The big pantry clearout is behind me, my shelves are organised my, my perishables are all in labeled and dated containers. And I am proud to say that I did,nt have to throw anything out, nothing was past it,s use by date so obviously my newly organised meals regime is working. The only thing I hav,nt done is my menus for the next 9 days, however I know that I have enough to get me through now and I feel as if I may well achieve my goal of living off of $300 this month. I think the reason that this worked for me was a matter of luck and I hope good management. I don,t have children at home and so their are no shoe dramas or school expenses, no car expenses ( so far ) no vet,s bills ( so far ) Hubby has his own spending money, so has MIL, although I think I mentioned that she is away visiting her other Son at the moment, so there is nobody who on a daily basis could be expecting me to buy anything outside of my budget.
I was discussing with Hubby the fact that it might be possible for us to work until we are 70 years old, and that we would have another 10 years in which to get ourselves financially organised. Part of me was excited about this and the other part of me was horrified that because we had made a mess of our finances for so long, we are not financially able to retire in the mid sixties. We are currently renting and our rent is $365.00 a week, who knows how much we will have to be paying in another 10 years, but you can bet it will be too much for a couple on a pension. I,m saying that and also thinking what if one or other of us is dead or incapacitated by that time then the other will be totally destitute. Not a pleasant outlook. My parents are both in their 80s in fact Dad is 88 today, and Mum will be 84 in October. They own their own home and one day it will have to be divided up between we 3 siblings, this also fills me with horror, I have never been able to organise my money and the fact that I will have to decide what to do with this money to make it last frightens me to death. It won,t be enough to get us a home, so what do you do with it. Scary thoughts !!!!!!!!!
I had a no spend day, as the pantry took up all of my day.
Day 22 No spend August
$ 55.25 Left in the Kitty
Breakfast ~ Boiled egg and Toast ( in bed, thanks Hubby )
Lunch ~ Ravioli on toast
Dinner ~ Chicken Curry, Boiled rice - Finished the Rhubarb Crumble
Snacks ~ A Bar of Chocolate bought by Hubby.
Isn't the retirement age been raised to 67 in the next 10years or so? I remember reading something in the papers about it. By the time I reach retirement age it could end up being 70.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the no spend day!
Looks like your doing magnificently! Seems like your rent is awfully high Maureen. Thats $1460 a month!! or did I read that wrong? Could you find cheaper accomidations?
ReplyDeleteThat is a fairly typical rent for a house in the area we live in. Private rental is fairly expensive here in Oz and we earn too much to get a government subsidised house.
ReplyDeleteFor the money we get a 3 bedroom house with lounge,Family room, large kitchen, huge patio, 3 car garage and about 1/2 acre of grounds. Yes we could get smaller, for example a flat or a townhouse, but as MIL lives with us we have to live on the ground floor and have chillout spaces for us all.