover it...What we weren't prepared for exactly was that he couldn't draw from his retirement account until age 73 without our having to sacrifice a substantial amount in penalties and fees.  He was retired for nearly 2 years before I could start to draw early social security.  

At this point we live off social security and have talked in length about how and when we plan to spend any retirement funds, God willing and creeks not rising!  I think that is also an important discussion to have.

What I didn't realize is that since we are paid once a month now (we are paid social security in the same week), there are occasionally months where five weeks pass before we get paid.  It's that fifth week that threw my entire budget off when it occurred.

Because we were being paid a week later than the previous month, I had to make sure that I had set money aside to make payments that came due PRIOR to that next pay period which for us was quite a few!  I had to have electric, house insurance, phone bill, gasoline credit card (paid off in full each month and written out as a debit each time we use that card) and sometimes we fell short of basic foods because I had failed to plan ahead!  It took me almost a year to catch that rhythm and figure out where we were going to fall short and in which month that fifth pay period fell.   For example, we'll be fine for September and October, but I need to plan ahead for November which is when my next five week pay period occurs and we begin 2026 with a fifth week pay period.  

I found it was best to keep a written record in front of my eyes when I was paying bills each month, and I automatically could glance ahead and note where and when I needed to put extra aside.  I also wrote it on my monthly calendar of the month preceding so I'd be sure to make note of the need for extra milk, eggs, and produce to carry us through that fifth week.

I find it is also good to be mindful of seasonal bills one might have.  I set money aside monthly for annual fees, but I consider our propane bill to be seasonal since we only get fill ups in September through February or March at the latest.  Fortunately, only our propane season starts just as the weather is (usually) starting to cool down and so I can easily decrease the electric bill amount and switch that portion over to the propane category.

What I think we should all keep in mind as we near retirement is that a pantry is a big part of our retirement.  Gardens can't always be counted on to produce but we need that pantry and our freezer to see us through those seasons when costs rise more than social security (that's about always) and through those seasons where we have expenses we couldn't have possibly planned.  That pantry may well be the real emergency fund!  Keep that in mind.

And I think it pays to always refresh our skills or to learn new ones just so we can have assurance that we can make do just a bit longer.   Also remember that not all expenses are actually going to be expenses forever and always.  Things generally have a way of balancing out just when we think we won't have enough.  From someone who has a fairly small Social Security income.

I am learning so much about planning for retirement and planning for financial bumps in the road! I'm glad to have my budget done too, though I'm still finding the occasional item I forgot to list. 

The heat wave finally broke here. We're supposed to have mid-80s and 70s now. I'm considering this fall and today ordered my paint samples for the interior painting we're going to do this fall. Right now we're back outside doing a few gardening tasks it was too hot to do before, like pulling out the gooseberry bush. For some reason, it died this year. I've always wanted a rosebush, and I think I'll plant a rose where the gooseberry was, next spring. Today we got some green beans, a large bowlful of cream pea pods and an orange pepper to go with the tomatoes already on the counter. There's a zucchini that will be the right size tomorrow. The heat really slowed down production, but we get enough each day to always have fresh vegetables. We have seven cantaloupes we are eagerly awaiting. :) I can't grow in winter, so I see no reason why Grandma Donna shouldn't have her off season in summer. 

Tasks really are getting more seasonal! This is the first year I fed the birds, and it's been quite the experience! My hummies will be taking off for the winter next month, and I'll be putting away my hummy feeder. I'm going to order some suet for the birds who stay for the winter. My pear tree bore for the first time this year, and we've had to support the branches because there are so many pears. Those will get picked in September too. And we wash the windows seasonally, so window washing is also in September. We're painting in fall because that is when we can open the windows again. 

And tomatillos! We got some of those today. The tomatillos planted themselves this year. I planted a couple of different kinds of open-pollinated varieties two years ago, and these seem to be a cross of those. My new favorite sauce is putting cut-up tomatillos, onions, and garlic cloves with their skin on in a pan to char a little, then peeling the garlic and putting those veggies and one of my roasted green chilies from the freezer (defrosted) in the blender with some chicken broth and salt and pepper. I let that cook for a few minutes and then stir in some sour cream. It's my version of encremadas. It was nice of the tomatillos to volunteer to grow for me. :)

hello all

just Arrived in Chicago. We had a miscommunication with our dog sitter so she was unable to cover our start time. So Winston (who despises the car) and I came to town today. My husband will fly in tomorrow. We’ve made 2 trips out into the busy night scene to potty and nope. Not yet. He liked all the mini doddle compliments he received.  Mommy was not thrilled with the big city rat she saw out by the dumpster.  Sweet husband is having a major back surgery repair on Tuesday so we will be here for 4-5 weeks.  

I spent the last 10 days cooking ahead. Lots of stocks, dishes with ground meat like tacos and spaghetti and shepherds pie and a meat loaf.  Strawberry compote. Sautéed 20 ears of corn and packaged them. Made a big pot of mashed potatoes and froze them. Satisfying to do and helped keep my mind busy

Donna, do you have a PO Box or a church address that you could share?  I have a little doo-dad (granddaughter says dab-doos) that I’d love to send your way

You’ve accomplished a huge project and must feel both relieved and proud. 
Regards to Charles. 

Lissa

I think Terri C makes a good point about the pantry. A garden might not always produce or be a feasible project but the pantry can be crucial. Being able to feed ourselves well inspite of a crisis goes a long way towards calming anxiety.

I'm in the process of reassessing my pantry. I'm using up some things that I will not be replacing. These are things we just don't enjoy any more or don't eat as often. So that is space that will be used to store items we do use more. Additional space means I can have a larger quantity on hand (bulk buys).

I gave away most of my lovely cookbooks. Most of my recipes I use regularly are stored in a big, big binder. Having regular recipes I know we like means I don't have to worry that I might not have the ingredients in the pantry for a recipe. I will.

Oddly, now that my husband is retired I'm cooking & baking almost a much as when the kids were growing up. Lol  I realized my husband when he was working was used to buying lunch out or snacks when ever he wanted because he felt like he could. So to replace that habit I've been cooking ahead and freezing meals (to save me time & give him variety). I'm doing the same with snacks/treats.  I'll make flavored popcorn or some cookies and he won't be tempted to stop in the gas station for a treat. He's getting into it now. If he's going to be out for awhile he'll ask me to wrap up an apple and some other snack to take along.

GDonna,

It is very interesting hearing about how retirement budgeting works. I admire how frugally you are going about your plan.

I recently was feeling like we were spending too much on groceries, and had to do a reality check. We spend $600 a month, as a family of 4. The kids are very little, both under 4 years old, but when I looked it up the "thrifty" spending for a family of our size/age was $895! (according to the USDA). We also eat out quite a bit, up to $300 a month, but that was still below the average for even just a couple without children. I think that is too much, and I am working on cutting it down, but frankly cooking is one of my major weak points.

Interestingly, the USDA thinks that a "thrifty" couple spends $614 a month on food, and a "moderate" couple spends $774. So you are 250% more thrifty than the average thrifty couple. :-)

If anyone else wants to read some trivia on food costs, this article collated them well: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/budgeting/average-...

Thank you for the lovely article!

When my dh passed, I got his SS amount since it was more than mine.  

The budget was greatly reduced without his medical insurance, multiple RX and I got rid of DISH all of which helped.  I realized that my life insurance dividends were sufficient to pay my annual premiums so that was another bill gone.  His last year was a marathon of doctors, hospitals, nursing home, therapy, EMT's which left me mentally and physically exhausted.  

Since I'd always managed our finances that was one thing in my favor as I didn't have to face learning everything from scratch.  He had life insurance which was enough to pay for all burial expenses with plenty left for me to take a burial trust for myself.  The attorney I worked for before retirement took care of all legal matters without charging me.  We had everything set to immediately transfer to me upon his passing so did not have to go through probate proceedings.

I've had major expenses including a new furnace, new water heater, new washer and new to me used dryer and the Generac generator had to be replaced.  I managed all of that without going into my savings. 

Frugality is essential and I watch every bill closely.  For instance, I recently ordered two items from a catalog half-price sale.  One item was delivered and the other back ordered.  The billing statement showed full prices for each item.  I called the contact number today and have been assured the prices will be adjusted correctly.   One reason this sort of thing upsets me is I wonder how many people, especially older people, would notice the overcharge and do something about it.  It is always a hassle, but I wasn't about to let a double charge pass.  

I have a special spot to put all receipts from credit card charges and when I receive the bill, I check to make sure everything is correct.  I have three major credit cards and use one for a couple months then switch to another throughout the year.   I pay the entire balance when the bill arrives, so I have an excellent credit rating 817 the last I checked.  While I have no plans to use credit for loans, I found that a higher credit rating means lower insurance premiums for auto and home policies.

I also left work to care for my Mum when I was 55 and didn’t go back to work after she passed so we are currently living on just my husband’s wage, we did crunch the numbers and knew it was doable if we were careful plus taking into consideration the expenses of me actually working as well, fuel, clothes and doggie care costs etc. I did however ring fence 3 months worth of expenses and put that amount aside into savings as an emergency fund for if my husband ever loses his job. All being well though that can stay in place ready for when we have to move into living off our pensions, private and state.

Here in the UK we are paid our state pension weekly but with the majority of our bigger bills being paid monthly this will need careful planning to make sure the budget fits the money coming in. Each month we also put away 1/12th of the yearly bills and that sits in our sinking fund account ready for when they hit.

We have had a hot summer for us with temps regularly in the 80’s, UK houses don’t tend to have AC so that needs to be managed and my meals have reflected that with many consisting of protein pre-cooked in the cool of morning plus salad from the garden, we had a good crop of early Charlotte potatoes so we’ve been working through them as well.

Our apple tree has a large crop this year, they are cookers so will be processed in a number of ways ready for pies and crumbles etc.

A very dry summer means that the trees are losing their leaves already, I have started to wash blankets and throws ready for the colder months, also need to check our coats and jumpers to make sure that they are ready for the drop in temperature.

J'habite en France , quand mon mari est décédé, il y a 5 ans,  je n'ai rien reçu pendant 8 mois , j'ai vécu sur l'épargne que nous avions. Le système d'impots est très défavorable pour les personnes seules et de ce fait, je dois faire très attention aux dépenses. J'ai réduit le chauffage, l'electricité, le budget  nourriture. J'ai vendu mes 2 voitures pour une plus économique en essence. J'ai pu absorber les dépenses liées aux réparations de maison. Merci pour ce blog très instructif et convivial

Hello,  Lainey, Did you know you can change the interval you get your state pension paid?  You've probably already adjusted to being paid weekly but you can arrange it to be paid differently.  Have a look at:    https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/when-youre-paid

I agree about the weather this year. We don't have mains water where we live and everyone in the hamlet we live in is having to be very careful about how much water we are using until we get some rain.  All this endless sunshine just isn't British!  The longer range forecast is that we might get some rain at the beginning of September!  Like you, we've had a bumper crop of apples so I will be cooking & freezing apples too!

margaret p, I don't know if this will help because I don't know what shows your husband gets from DirecTV that he likes, but I paid $50 for an Amazon Fire stick a few years ago and it was some of the best money I've ever spent! I get all kinds of free shows and you can get everything else right there on your TV too. I know there is a sports option if that's what he likes. All of the news shows are there too, and most of them are free. You do have to pay for some of the streaming services, but we get Maxx free from AT&T with our Internet, and a couple of others free from Verizon with my husband's cell phone. I think Disney+ is one of them. You can check and see if you get some free ones to with your cell or Internet. We paid an annual fee for MGM+ that comes out to $2.42 a month. We hardly ever pay for shows because if they're a pay show, we get it from the library instead. I'll bet whatever it is that your husband likes from DirecTV is there and a whole lot cheaper! Cable is considered for dinosaurs. :)

About the pantry vs the garden, I don't use commercially canned goods, so all I've got in my pantry is jars and dry goods. I've patterned my pantry off of Little House on the Prairie. Super simple, in other words, though I don't have a barrel of soda crackers. :) 

Now that I've learned how to grow in my climate and the increasing heat, my goal is a subsistence garden. I can grow a decent amount of potatoes and more sweet potatoes than I need. I grow onions, leeks, potato onions, and Welsh bunching onions, and between them I always have some kind of onion. I grow my own garlic, and celery seeds itself in my garden. I have herbs too. That's the basics. Cabbage grows well in spring and fall and keeps well. Now that the heat has broken, the tomatoes will start producing more, and I'll can them. There's overwintered spinach in the spring and chard through fall. Peppers grow well, and peppers can be your vitamin C source. This year we planted a family's saved seed of cream peas. They laughed at the heat and drought and grew like crazy and produced a ton. We've been shelling them out, and it's the first dry legume that I've had room to grow enough to save, since they don't take much space. We get more fruit each year as our trees mature too. Little House on the Prairie had dried apples in store, and I often dry my fruit. We're going to dry one of the cantaloupes when they're ripe. :)

Prices go up on store food for the pantry, but a garden can be free. I trust my garden more than the pantry, though I think we need both. 

Terri C, where do you live that your husband couldn’t withdraw from is retirement accounts until age 73?  Here in the United States according to the IRS you can draw without early withdrawal tax penalties at age 59.5, with some exceptions that allow an earlier draw.  Then it used to be that you were required to withdraw (mandatory distributions) at 70.5, but now that age has been raised to 73.  That means a person can start taking from their retirement accounts at age 59.5, but must start taking at age 73.  Of course, if a person were to put their IRA into a CD, withdrawing from the CD outside of maturity has an interest penalty, except for required mandatory distributions.  An example of that is my husband’s inherited IRA, which is in a long term CD but has no interest penalty when the required mandatory distribution is taken out each December.  The IRA was already in mandatory distributions when it was inherited and as such is required to continue with them even though my husband is younger.  Now the law is they inherited accounts only have 10 years to be fully emptied, but he inherited before that law and doesn’t have a time limit

We are Gen X, and pretty much all of our lives we’ve known the Social Security trust fund was set to be depleted before we would be the age to take Social Security, meaning reduced payments.  With a smaller working adult population and fewer children being born to replace the retiring adults, there won’t be enough for full payments unless a different strategy is implemented, such as eliminating the cap on income for Social Security taxes.  Beginning in late 2016 / early 2017 we saw a definite political shift to potentially eliminate Social Security, and decided our retirement plan would be based on not receiving Social Security at all.  If we get it, it will be a good bonus and a definite relief, but we just don’t feel like we can count on it.

We are mid 50s.  Unlike some here who are figuring out how to live on Social Security only (and potentially pensions), we have had to save into a 401K, and have to figure out living only on the savings.  This required saving 25X our annual expenses (including income taxes) in the 401K.  We’ve been putting 6% of gross income into the 401K for more than 30 years now, with a few years at 10%, plus there has been a company match of 3% and they deposit profit sharing each year.  We have also been saving outside of the retirement funds.  First we got to a solid emergency fund, then we paid off the house, then we started saving for solar, then we started saving to increase the emergency fund to 2 years worth of expenses.  In some ways it will be similar to living off Social Security, as we can only take so much per year as income — it’s still a fixed income.  The emergency fund must be very high for this plan because there can be times when withdrawing from the 401K is bad because of the stock markets, and we might have to use money from the savings for awhile.

Grandma Donna, I appreciate you taking us through the death finances.  We think we will be shielded from the loss of a Social Security payment because we aren’t planning on getting one, but you never know what will happen.  I was just telling my husband last week about how for married couple on Social Security it is a major financial loss when one person dies and the payments are cut.  He thought it would even out, but I told him I didn’t think so, as for most people it covers more than food and healthcare.

My husband’s 401K plan allows us to keep the funds there after retirement and to take withdrawals from it, and using the IRS “rule of 55” we can withdraw without tax penalties, which is how he is retiring before age 59.5 and still being able to access the 401K.  Rule of 55 is little known because so many things have to be in place: you have to leave your employer after age 55, your employer has to allow you to keep your 401K in their plan, your employer has to allow withdrawals, all of these things apply only to your current employer and not a previous employer, and your state has to follow the same tax policy on the withdrawals as the federal government.  We had originally been planning for when my husband turns 59.5, but then we learned about rule of 55 and realized we could eke it out a little earlier.

It will stay hot here into October, and possibly part of November, as we’ve seen happen more often lately.  I usually do fall cleaning in November.  The equinox will see the usual mattress vacuuming and flipping plus washing of every layer of bedding, including the mattress pad and pillow allergy covers.  I do this deep bed cleaning every 3 months on the equinoxes and solstices.  When the nights start getting cooler I’ll wash the duvet covers again (I also wash them when putting them away) and air+sun the duvets so they are fresh for winter.  Before the rains are expected I’ll clean off the patio furniture covers and store them away.

Gardening isn’t happening right now, except for the pomegranate tree.  This year I plan to juice the pomegranates and make jelly, but we have an odd variety that produces white to pale pink arils, so I might buy a couple of regular pomegranates to add to the juice so I can at least make a pink jelly, lol.

Pantry storage, however, is ramping up.  I’m not sure where I will store the buckets, but we do have several grains and beans we plan to stock up on next month.  Already we have 6 months of coffee beans stores, nearly 50# of heirloom white Sonora wheat berries, and 25# of rice (plus more in smaller containers).

I work off a 45-ingredient pantry, which allows me to make just about anything we would desire (albeit with a few tweaks to some recipes).  This doesn't include produce (fruits/veg), as these vary annually depending on what we grow, forage, trade for, or purchase locally. I spend the summer and fall preserving...so much preserving! Other than citrus and the occasional treat like an avocado, I'm a bit proud that we have managed to only eat produce produced within 50 miles of us for the last five years. It was a pandemic-era goal, perhaps that is why we were able to do it successfully!

Every month I take a full inventory of the pantry, which we try to keep stocked with 12 months of goods, and only shop to replace those items. In late winter I do a full fruit/veg inventory and create a preservation plan. This, of course, gets tweaked over the growing season as we see what does well in our gardens and what is doing well for local farmers (and thus priced well). I'm also lucky to have worked in the nursery trade for so long, so I have a lot of contacts where we "swap food," either from what our employers discard and allow us to take, or from our own gardens. 

Fruit I can usually depend on. We have apple, cherry, and plum trees around us, along with plenty of wild blackberries. I also grow strawberries and blueberries, and we added raspberries this year although they aren't producing yet. I am almost done with canning -- just apples left to go but they aren't quite ready to pick yet. We'll put some in cold storage, can some in slices and as apple butter,  can some as cinnamon-apple rings for snacking, and dehydrate some into apple chips. 

Stephanie G- I have been known to make dried apple pies, which are delicious. I may have found the recipe in a Little House cookbook, but I think it was for dried blackberry pies (at least our blackberries aren't plagued by mosquitoes carrying malaria like they were in the little house books!)

I try not to think about retirement. Like many in our generation (we are in our late 40s), we don't have much retirement to count on other than social security, which is looking less and less guaranteed. Our private retirement funds are woefully underfunded due to many reason, most in line with our values so I try not to have regrets. 

On a positive side, my new gardening business has taken off. I am now putting potential new clients on my spring waitlist, and I will likely not be returning to my nursery job next year. My son's girlfriend is also working for me part time. If someone had told me in May that I would be successful enough to more than replace my nursery income and to hire help, I wouldn't have believed them! As our nursery hours have been cut severely this year and they are already talking of cutting back the workforce even more next year, I am grateful I had the foresight to try something new this year. The nursery I work for is 125 years old, so the fact they are struggling is a bit sobering. 

Great post, Donna!  Much to think about.  We are in the *planned* final 5 years before my husband's retirement.  Planned, as in if everything goes normal and life doesn't throw us a whammy.  So we're like squirrels preparing for winter.  Making sure our nuts are all lined up!!  When I started receiving my SS, we learned about that first check delay!  That's a pretty rude surprise if that's a sole income!  My first check was 2 months past when I expected it.  May 25 birthday, first check deposited in late July.  Depending on when your bday is, that might be different but plan for a delay.

I heard Kansas gardens didn't do great, especially tomatoes.  I'm planning on getting some romaine lettuce in over the next 10 days in hopes of a couple of small heads over weeks.   

Love the doggy window.  We call ours DTV, as in Doggy TV.  Our baby lays there and surveys his kingdom!  Nose smudged always, even cleaned regularly.  A Bullocks Oriole once came right up to the glass and the two were beak to nose!!  It was the cutest thing, but I knew reaching for my camera would spoil the moment.  It must've been 20-30 seconds of fun. 

We're going to lower temps for the next week so I'm planning to use the oven a little.  Trying to organize for maximum cooking.  Making a crock of pinto beans one night.

Your meals always look delicious!!

Thank you Kate E, very useful as I did not know that. I will be due my state pension in five years time and have just been notified that I will receiving the full amount after having queried my NI record which seemed to be missing several years of contributionsa

Debby B, we call it dog TV too!  Our little dogs lies on the back of the couch and watches out the picture window.

As for the one month delay on receiving the first Social Security check, I’m reminded of the conversation we had several posts back about budgeting.  We budget each month with the income from the month before, so that would be a big help in dealing with a delay, as we would have that month covered.  We also have savings, so we could cover an extra half month delay until the check arrived, as well.  I think Tea S. wrote about budgeting for the entire year with the income from the previous year.  Any way of getting ahead of having to use the current month’s income for the current month would help cushion the delay.  If I were budgeting that way at present, I would find a way to use savings to cover my upcoming month and then start using the current month’s income to budget the next month.  When we did the transition, we did “sprint” months where we cut the expenses to the bone until we could change how we budgeted.

The plan in retirement is to use Tea S’s way of budgeting.  In 2027 we will budget for the year with money earned and withdrawn in 2026 (because of the retirement mid year).  In 2028 we will budget with money withdrawn in 2027, and so on.  We won’t be able to do it in 2026 because we aren’t doing it now, but I liked the concept enough to find a way to put it into action for us in retirement.  I think it will be really good to know exactly how much we can spend in the year

Kimberly F, I like Tea's way of thinking about budgeting too. The three to six months expenses that I've read is what you should have for an emergency fund is completely inadequate if a job loss is for one or more years. At least with Tea's method, you've already got a whole year of income at the ready, even before savings. I think that is much more practical in our present uncertain times. I no longer think about budgeting expenses, but budgeting income. 

Stephanie G, that is a good distinction, budgeting income vs. budgeting expenses!  I started using YNAB in 2007 and since then I’ve budgeted income, not expenses.  It takes you from a mindset of what do I need/want to spend my money on as the first step, to one of how much money do I have to spend as the first step.  You take the income, budget all of the necessary expenses, and then figure out if you have money for discretionary expenses or to add more to savings, or if you need to earn more income or find a way to cut the necessary expenses.

I finalize each month’s budget around the 25th of the current month.  I’ve already entered income into YNAB, so it shows me how much money I have to work with.  As I add funds to budget categories, the number goes down.  If I add more to funds than I have in money, the number at the top goes red and tells me I’ve budgeted more than I have.  I think of it as a computerized envelope system — instead of holding our income as cash in hand and putting it into physical envelopes, I’d doing the same exact thing with a computer program.  During the month with the envelope system (which I have used before), if I need groceries but there isn’t enough money in the grocery envelope, I have to take it from a different envelope, such as clothing.  It works the same way with YNAB.  I spent more than I planned on cleaners this month because we needed the inserts for the dishwasher.  That made the household cleaners category go red.  I transferred $20 from the grocery category into the household cleaners category, just like I would have moved a $20 bill from one envelope to another.

I forgot to mention, when we started putting 6% of our gross income into the 401K (so we could get the full 3% match from the company), we just didn’t let ourselves think of it as income we were giving up.  At the time it was hard — it was $100 per month we could have used!  But playing the long game, it worked out for us.  We learned to not even think of the only going into the 401K, so as my husband’s pay increased, so did what we were putting into the 401K, and so did the company match.  This is what we keep trying to tell our young adult children, they should be starting now with Roth IRAs, saving money for the future.  And with low incomes now, what they put into Roth IRAs would be taxed lower, but then in the future the earnings won’t be taxed!  But right now they think they need every penny and aren’t willing to figure out how to get by without their entire paychecks.  With one kid I understand because they live away from us and were without work for 10 months.  But other kid really has no excuse

Kimberley F,

I live in the states.  Our retirement income is set up to be withdrawn from at age 73 without penalty.  Prior to that, we must pay 20% in taxes which is pretty substantial.  We have taken withdrawals in the past, but we try to keep it so that we don't touch the principle only the earnings for that year.  Mostly we ignore it (in a good way, lol, by not touching) and live off Social Security.

I am not complaining.  My husband is getting quite near the age where he will have to take mandatory withdrawals and as I've said, we have talked this over and determined how it will be used.  We know that there will be appliances to replace at some point (Heat Pump and refrigerator), or car (ours are nearly 20 years old and one has high mileage).  So, we'll have planned for that.  We've taken windfalls and made some major renovations to the house so that it will be more suited to our most senior years and more energy efficient.

For the ones mentioning husband's reluctance to give up cable, I went through that argument with my husband for ages but we finally cut the Directv cord about 6 years ago and we haven't missed a thing.  We have a smart tv so that it can be viewed via the internet.  Mostly my husband watches YouTube and he can see relevant newscasts and political programs as well as hobby things.  There are many older movies (and new ones) on Amazon Prime that is free and there is free programming through Amazon Prime on things like Pluto and Tubi.  The 'free' part means that we watch commercials which makes it seem more like the old days anyway.  

I do pay for Amazon prime but the benefits of that are free shipping on many products, ease of returns, movies/tv to view, free backup for pictures, etc.  I pay about $12 a month for the service.

I do also get some of our over the counter, personal care and grocery items through the Subscribe and Save program.  If it helps me avoid a trip to Walmart or Target where temptation and impulse buys lurk, and I can avoid an 80mile round trip to get to the store, it's worth it to me!  I do keep track of prices and don't pay more there than I would elsewhere.  

Terri C, That is really interesting, it must be something with the employer rules or perhaps a Roth IRA not yet in place for 5 years?  Or do you mean if you wait you won’t pay any income taxes at all? That isn’t something I’ve ever heard of.  I’m sure you must be working with a tax person who understands your specific situation.  I’m really glad we can take our funds at the usual age without an early withdrawal penalty!  If not my husband wouldn’t be able to retire early, and with Social Security insecurity, might have to work for a long long time more.

The usual early withdrawal penalty for the federal is 10% then plus the state penalty, but for the federal and state retirement funds are allowed to be taken at 59.5 years of age without an early withdrawal penalty.  With the Roth IRAs, they usually don’t have tax on the earnings as long as you hold them at least 5 years.

When we start taking retirement funds, we will be in the 12% marginal tax bracket for federal taxes and (so some income taxed at 10% and some at 12%), and we have to pay state income taxes on retirement income as well.  But this is where we live and where I have lived my whole life, and this is where our kids are.  My grandparents moved away to retire and then always complained they didn’t see the family.  My dad moved away 5 years ago and we haven’t seen him in person since, as my health hasn’t allowed me to travel that far and he hasn’t chosen to come here to see those of us still here.  Maybe my kids will move away someday, but I won’t be the one to move away from them.

We cut the cable TV cord about 20 years ago.  We have an antenna on the house, it is digital now because TV is no longer broadcast analog.  My husband created a little DVR for us with a hard drive and a Raspberry Pi controller, and we pay $20 per year for guide data — with this set up we record over-the-air TV programs just like people used to do with TiVo. We’re an early bird household and sometimes PBS shows our favorites at 9PM when everyone wants to be in bed!  We do have a couple of streaming services but we either look for Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers or we turn them off and on as wanted.  We do this with Netflix, every December we pay for one month of Netflix to watch some of our favorite Christmas specials and movies.  Our son pays for one streaming service so he can watch international cycling.

I almost never shop with Amazon anymore, but when we did I found Subscribe and Save to be a good value on many items, both personal care and grocery items. I buy things like deodorant for the guys and their toothpaste at Costco, which comes out less expensive than other places.  They use $2 Suave shampoo I can buy almost anywhere, even the grocery store.  We always considered Amazon Prime Video a nice add-on, but we don’t like that you have to pay more to make it ad-free now, and then we decided against shopping at Amazon unless there is no other option.  Where we live there are usually other options, so our dollars can benefit our community by shopping here

Margaret P, We have horrible summers and lovely winters.  I don’t really see either of my children moving far away.  My youngest is partnered with someone who has family in the area, my oldest didn’t like the cold and snow when he went to university, and is very family oriented.  I suppose in time jobs could take either of them away from here, but there’s no point in my worrying about it

I’m in Kansas and I have waited until almost the end of August for my first tomatoes. I used to get them early July. 

Another option for tv viewing is a Roku box. I’ve had mine for over 7 years. Lots of free shows and movies on roku channel and the commercials are 30 seconds to a minute. You can add ces YouTube and even PBS on demand shows for free. You can also add on Netflix or other premium channels as you want. The shows all cycle around through the pay channels so with patience, the show you want to watch will come to one of them. 

Hello from Queensland, Australia - interesting topic.  I was a stay at home mum so no working for me for many years.  Husband took redundancy at age 62 and we lived on savings until the age pension kicked in at 65 (now 67 and rising).  I was younger so didn't qualify until eighteen months later.  We managed very well, knowing in advance that he was going to retire early so I stocked up on many items for the pantry that weren't perishable - this stood us really well for the future times and is still serving us to-day.

When we first realised we'd be not working anymore, we both sorted out funeral arrangements - we pre-paid cremations and then sorted basic funeral costs - so our girls won't have to worry about any of that when we eventually leave this mortal coil.  Since then we have decided we won't even have a funeral, just a private cremation and the girls are being told to go out and celebrate our lives with a nice dinner or get-together which will be very acceptable to us.

As we're much older now, we don't do vegetable gardens anymore but do buy from the farm gate where possible and save heaps of money by using that produce and preserving/freezing as much as possible.  Our budget is very low for groceries and we keep it down for utilities by turning everything off at the power point and being frugal in that respect - but we NEVER EVER go without home comforts or little luxuries.  

We recently totally dropped our private health insurance which only covered Extras like dental and optical as we were paying so much that it wasn't feasible.   Public hospitals are free and we have used them over the years and happy to continue to do so.

We have considered the consequences if one or the other dies which is inevitable at our age (husband just turned 80) and are confident we can manage.  I am the accountant of the family but in recent times have been teaching my husband how to work the system if I'm not able to do so in the future.  You do have to take all scenarios into consideration.  

Oh and I forgot to add - we read a lot of books, all free to download from the local library, and we only watch free-to-air TV, never pay for subscriptions or streaming, and if nothing on, then we watch a DVD - as we're only watching it at night for a couple of hours, it's not worthwhile to pay for viewing.

I have never kept a formal budget. My plan was to spend as little as possible and save as much as I could. I got a job at a college at age 32 that had a retirement plan. The state of Texas took out 6% monthly & matched it. I also put in extra money each month. When I turn 70 in a few months I will apply for SS. I retired at age 65 and have been living off part-time teaching, savings, and a very small pension I get from a hospital I worked for. I will tap into my college retirement fund as needed. I think I can live off SS just fine as I have been living off a small amount since age 65. My husband was a business owner & did not plan a retirement. His funds are limited. I (we) have no debt. I will eventually need a different car as these wear out. When your home is paid off you can manage on a lower income. Of course you have property taxes, utilities, and so on. We don't eat out much and eat at home. I have had to be thrifty as I don't have much income right now. I encourage my husband to do so also. If SS tanks, I have my college plan to rely on. Our health is good, but I know that can change in an instant. Who knows what costs that would involve. Save for a "rainy day" is my motto.

I'm glad I have helped!

Pam... We've done similar re funerals.

We have funeral cover insurance. After our son passed in 2014 we immediately brought the plot next to him for ourselves.

Our family knows we both want plain and simple. No expensive coffin. Straight to cemetery and buried then family/ friends go and have a cuppa at a cafe. 

We look after our sons grave and he has an amazing headstone but after nearly 11 years we've changed our minds about a headstone for us and just want a plaque set into the concrete. Nothing looks sadder than a grave with dead or faded flowers on it and our children don't live close to the cemetery where we will be resting to be able to maintain a headstone.

The Roku channel is free with the Amazon Fire stick. You don't need a Roku box. Fire TV puts all of the channels and streaming in one place, and you buy a Fire stick once and that's it. No monthly payments to use Fire TV. If you choose to use something like Netflix, you can sign-up on your Fire TV. You would have to pay the monthly Netflix charge for that. But there is so much free content! There are lots of free channels to choose from. On your remote, you press and ask for whatever you want to watch and the viewing options (what channels or streaming services you can use) display. (You also get the channel programming displayed to choose from that if you want.) Usually you are given free options. With ads, but I just mute the ads. I used an antenna for free TV for a few years, but this is so much better. Fire TV has free games and music (Christmas music and screen scenes too!), documentaries , Great Courses you can take, all kinds of things. Lots of it is free, and some you can pay for. You do need an Internet connection to use it. 

Another great post GDonna. I have followed you for several years but am new to commenting. Your food pictures always look delicious and I love Elizabeth's doggy window.   My husband and I  were both fortunate to be able to retire with pensions and health insurance.  I took an early retirement(20 years) last year, which of course reduced my pension greatly but having the  time to  be at home,  and help care for my elderly mother and baby granddaughter outweighs any amount of money. My husband has been retired for 12 years.  He is applying for social security this year at age 62 and I will do the same in 2 years.Budgeting is something we do as well and it is a tremendous help. We are debt free but it seems that basic monthly expenses keep increasing slowly. The city we live in reassessed home values last year and our property tax doubled which is ridiculous.

We cancelled cable and bought a roku streaming device which has saved us quite a bit of money each month. We grow our own vegetables but this year the heat and humidity here in NC took a toll and our harvest was smaller than usual. I am harvesting the muscadine and scuppernong grapes from our 2 vines to hopefully make some jelly.Thank you again for a great post and all the tips and advice from you and this community of followers. :)

Angela

I am so enjoying all of the comments to Donna's wonderful post. I wish we would have known a lot of the suggestions when my husband had to take early retirement 23 years ago. I watch our finances carefully because my husband likes to shop.

Grandma Donna wrote,

Hi Everyone, another great group of comments going on here.  Thank you all for your comments , we have a group of people here that is helping us to understand real life experiences from all over the world, and this helps us to have a different perspective on many things which can give us new ideas and solutions. :)

Angela B, I cannot remember if I ever welcomed you to commenting and I want you to know that I am happy to see that you are here with us.  

Terri C, I am glad that you brought up the importance of keeping a pantry. Our pantry is a big part of our retirement plan, we have it stocked as we need it and when we pull from it, we replace what we pull so we can keep the amount of stock that we feel we need.  If a grocery store did not continuously replace what is being sold down it would take a lot of money to get it back to where it needs to be.  It is there to help us in many ways, it saves on gas money so we do not have to run to the store as often, it helps us during outages and emergencies.  A huge factor is it helps us when we are sick so we do not have to run out to get food because it is there in our pantry.  I like to keep home canned chicken stew and chicken soup in the pantry but I also keep simple canned soup.  I keep rice on hand for simple soft food meals such as chicken and rice and I keep canned and frozen vegetables and meats.  

Great ideas from those of you talking about lower cost ideas for cable and phones, and much good conversation going on about pre-retirement and during retirement and so much more :)  

Thank you all for being here.  Donna

Angela B. mentioned that her spouse retired with pension and insurance benefits which is wonderful.  I just wanted to mention that I know of several people who retired with pension and insurance benefits and the company was sold or reorganized or some such and their health insurance suddenly wasn't so good.  Hopefully, that never happens for you but be aware of the possibility.  As far as I'm aware their pensions did not change at least they never complained about that happening ... they were very vocal about the changes to their health insurance!

Pantry... When I have a glut of vegetables or fruit and am short on time I freeze the produce.

This week I used frozen berries and made jam for the pantry.   I used frozen lemon juice and made lemon curd and lemon cordial concentrate.  I had frozen passion fruit as they were picked and scooped them out and made passion fruit curd. The last 3 items were re frozen and I have had the curd still good in past times after two years in the freezer. Marmalade for the pantry was made from frozen chopped up citrus fruit and put in the pantry. Lastly I made sweet chilli sauce from frozen chillies and that went in the pantry too. 

Today I took frozen bananas, frozen gold kiwifruit, frozen pineapple pieces and made a cake incorporating all 3 once defrosted. I try to waste nothing. I even iced it with icing I'd frozen from another cake I made. 

We have citrus at this time of the year so juice the fruit and make natural cordials or just freeze the juices. There's many many ways to build up your storage cupboards.

My husband and I are 'elder' millennials in our early 40's. We do not have a formal budget, but I constantly run numbers in my head and we live pretty frugally, especially compared to our peers. We make decent salaries, but have remained in the same 850 sqft house we bought in our 20's. We have basic, paid-off vehicles. We maximize our IRA's each year, and each put 15% of our incomes into workplace retirement funds. We operate like we will not see a dime of social security. 

We have just finished our estate/end of life plan this past week. We purchased a cremation plot at a natural cemetery in a beautiful area. We pre-paid our cremations, purchased our biodegradable urn and had ours wills and advance directives made up and filed. 

We don't have kids, and our niece will already have a lot to handle with her parents. I wanted to make things as easy as possible for whichever spouse dies last, and our other relatives. 

We also have a pantry. I'm still learning a lot about gardening and preserving, but I am able to make my own crushed tomatoes and freeze them for future recipes. I freeze a lot of things. I just ordered the So Easy to Preserve book from the U of G extension to learn more. I am intimidated by canning and don't have anyone near me that can walk me through it. 

We are kind of the outlier/weirdos in our friend group as we chose not to have kids, are frugal and are happy with what we have. We plan ahead and don't try to keep up with anyone else, even though we could probably afford to. I'd rather plan well, live well on my terms, and give to my extra money and time to people and causes that need it.

I think the stocked pantry is a huge money saver.  Once you build it up to a certain point you can then only have to buy when things are on sale. Certainly doesn’t  take long to get your own market in your house.  Such a calming thing to have food always on hand.  A neighbor who is visually impaired has a very good supply which she adds to when her out of town daughters come to visit.  She has no other family living close by so depends on me and another neighbor to take her places, which we delight in doing.  But there have been times neither of us could take her for a couple of weeks.  Her daughters tell her to just have her groceries delivered.  She points out to them if she has her own on hand then she is saving herself that expense.  I realize more every day just how incredibly wise my Mom and Grandma were in having very deep pantries.  

One silly thing a friend and I have done is saving $5 bills that come our way.  We both like to pay with cash when we are able.  It’s amazing how often those $5 bills come around.  It adds up pleasingly quickly.  Yes it is mostly a mind game.  But fun.  Definitely takes care of buying Christmas and other gifts, little out of town trips and other unnecessary extras.  We all have to come up with our own encouraging little tweaks.

Ann W,thank you for your comment about health insurance changes.Our coverage is through State and Local government and we have already experienced some changes. After being the provider for 40+ years, my husbands insurance provider was replaced during a contract bidding war with several other providers. This was not a popular decision and it has resulted in coverage changes for all and higher premiums. The retiree premium hasn't increased yet but there is no guarantee that will not change. We are trying to prepare for any increases which includes Medicare premiums in the future. It is a continual circle of budgeting and trying to live as simply as possible. I'm thankful for this blog, a quiet refuge in this world of uncertainty. :)

A few people have mentioned library benefit and I thought I would chime in with my experience and encourage people to see if their libraries offer additional services.

We’ve been in a heat wave, which makes it brutal for my son to train for competition.  He does it, but it takes a lot out of him.  We decided we would drive to the beach and he would ride his bike from home.  We would get to enjoy being at the beach and my husband brought his bike along and did a ride along the coast.  My son had to add some miles on the coast and ended up at 135 miles.  The ocean was lovely and it was so nice to spend a day outside!

The goal was to spend as little as possible on our excursion, and our entire cost was $40 in gas, and we did combine the trip back with a stop at the Costco Business Center.  We packed our food, and for our Sunday treat I pulled a loaf of zucchini bread from the freezer.  We buy our gasoline at Costco, which is cheapest in our area.  Here’s where the library came in — in California, there is a program for libraries to have California State Park parking passes available to check out.  I placed one on hold, checked it out Friday, and saved the weekend rate of $20 to park!

Libraries typically have books and magazines to check out, as well as current magazines, newspapers, and reference materials to use in the library.  Many have computers that can be used and printing available for a small fee.  In addition to story times and book clubs, our library has movie nights for adults and usually a free concert monthly.

Then there are the digital resources!  Several people have mentioned e-books, and most libraries also have digital magazines to check out, which are easily read on a tablet.  They have e-databases for high school and college students looking for citable research articles, as well as many databases aimed at children, parents, and teachers.  Many offer free digital access to local newspapers.  Our library offers access to Ancestry.com, to be used on in the library computers — it’s a limited version but is better than not having access at all.  There is access to free resume building sites and foreign language courses.

Our library offers the streaming service Kanopy for free.  There are old and new movies, miniseries such as the 2005 BBC Pride and Prejudice, children’s content, etc.  Children’s content has unlimited access, other movies and shows are based on “tickets”, most being 2 tickets.  I get 30 tickets per month from my library and could never use them all! 

This is all from our city library.  The county library system has the added benefit of being able to reserve real books from any branch, so the number of available books is much higher than from just one branch.  They offer free passes to our county museum.  There is a makerspace at one branch with classes for children and adults to learn a variety of things like sewing and machine embroidery, animatronics, 3D printing, and more.  They offer many online databases, The Great Courses, Crafts, language learning, test prep, etc. and IndieFlix for free streaming.

We’ve had periods of budgeting and periods of not budgeting, and for us budgeting leads to lower overall spending.  We came back to YNAB in 2018 and have stuck with it ever since.  I’ve also returned to keeping a price book which is invaluable in lowering grocery costs.

Yesterday on our way back from the beach we decided to go to the Costco Business Center again, for more stocking up.  I bought 2 more #10 cans of pizza sauce on clearance, which will take us into 2027 unless I start making pizza more often.  I bought 2 more 2.2# bags of coffee beans while they are still on sale.  I also bought pasta, popcorn kernels (not available at regular Costco and our Azure pickup isn’t until mid September), canola oil, 12 more cans of on sale tuna, bananas, and a bag of frozen diced red potatoes.  At $1.20 per pound, the potatoes are more expensive than buying regular potatoes, but they fall under my emergency convenience food category.  At times I am too ill to cook, and my husband needs a way to cook quick meals for us.  They were out of sale apples which was sad, so I just spent our fruit money on inexpensive bananas, including extra to freeze as sometimes I have a “dessert breakfast” of frozen bananas turned into “ice cream” in the food processor with a little milk.

My husband likes to snack.  He’s stopped snacking on mixed nuts or chips, and is eating popcorn instead.  A double batch makes 13 quarts / 52 cups and costs $1.35 to make, which is much less expensive than nuts or even chips, and is finished every 4 days or so.  It’s a whole grain too.  I pop the kernels in oil using an electric Dutch oven and then salt it, which is less expensive than air popping and adding melted butter, and we don’t have an air popper anyway.  My son eats the popcorn too, but it’s too fussy for a work snack.  I grew up thinking popcorn had to be popped and eaten fresh every time, but when I had teenagers I learned the wisdom of popping double batches.  I figured if companies were selling popped popcorn in bags at stores, keeping some in an airtight container for a few days was going to be fine.

I’m going to be reworking the pantry space to make more room for food.  I still don’t know where I’m going to put food storage buckets but I’ll figure it out.

One of our goals this year was to build some cold frames. That was before the news in April threw our lives up in the air. Even though it's a month away from the equinox, the weather has changed here, and I'm treating it as fall, so today is the day to lay the cold frames in the garden so we can plant in and around them. And I just remembered that we didn't build any. Ugh! We still have one, but our other one got broken in a storm. We really should have four. I ended up buying one. We put the expense under home improvement. I don't have time to build one because we are in the middle of our house painting project. With the changes in the weather in recent years, sometimes fall only lasts for five minutes here, so I'm in a hurry to paint. The latest industry news for my husband's occupation is that it's going to be worse than 2008. That cold frame better produce a lot so it can justify the money we spent on it! :)

I think one of the key benefits of having a written budget is control.  If something happens like job loss, illness or other personal disaster, you can look at your budget and quickly decide where you can cut.  I always have in mind where I can cut and will do so immediately should the necessity arise.  The "immediately" is important in a crisis and being able to think clearly is not easy so having everything in black and white in front of you is key.

That is also why I keep a full pantry and freezer ... so in a crisis situation I know I can eat without spending.  Even if the emergency is I'm not well enough to shop or the snow is up to the eaves, it's a comfort.  When Covid hit and restrictions dropped on us, I simply stayed home and stayed safe.   I didn't run out of toilet paper either!  

Also, a large part of wanting to stay stocked up is in a crisis situation, I can stay home and not be part of the problem.  My late dh and I decided to build our pantry after watching the crowds standing in line for hours after Hurricane Andrew for water and food.  Granted if you lose everything you will be in line, but if you don't you can stay home and not compete for limited resources.

I want an old-fashioned pantry. A subsistence pantry. It used to be that people could produce their own food and butcher in the fall and preserve meat, and make cheese when the cows were producing milk, and put up their vegetables and fruits in the summer. They didn't do this weekly, but seasonally. I used to buy meat in bulk and freeze it, but having too many power outages has taught me that I had better can it instead. I want to get back to buying my meat in bulk and putting it away. I want to put up my fruits and vegetables, and I want to lay in some bulk things like flours and dry beans. I want to do this seasonally. I want to cut back on grocery shopping. Grocery shopping weekly makes me feel like corporations have me on a hamster wheel. I feel more self-reliant and less dependent on the grocery store if I can lay in supplies only occasionally.