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Just wondering how many single middle aged and above ladies are living on a realllly tight budget and will have to do so for the remainder of life. Not questioning why or how you got to this point. Just curious how some of you ladies cope with this. Financially AND mentally. I try to focus on gratitude because I have so much more than others but I will admit that lack of security keeps me up at night. I just purchased a used car so now I have a payment. I will have to cut expenses somewhere so I will cut down on groceries and there is no more Kohls, even with the 30% off.
Just wondering how many single middle aged and above ladies (and the men?)
are living on a realllly tight budget and will have to do so for the remainder of life.
The retirement forum used to keep a 'sticky' thread going on these topics.
I think it depressed too many so it was removed.
The 100's (1000's?) of posts with all sorts of insights, ideas and observations are still around.
Using google search for CD threads or topics works far better than the CD search window.
eg: city-data.com/forum/retirement + shoestring returned these:
I'm well above middle age and I've been single since my husband died five years ago. This is the first time in my life that I've had to be careful about money (my husband did all that), and at first it was very scary.
I started keeping an Excel spreadsheet record of every expenditure, and I mean every penny. This is pretty easy for me to do because I almost never use cash -- only credit cards, of which I have two, and I pay them off in full every month. Every expense gets recorded, in categories such as Clothes, Groceries, Utilities, Restaurants, Paper Goods and Cleaning Supplies, Cat (when I had a cat), and so forth.
I total up the columns monthly and see where my money goes. This has made it fairly simple for me to figure out what to cut out in order to keep spending below income.
If you're not comfortable with Excel, you can certainly do this on paper. But you have to be disciplined about recording every penny spent, and you have to be willing to cut things out to reduce your expenses.
Being able to see the figures gives me a greater sense of control, and that reduces the anxiety.
I don't like living on a really tight budget so my solution was to increase my income. It would be very rare to be locked into a low income for life. Almost always, there is something that can be done about it.
Housing is usually the biggest expense, followed by groceries. Even for a single person, buying groceries in bulk can make a huge savings for the budget. Cooking instead of buying heat-and-eat or getting take-out can be another huge savings.
For that car, take super good care of it, all maintenance done on schedule. It might be hard to pay for that oil change but those oil changes right on schedule can greatly (and I mean hugely) extend the life of that car.
That regular maintenance applies to clothing also. Treat spots, repair any loose stitches, buy decent quality to begin with and clothing can last for years, or even decades.
Mentally, there is much that can be done for free. Watch the paper or the events column on Craigslist or the local penny saver for street fairs, lectures, events that are free.
Do some volunteer work. Its good to feel useful and you can meet some nice people.
Museums and art galleries often have reduced admissions days. Go and soak up some culture.
Patronize your local library. Good books, videos, lectures for free. Many libraries have a ton of stuff going on.
Hint: if you volunteer at the local food bank, the volunteers often get first pick of the food and they get anything that is left over at the end of the day. Some really nice people volunteer at the food bank, so you get to meet nice people and take home some food at the same time.
Mentally: take up a hobby. Hiking is free, walking clubs are free. Rock collecting and pressing flowers are free.
Take up art. If budget is tight, all you need is a notebook (25 cents right now in the back to school sales) and a couple of pencils. Go to the library and check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Teach yourself how to sketch.
Join a theater group. You've never meet such a group of fun, interesting, and generous people as you will find in an amateur theater group.
Excell was good but my "new" computer did not come with it, so I am back to paper.
I use credit cards for shopping, and track the cash by withdrawals from the ATM.
I never used to, but now in retirement, it seems more important to keep track of expenditures.
The problem with the bolded is it tells you where the money comes from (your bank account) and on what date, but it doesn't tell you where it's going. If you simply log "$200 ATM withdrawal," you'll have no idea what you spent it on.
What I do with my few cash expenditures is get a receipt, bring the receipt home, and log the expense under the appropriate column. That's the only way to get an accurate reading of where every penny is going.
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