Retirement musings: money....or lack thereof. For the past year, ever since I decided I was going to retire, Ive been looking at how and why we spend money and what could be done to reduce it. The theory is that once I am home full time we will be able to buy basic ingredients and save money by making more food from scratch. At the very least we wont be wasting nearly as much fruits and vegetables because more people would be home to eat them. I havent been retired long enough to do a lot more cooking from scratch, but we have been doing better with the leftovers. But this money thing is more than just the question of saving money, but also the question of why do I think I need to spend money. On days when I have been bored or discouraged I would often think that the only cure was to go shopping for something or other. Its taken a long time to begin to learn just to be content to drive to a new place, and have it not be required to purchase some sort of object while I am there. I actually HAVE enough objects, as anyone who has visited my house knows. Now, some significant objects need replacement or repair right now: stove, dryer, carpet needs replacing with tile, curtains need to be replaced with something that wasnt munched on by a pet rat years ago. Little things like that. And I find myself worried that somehow by making one of these necessary purchases I will unleash that purchasing demon within me and will go back to buying things I dont need. Im trying to back off and remove the emotional neediness from my purchases: some things must be bought for safetys sake. A dryer will really be needed by winter. Im hoping that I can set up a system where I start setting aside money for specific things and only make that purchase, barring absolute emergency, once sufficient has been set aside. Its not even for a lack of money at this point, though I have yet to receive my first retirement check, and there are some other things I need to figure out financially in order to feel more comfortable. But I want to control my money rather than having it control me. And I know from my leaner years what a thin dividing line runs between having sufficient money for needs and letting a series of miscalculations take away that financial buffer. It seems to me that ones relationship with money plays a big part in whether or not it will be there when it is needed. Sooo very preachy I can be: today I spent $5 on some rather nasty cookies because even though we brought lunches, we were hungry on the way to Mendocino, and I found $30 of used books in Fort Bragg that called to me too loud to be ignored. So, nope, I havent achieved financial sainthood yet, by a long shot. Ill have to do a lot of gardening, which is more muscle expenditure than financial expenditure, for the next few weeks to make up for these errors in judgement. Poor, poor me! :-)
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 03:46:09 +0000
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