Retiring on a literal shoestring: support group (55, grandparents, gorgeous)
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I wonder if this would be of interest/help: a cookbook, also in free pdf form, by an author who wrote it for those trying to make do with SNAP (formerly food stamps) at $4 a day per person.
I don't know much about it myself...just heard of it and recalled it when I saw this thread. I bet others here might know of it, and may chime in.
I use that cookbook a lot. We eat for less than that by buying on sale, in bulk, then cooking in bulk and freezing it. Also we have our garden and eggs.
Also, the town next to us, Pueblo West, has a food bank. They pickup food donations from farmers, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. They go to several towns during the month [ for Pueblo it is the 3rd thursday of every month] and sell a heaping wheelbarrow of food [mostly produce] for $20, which they load right into your car. It is about $80 to $120 worth of fruits and veggies for that $20. The people running the program uses the $20 from each car to pay for the expenses at the Pueblo West food bank. it is an extreme win/win program. [ we help a food bank by saving money!]I will probably be up until midnight this Thursday blanching and cooking, canning and freezing. On Friday we will bring the foods that we won't eat to the senior citizen center.
Most of you know we have chickens [ all 8 of them are laying now] but we just started a worm farm in the basement. Red Wrigglers, which are good both for fishing and the garden. We will also feed some to our chickens [after they have multiplied enough] and we have already been asked if we would sell them some worm tea this spring [ supposed to be the best fertilizer, made from worm poop, which has no bad smell at all]
We just finished painting most of the exterior of our house, saving us a ton of money. A son, who owes us money, is going to work off the money by painting what is left.And one of our favorite post retirement activities has been "modified dumpster diving." [apartment dumpsters the last of the month. If I were young I would probably get run off. As a sweet, well groomed, "little old lady" everyone, including the managers, offer assistance.
It's nice when we reach the end of the month and still have a little bit of "shoestring" left.
I also do the thrift store version of a grocery store. It's Grocery Outlet here, and it's like a grocery thrift store. They carry some regular staples like milk, but you never know what they'll have. I will peruse the aisles and shelves and frozen section to look for bargains to stock my shelves and freezer with. I find things for cheap that I wouldn't normally buy, because they're usually out of my budget at the regular grocery stores.
The Safeway store here also has a section in the meat department where they mark down meats that are at their expiration date. Then I'll come home and freeze it right away.
I also will blanch and freeze veggies and make a big pot of soup and freeze separate jars for meals. I also have a canner, though I haven't canned for a while.
This month, I had several large bills come due at once, so I'm really broke until next month. But, I'm eating great because of my thrifty hoarding LOL. My cupboards and my little fridge freezer are stocked!
I also got a garden plot in the community garden here, and I just picked my first zucchini and yellow squashes, and even had 2 snow peas! Just picked the peas off the vine and ate them with a smile right there at the garden. Yum! I live at the cool coast, so we can grow snow peas practically year-round. The peas are flowering like mad, so hopefully I'll get lots of them. I just love them in stir fry and just raw and crunchy. And they're so expensive in the stores, if you can even find them. They're going to be a real treat.
Garage sales are big here, too. If you can just wait to buy something on your wish list, between the garage sales and the thrift stores, you can usually get what you need for cheap. As a rule, I avoid the thrift stores because I tend to buy stuff I don't really need lol. I try to just go when I have a particular thing in mind, and try to avoid browsing for browsing's sake.
One of my neighbor's here blows a lot of her budget on "finds" at the local thrift stores. You can still blow your budget in them, if you aren't careful :-)
I have found many items to be cheaper when found at local garage / yard / rummage sales than what I can find at the thrift stores. For example, I purchased a wood chest of drawers (made by Johnson Furniture Co. of Grand Rapids) for only $20 at a yard sale. I also picked up an unfinished handmade wood bookcase for only $5 at a yard sale. I spent a few more dollars for refinishing the items, but still much cheaper and actually better products than what I had found at the thrift stores here.
One tip for garage / yard / rummage sales: If you are looking for furniture, go early! Most sales start at 7 am and by 8 am most furniture will be gone.
The city next door also has a weekend swap meet, but I haven't taken the time to check it out yet.
I retired on a shoestring budget. I had to I lost my job, then I could not sell my big house in the city. It just kept on getting worse, the bank finally took the house, oh and I kept on getting older and poorer. So I pooled all my resources together and got the hell out of Chicago, I hate you Illinois.
Anyway I now live in Missouri on a few acres in a nice old home that is paid off. (very cheap land taxes here) I am not old enough for S.S. yet but my pension is enough. I do find some odd jobs at times. I garden a lot and grew some fruit trees so all that helps.
Even being poor and old and living in the country is better than living in an old stinking city. So the moral of my story is do not give up, ever.
Now I sleep until I feel like getting up, I can take my time and do things at my speed. As far as doing fancy retirement stuff, drinking beer and fishing is still cheap in the Ozarks, and the fishing is still good. hehehehehehe
So all in all I like the way things turned out. Sure it could have been better, and it could have been a whole lot worse.
I retired on a shoestring budget. I had to I lost my job, then I could not sell my big house in the city. It just kept on getting worse, the bank finally took the house, oh and I kept on getting older and poorer. So I pooled all my resources together and got the hell out of Chicago, I hate you Illinois.
Anyway I now live in Missouri on a few acres in a nice old home that is paid off. (very cheap land taxes here) I am not old enough for S.S. yet but my pension is enough. I do find some odd jobs at times. I garden a lot and grew some fruit trees so all that helps.
Even being poor and old and living in the country is better than living in an old stinking city. So the moral of my story is do not give up, ever.
Now I sleep until I feel like getting up, I can take my time and do things at my speed. As far as doing fancy retirement stuff, drinking beer and fishing is still cheap in the Ozarks, and the fishing is still good. hehehehehehe
So all in all I like the way things turned out. Sure it could have been better, and it could have been a whole lot worse.
If you don't mind my being nosey, what was your thought process when you were looking for a place to go? Did you have friends there, so it was a natural place to investigate? Honestly, it is ONE BIG country, and I simply do not know where I would start figuring out a place to land, even through there is a LOT of discussion here on C-D about it.
Anyway I now live in Missouri on a few acres in a nice old home that is paid off. (very cheap land taxes here) I am not old enough for S.S. yet but my pension is enough. I do find some odd jobs at times. I garden a lot and grew some fruit trees so all that helps.
Moving to a place with a much lower cost of living is an option that many people should consider.
I live in Philly, which is getting pretty expensive - not nearly as costly as Chicago or New York or Boston or DC or LA or San Francisco, mind you - but young people moving here are discovering that a one bedroom apartment in a safe neighborhood starts at $1000/mo. or more, and in a very nice neighborhood double that.
If living here becomes too expensive there a lots - and I mean lots - of pretty small towns in other parts of Pennsylvania where houses go for as little as $40,000.
I know not one, not a few ... but a number of seniors who are living on just their Social Security check: $850 a month, $1000 a month, $1250 a months. How do they do it? It seems like dire poverty! How could someone live on $12,000 a year when you have to make at least $40,000 or $50,000 just to break intro "middle class? Well, the folks I know are resourceful. Their homes are paid off. The apply for food stamps. They go to the free health clinics. They get involved in Senior Centers and score free movie tickets and other goodies including free breakfasts. My favorite uncle, close to 83, lives relatively well on a mere pittance - but he lives in Senior housing and all his monthly rent and utilities are less than $500 a month.
^My sister lives on almost nothing up in the Poconos. She had a stroke at 51, and while rehab improved most of the damage, she needs a cane to walk because "one leg keeps wanting to go in another direction". She took SS at 62, now she's 64. She never made a ton of money to begin with.
But she and her S.O. live in a small cabin on a large property in exchange for looking after the main house and land while the owners are in Florida. They have a huge garden and can and freeze produce. She also has a teeny little house she bought and paid for years ago, and currently has tenants in it. Her S.O. has some sort of small pension. They are doing OK for having little and they like the country life and don't care about things like eating out or going anywhere. Their entertainment is having neighbors over and cooking, and my sister likes to paint or do crafts on her own. In many ways, they are in better shape than other people I know here in expensive NJ where too many think they can't live without this or that.
In moving to a lower COL area the things to consider are things like is the low property tax or rent going to have you driving a whole lot more? Transportation in that new place, in old age? Distance to medical, as the years go on? Some posters on here have made good gains, like Minervah, but I have to think long and hard and the only way I can do that is with a spreadsheet of pros and cons financially. There's so much to balance, and I for one would not move rural or even suburban again just for financial consideration.
^My sister lives on almost nothing up in the Poconos. She had a stroke at 51, and while rehab improved most of the damage, she needs a cane to walk because "one leg keeps wanting to go in another direction". She took SS at 62, now she's 64. She never made a ton of money to begin with.
But she and her S.O. live in a small cabin on a large property in exchange for looking after the main house and land while the owners are in Florida. They have a huge garden and can and freeze produce. She also has a teeny little house she bought and paid for years ago, and currently has tenants in it. Her S.O. has some sort of small pension. They are doing OK for having little and they like the country life and don't care about things like eating out or going anywhere. Their entertainment is having neighbors over and cooking, and my sister likes to paint or do crafts on her own. In many ways, they are in better shape than other people I know here in expensive NJ where too many think they can't live without this or that.
I enjoyed reading your post. To me, it shows it is all about attitude. Recognizing what we enjoy and being happy with what we have. Now that is a peaceful life. I definitely like that.
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