Luckily I have central heating now, but I've lived in places with those old gravity heaters, and never really liked them. Now that I hear about having to throw matches to get them lit, I'm even more scared of them!
Yvonne, I have been enjoying Senior discounts on occasion, especially the McDonald's senior coffee discount. Great reminder to ask for the discount at all restaurants.
Fortunately, here in Thailand, I do not need a heater as it is usually about 85f everyday. Even thought it may seem a bit rustic, I don't even have a water heater as by the time the water gets to my shower from the well, it is pretty warm. One way I have learned to save money is after expenses and money saved for emergencies, I take the remainder and divide it by 30. This gives me a daily budget. If I go over, then the next few days I "under-spend" until I am back on the mark.
Hi Susan! I am not really sure if it is a matter of discipline or learning to discern between "needs" and "wants!" Being on a fixed monthly income and whatever money I can make with writing assignments, I learned the hard way that when the money is gone....OUCH!
I think the first place to start is to write down everything you spend. You need to get a handle on where the financial "leak" is coming from. Take each category and keep your eyes and ears peeled to see if you can find a way to cut costs in each category. Scout around for new car insurance, homeowner's insurance, make sure you combine trips to save on gas, only buy things you need when they are on sale and then stock up on them. I RARELY pay full price for anything.
I like ideas #2 & #3 and i think those ideas of hers are easy to incorporate into our daily lives as long as you have the mindset to use your money wisely.
I do the majority of my shopping in the open air or night markets. They have many here in the city and I always badger for a lower price, or as I love calling it, "Mouth Boxing!"
Sarah, this sounds like a good plan indeed! If you spend less, then you will definitely have more money to save!
This might be a weird way to save but it works for me. I have two bank accounts, at one point I sat down and made a spread sheet of all my expenses. I started by first tracking where my money went. Then I worked out what were the bills I had to pay no matter what. In the one account there is enough to pay what bills I have through the month. All the rest goes in the second account. I use that account for food and gas. I almost never carry cash, but when I do have cash I set it aside just like when I was a kid saving for something I wanted. I try very hard not to touch that. It is like found money. Any money I get from things like mail in rebates, can returns, internet residuals or anything like that goes in that fund. You would be surprised how fast that can add up. This month I got a check for $157 which was a rebate from my medical insurance for something I had paid for out of pocket. I got another check for $7 which was a mail in rebate from Christmas. A friend gave me $15 in cash for their share of a dinner we went to and I picked up $25 for shoveling snow for an hour That was a "found" $204 that I added to my save fund. I don't usually get checks for $157 every month, the point is if you look for money outside just earnings you can find it. $5 here, $3 there, it adds up. In my food and gas account, I have made some slight savings from the cost of gas going down. I try to cook all my own food, enough so it will last a few meals. One of the biggest expenses I found I had was food. I went back to very basic food staples and have been saving a ton of money. Going to the farm market is cheaper then the grocery store. I do can and freeze and grow my own veggies in the warmer months. To keep the heating costs down I have a wood burning fireplace. I am limited to using it mostly the weekends because I can not have hot amber's on the weekdays when I go to work. This alone makes about a $125 or more difference through winter each month (about $800-$850 savings in home heating each year). I get wood that is the weird cut pieces and load and stack my own. This year I paid $90 for my wood. I also look for other burn able woods thru the year, like pallets and trees parts that end up on the roads in the fall and spring. I find you need a good amount of tinder and no one minds you taking sticks and branches. The good wood is never on the curbs long. I just tie up sticks in bundles during the summer evenings. It is sort of relaxing. We also scrap when we can. Because my son is still young he sometimes gets site demolish jobs. I am surprised but he has been allowed to take re-bar and different metals they pull off a site and recycle them. The owner says he don't feel it is worth the effort, it might only be $20-$40 return, but for us thats a week of food or two weeks of gasoline. So we do it when we can. He had a job that lasted a full summer where they pulled old aluminum siding off a apartment complex, when all was said and done that was $270 just because we picked it up and drove it to the yard. What we did was fold the pieces up sort of accordion style and stacked them. They were pretty light. We dropped the car's back seat and would stop off to the junk yard every Friday with a car load. It wasn't even as if we had to pay extra in gas since it is on the way. Rather easy money since he was paid to rip it down anyway. To load it was pretty fast work. I have been giving serious thought to renting out portions of my home. The home is an old one designed in such a way where you can lock off sleeping areas and still have a common area for everyone too use. I figure that in the 40's people used some homes like rooming houses. That's how they afforded big homes. We have a large university in the area and foreign students especially look for housing. I would even consider other seniors, but think the younger students might be more help with some of the work like snow shoveling.
Jenn, I am truly impressed with your plan and execution of your finances. I would have to say based on your comments, you are an analytical person who not only analyzes but knows how to implement a plan very effectively. I say, 'Good for you!'
Now that I am by myself, I need to find different ways of getting the many house repairs done. Before 2014, my youngest son or my husband did the home repairs. Now that both of them are gone, I am faced with figuring out how to deal with the many repairs and maintenance issues. First on my list is to sale most of my land. On that land is a house with a four bedroom, two bath, two car garage, and it has a 50'X75' metal two strory barn. Hopefully this will give me the financial cushion I'm looking for. This will allow me to keep 2/3rd's of an acre with my 2500 sq. ft. home. This is much more space than I really need, but it gives me puttering space. Because of my arthritis I can not use my zero turn lawn mower, and especially not the electrical starting weed eater. So I bartered with my next door neighbor, (who has no riding mower or large yard equipment,) to do my yard work, and then his own.
I need a new driveway gate with a remote control, and I want the driveway and two car carport to be fenced in, so ny four dogs can't get to the area. Yesterday, I bartered my 12' X 20' hen house, (It has electricity, water, and a brooding area in it.), for the labor. My son made fine furniture for sale, so he had a wood working shop fully equiped with all the dream machines he could find. I bartered the whole shop of equipment with a man trying to set up a shop for his retirement, to do a long listing of home repairs for me. I find I get a much better deal bartering than if I tried paying cash for services. I still have a welding machine/electric generator, a tractor with brushhog and tiller, and a 8' X 20' cover trailer that I can use for bartering. I learned to barter from my father when I was a child, and money was tight. Do any of you barter.
Great job Ina finding a way to accomplish a need. So glad you know how to barter, and your neighbor is benefiting as well!