A Field Report . . .
The first of the reduced bills came in today - it was for Netflix. It actually hit last week on my credit card. I decided to move that payment over to my debit card, which comes directly out of my checking account. I think there are a couple more payments still on the credit card, and I will see about moving them over to my checking account as they come in. The credit card does give me a little float time, so I may leave some of them there - it could be a good strategy if I monitor it closely. We'll see. In any case, the new Netflix bill is not very much, so I decided to go ahead and move that one over.
I'm in the second week of my new budget and I still have grocery money in the envelope - I confess I treated myself to a snack purchase this morning at the deli downstairs, but I have brought my lunch every day so far, and I still have plenty of food in the freezer from my cooking/freezing early in the month. There is still plenty of food in the cupboards and I am learning to read all the grocery ads and am keeping track of what certain things that I like to use usually cost, so I will know when they are truly on sale.
While a few weeks do not a trend make, I do feel that because I did some advance planning in July, I am already settling in to a pretty good rhythm. There may be other surprises in store, but for today I'm feeling like I have made great strides in practicing to live on a fixed income. So, Yay Me!
I had an interesting conversation with my cousins last night about pre-retirement planning. We are all of an age where this is now in our thoughts more often than ever before. As we have looked at various family members who are gone now, we think some of them waited too long to actually retire. It's certainly a balancing act - I mean, the whole point is to have enough to retire, but not outlive what you have. And you can never really know how that's going to shake out. I mean, you do your best, you plan as well as you can, and if you're smart, you practice like I'm practicing before you are faced with unequivocal change. Yes, I did just say that I'm smart. ;-) Certainly I would like to work at least a few more years until my car is paid for, and most likely a bit longer than that, but I would certainly like to retire while I can still enjoy it :-)
Oh - A decision has been made to pay my car insurance (which is due by the end of the month) from my emergency money. No one is bleeding, no bones are broken, and death is not imminent; however, driving an auto without insurance is against the law pretty much everywhere. Not only is it against the law, it's stupid and could entail financial ruin, not to mention jail - any one of which could lead to bleeding, broken bones and/or death. Alrighty then. I'll be paying that this week and saving up to pay it again in March of next year.
I'm in the second week of my new budget and I still have grocery money in the envelope - I confess I treated myself to a snack purchase this morning at the deli downstairs, but I have brought my lunch every day so far, and I still have plenty of food in the freezer from my cooking/freezing early in the month. There is still plenty of food in the cupboards and I am learning to read all the grocery ads and am keeping track of what certain things that I like to use usually cost, so I will know when they are truly on sale.
While a few weeks do not a trend make, I do feel that because I did some advance planning in July, I am already settling in to a pretty good rhythm. There may be other surprises in store, but for today I'm feeling like I have made great strides in practicing to live on a fixed income. So, Yay Me!
I had an interesting conversation with my cousins last night about pre-retirement planning. We are all of an age where this is now in our thoughts more often than ever before. As we have looked at various family members who are gone now, we think some of them waited too long to actually retire. It's certainly a balancing act - I mean, the whole point is to have enough to retire, but not outlive what you have. And you can never really know how that's going to shake out. I mean, you do your best, you plan as well as you can, and if you're smart, you practice like I'm practicing before you are faced with unequivocal change. Yes, I did just say that I'm smart. ;-) Certainly I would like to work at least a few more years until my car is paid for, and most likely a bit longer than that, but I would certainly like to retire while I can still enjoy it :-)
Oh - A decision has been made to pay my car insurance (which is due by the end of the month) from my emergency money. No one is bleeding, no bones are broken, and death is not imminent; however, driving an auto without insurance is against the law pretty much everywhere. Not only is it against the law, it's stupid and could entail financial ruin, not to mention jail - any one of which could lead to bleeding, broken bones and/or death. Alrighty then. I'll be paying that this week and saving up to pay it again in March of next year.
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