I took down the post on the U.N. because it was scaring some people. If you want to see what they are doing which involves the U.S., go to their press releases online on the U.N. site. I always check on what is going on there.
We got our utility bill yesterday. It was for $ 138.85 for 29 days. We used 536 KWH of electric and 4 CCF’s of natural gas. Last year’s bill for the same period was $116.37 for 32 days. We used 530 KWH’s of electric and 6 CCF’s of natural gas. We used less KWH’s and more CCF’s and it covered more days in last year’s bill. There was not a big difference in usage but the bill went up by $ 22.48.
It seems whatever I do to conserve, the bill just keeps rising each month. But if I don’t try to conserve more, it will go even higher. I am afraid our heat bills are going to be huge this winter. The meteorologists say the winter here is going to be much colder and snowier this year. So I will try to save every KWH and CCF I can this fall and winter. We have turned our air conditioning off. If we have a hot day, we use our ceiling fans. I am hoping to not have to put the heat on for a while. We have turned the dehumidifier off in the basement. It is no longer humid down there.
We will continue to use our smaller 11 in 1 oven instead of the big oven. I believe it does make a difference. Now that we have the wall built around our grill outside, we will continue to use it as much as we can through these upcoming seasons. If we have a lot of snow, we will have to stop using it. Falls are something we try to avoid.
We have had to find another snowplow guy because the one we thought we could use is only 16 years old. Not legal in NY. We called a company yesterday who is licensed and insured. The owner came today and told us it will be $500. for the season. He snowplows anytime we get 3 inches. We paid our other guy, who moved to Florida, $ 500. for last winter. So the price is not any higher which I am very happy about.
We had planned to make honey bourbon fried chicken, roasted potatoes using baby potatoes that are getting old, and brussel sprouts for dinner last night. However, the chicken that I put in the fridge the night before did not thaw. So we had to come up with a quick dinner. Hubby made grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up old fashioned tomato rice soup that I purchased for $ 1.00 on clearance . It was so good and brought back memories of my childhood. We will have the above chicken dinner tonight and tomorrow night. Because of having to do this, I have froze the other half of the sausage I cooked up for pizza. We will use that next week.
Brunch this morning was a small slice of ham and 2 eggs scrambled for each of us.
That’s it for today. I will be back with a new post tomorrow after I run errands.
I had a roll of sausage in the refrigerator. Yesterday, I cooked it. I put 1/2 of it in our spaghetti sauce last night. I packaged up the other 1/2 to use on top of homemade pizza later in the week. The sauce I paid $.99 for. The portions of spaghetti that I used was about $ .49. The sausage was $2.94 but we are getting two meals out of it so $ 1.47 each meal. So last night’s spaghetti dinner cost us $ 1.50 for each of us or $ 2.95 for both. . We had a big salad for brunch yesterday so that was our veggies for the day.
After doing some cleaning yesterday, I went to Top’s. They did not have much I was interested in. But we were running out of Chung’s egg rolls so I picked up 2 packages on sale for $ 4.49 each. I do not make egg rolls. I made them once and they were more work than I am willing to do. Chung’s sent me an e-mail recently informing me that Walmart is now carrying them. However, they have not hit my store yet. I assume they will be cheaper than Top’s.
I had a free coupon for Ken’s ranch dressing. I needed laundry detergent because I was on my last bottle. I had a $3.00 coupon from Purex so I ended up spending $ 6.99+ tax for it. My total with tax was $ 17.25 for everything.
Between the cost of the construction at Top’s and the high prices due to inflation, I don’t go there very often. The noise is horrendous and no one can find anything anymore. This Top’s was privately owned and the prices were always high. But they have gone higher now that it is a company store. They have been working on redoing the inside for months now and a cashier told me it will not be done until the grand opening the end of November. Ugh! Wegman’s, Walmart, and Aldi’s are looking so much better now.
I have been doing a lot of research on where I can get bulk meat and tracking the prices the past few weeks. I have found 3 new to me places. So when my freezer is empty, I will be going to them to start to restock. The quality of meat is a lot better and the prices are way lower than the grocery stores. Best part is they are under 45 minutes away from my home. So traveling to them 2-3 times a year won’t be too bad. I will be sharing who they are when I start shopping there.
Do any of you buy your meat in bulk at an unconventional store instead of a grocery store? Where do you do that?
Eloise is getting into everything while I am writing this. So it is time to go give her some attention.
We are making all of our quick breads from scratch. I have plenty of blueberries, bananas, and cranberries in the freezer. I have plenty of canned pumpkin in the pantry.
We no longer buy canned beans. I buy dry beans. You can soak them overnight and then cook them. If you have an instant pot you can quickly cook them up.
I am looking at every sauce I have and seeing if I can find a recipe to substitute for them.
I no longer buy chicken broth. I can or freeze my own that I make from chicken carcasses. I use beef bouillon cubes or beef soup base to make my beef barley soup.
We no longer buy ready to eat cereal. We make our own granola. We also eat oatmeal with berries from the freezer. I am going to research and see if I can make yogurt from my shelf stable milk.
We no longer buy seasoning mixes. I have plenty of spices that I can make them from.
We do not buy shredded cheese anymore. I have a grater attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer. So we buy blocks of cheese and grate our own.
We no longer buy cold cuts because of the listeria risk. We roast and slice our own.
I have some canned soup on the shelf. However, most of the time, I make my own from scratch. We will use up the canned soup and then make all of our soups from scratch.
I no longer buy jams and jellies since I started making my own peach and strawberry which are Hubby’s favorites. I can control the amount of sugar in them also.
We make our own cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. I buy them at a rock bottom price around Thanksgiving and freeze them.
Smhuh left some comments on my last post. She suggested cutting back on the olive oil you have by using your bacon grease to saute veggies. This is something that I do often. We cook so much bacon that I always save the grease. I put it in the refrigerator to keep it from going rancid and use it for lots of things. She substitutes applesauce in baking for oil and flax seed for eggs. She also mentioned All Recipes to find salad dressing recipes. Thank you for sharing with us.
I hope some of these suggestions will help you save some money.
So many food items are getting ridiculously expensive. Every time I go in a grocery store, I bring my price book and go up and down the aisles updating the prices. I have also kept track of a lot of prices since 2021 by saving my receipts. Those items have gone up an average of 60% in 4 years. I will tell you that I am in the Buffalo market area. Buffalo, N.Y. is the second largest city in New York state so the prices are high here. Now is the time to no longer buy certain things until the prices come down. If we all did this, they would have to lower them.
This week I went into Top’s. I saw a 50.7 ounce bottle of Bertolli olive oil for $ 37.49. I have a large bottle at home that I paid $17.00+ for a while back. I opened it recently and it is not rancid. So this should last us a while. But if I run out I am not spending that price or more to get a new bottle. I will look for a decent price on avocado oil or cold press coconut oil. Italy has had bad olive crops for two years now which has caused the price to rise along with inflation.
I bought my last loaf of bread a week or so ago. From now on I am making all of our breads. I can make tasty specialty loaves for dollars less than it cost at the store. I have a bread maker and I have a Dutch oven so it’s crazy to buy bread. I also found a recipe for tortillas that I am going to try. I will let you know how they turn out.
We no longer buy refrigerated milk because we can’t use it up before it goes bad. I buy shelf stable milk at Dollar Tree for $ 1.25. I only use it in puddings, baked goods, casseroles, etc. We do not drink milk. I also no longer buy cream. When it went up to $ 6.00+, I quit getting it. We use half and half in our coffee which I can get a half gallon for $ 5.99.
I only buy butter once a year at Aldi’s at Thanksgiving. it cost $ 2.69 a lb. last year. We use about 32 lbs. a year. I rarely run out.
I am still buying eggs but not for much longer if the price keeps going up. When they were at a decent price, I purchased 5 dozen and froze them for scrambled eggs. We will use them sparingly. I also have egg powder if they run out.
For a while I was buying bottled water in case of an emergency. I have quit doing that since I started to save Hubby’s Sam’s Club Diet Cola 2 liter bottles. I just wash them out really well, let them dry, and then fill them from our faucet.
We purchased our last tomatoes this week. The price has gotten prohibitive. So we will have our last BLT’s this week coming up until next tomato season. I have canned tomatoes for soups and casseroles.
With the exception of lettuce, celery, potatoes or onions, we will only buy what is in season or frozen vegetables.
We are making our own salad dressings as we use up what we have. I do have a free salad dressing coupon so I will get that one.
As meat prices are rising again, I am being very selective because we are eating out of the freezer so that nothing goes bad. I did buy some chicken and 3 roast beefs recently on sale at great prices.
We have some craft beers that Chris and Hubby brought from their state and we have a few cans of Yuengling left. When they are gone, we will buy no more.
I have not had salmon in about 9 months. We have a small amount of haddock in the freezer. I will not buy any fish until the prices come down. We do like shrimp and I will buy it once in a while on sale.
I am hoping to make Eloise’s cat food when she gets older. Right now she is eating Friskie’s Kitten Food in the yellow bag. I found a recipe using rice, veggies, and chicken. There are a lot of cat recipes online.
We are making our own spaghetti sauce now from tomatoes we froze and tomatoes we canned when we had a garden.
We are making our own cakes and brownies from mixes I have or making them from scratch. We are making our own donuts, fruit crisps, and frostings.
That’s it for today. There will be more in the future. I need to work in my pantry now while Eloise is asleep.
What things are you no longer buying because the price is exorbitant?
We are looking at our everyday expenses with a fine tooth comb. One item that we have changed lately is how we buy gasoline. I got very used to spending my points at Top’s to buy gas. When I was doing a lot of shopping, they really added up. Now that I have cut way back on grocery purchases, I am not earning that many points. I was filling up the last couple of months at $ 3.55 a gallon. Then I noticed that my High Quality Station was $ 3.19 a gallon. This is a cash only station so that is where I have been filling up lately. They seem to be much cheaper than everyone else in my area. Plus they are just around the corner. I go by them almost anytime that I go out. Matter of fact, the next time I go out I will fill up there. We have been trying to get the gas tank down as low as possible to fill up at that price.
I can get a discount on gasoline with my Walmart+ also but the stations they use are farther away from me and are more expensive per gallon. I also can get a discount at B.J.’s Warehouse Club but I go there rarely. But if my tank is low and the price is lower than my cash station, I would fill up while shopping there.
There are also a number of apps that you can use to save on gas like Gas Buddy and Upside. Upside does not have many stations in my area. But I will be researching Gas Buddy next week. Right now, I have too much on my plate.
I know that some people are close enough to state lines to be able to fill up in a state that is cheaper on both gasoline and the state taxes. If you travel that direction for any reason, fill up while you are there. Here the closest state is PA. It is 2 hours from me. Their gasoline is higher than I am paying here.
We also run our errands in a loop and have for over 50 years. We try to do everything in one to two days a week. We strive for one but that isn’t always possible with medical and dental appointments.
Hubby takes the car to a local garage for oil changes, fluids, filters and brakes when needed and he puts air in the tires. That helps us get better gas mileage.
I wash our car at home in the nice weather. In the cold and snowy weather, I go to a car wash that gives us one reward ticket every time we go there. When we have 5 tickets we redeem them for a free car wash. I have two right now. But before the winter is over, we will get a free wash. It is a bonus that it is right near my grocery stores.
I clean and vacuum our car myself. Since I do it every couple of weeks, it stays nice and clean. Whenever I use the car, I take any grocery lists or other things that may have accumulated during my trip out of the car and dispose of them immediately. Clutter drives me nuts!
We have always checked prices for car insurance every year. Most insurance companies raise your rate every year. And it is not a little increase even if you have had no accidents or tickets. The last time this happened to us, we went to an insurance agency to see if they could find us a better deal. I knew they handled many insurance companies because years ago I worked for an agency. They found us a company headquartered here in NY. They raise our insurance every year but it is a fraction of what other companies have raised it. We are very happy with them.
Here in NY, we can get a 10% discount on our car insurance by taking an online driver safety course. The discount is good for 3 years and you can renew it every three years. The cost of the online course is much less than the discount you get over those 3 years.
We drive the speed limit and don’t gun the car from a stop.
We buy new cars but we keep them for years. The one we have now is almost 12 years old. We pay cash when we buy one. If we ever need another one, we will have our children find us a couple year old car. Since the cars depreciate, they always buy their’s a couple of years old. I trust their judgement.
That is all I can think of right now. If you have any other way that you save on gasoline and insurance or any other way you save on your car, please feel free to leave a suggestion.
First I want to thank you for all your good wishes about Eloise. She is a joy but very active so she is keeping us busy. This morning she did allow us to sleep until 6AM though which I am grateful for. Also Hubby’s shoulder is just about back to normal which we are thankful for. I finally saw all your comments this morning and I have responded to you all.
It took me forever to write this post this morning. Eloise is enamored with chasing the cursor. As you can see, she is learning to type. Hence the last line you can see on the page. I keep putting her down and gently telling her no. But she comes back and back. Eventually she will get it.
Besides saving for our children and grandchildren, we save so that we can spend on other things that are important to us. Eloise was one of those choices. In just one day, we spent $583. on her. The adoption fee from the rescue was $ 195. I gave them $ 200. and said keep the change. The night before we got her, we spent about $25. at Walmart for some food and litter. Then the day we got her, we spent $ 292. in two trips to Petsmart. Then we placed a chewy.com order for ordering things that Petsmart didn’t have for $ 66. We now have everything we need for her except her climbing stand which is on it’s way. We have a couple of months of kitten food, treats, and litter. I will be looking into making her cat food when she is a little older. We decided not to buy her a bed. We made one from a small box and a very soft velour throw blanket. She seems to like it but prefers to sleep on our beds.
Hubby trimmed her nails last night. We thought that would be a nightmare but it wasn’t. I just wrapped her in a towel and petted her head. She didn’t even wince when Hubby cut them. We are grateful that we didn’t have to pay to have them done.
We purchased the Breeze system for a litter box. It take pellets. She wouldn’t use it. So we got a regular litter box with clay litter which she is using. We were hoping she would use the pellet system. But it was a no go. We couldn’t return it because we had opened the pellets that came with it. However in the literature that came with it, I noticed that I can send info plus UPC and receipt and get my money back from the manufacturer if she doesn’t like it which she doesn’t. So I will be doing that. That will be a refund of $ 43.99. It pays to read the literature.
We have had a ban on plastic grocery bags in this state since well before the pandemic. We have to use reusable or buy paper from the store. I don’t know why but I saved every one of them from the store for almost a year before the ban went into effect. I just used empty tissue boxes that I stuffed with them and put them all in a huge cardboard box. They have been sitting in a corner of the basement. I knew someday they would come in handy. Now they are to scoop dirty litter into. I have no idea what I will use when they are gone. Any ideas? But for now I have a stash for a year or two.
My son and West came on Sunday and we all went out to breakfast at our favorite Greek restaurant. That was an expense we chose because I need a treat everyone once in a while rather than cook breakfast for us all the time. We were a little leery of leaving Eloise alone. We figured we might come back to a destroyed house but we didn’t. She slept while we were gone.
HSN sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago about a Joy Mangano Little Steamer that I purchased from them years ago. They have been ordered by the courts to pay a class action settlement to each of us who purchased it because they hid the fact that it spews hot water that could scald you. I will be looking into my options on that and submitting an application for that money.
Yesterday in the mail we got two different checks for about $ 400. dollars as a result of a class action settlement for Philips C-Pap machines that were faulty. We had two machines that were recalled so that Hubby would always have a backup in case one broke. Philips replaced those machines a while ago with brand new ones that were not defective. This money was paid to us yesterday for the damages the defective machines may have caused. We knew that the money would be coming. However we were surprised at how fast it came and how much it was. Most class action settlements pay out $1.- $20. after the lawyers get paid.
My son has a laser pointer that he is going to give us for Eloise. We were going to look into buying one. But he commented that he had one for her. Free is good! He will be back to visit in 2 weeks and will bring it for her. I think Eloise will enjoy it.
I will be reading our electric and gas meter this week and will be interested in how much that bill is. We have had our A/C off for a while now. We have only had to put it back on the past couple of days because it has gotten so hot here.
I cooked a small boneless Butterball turkey last night in the countertop oven. We had a turkey dinner last night. Hubby will cut the rest of the meat on the new slicer today. We will have turkey BLT’s tonight for dinner. The rest will be frozen for future cold cuts.
It may seem to you that we don’t spend a lot of money but we do on the things we all have to pay every day like home maintenance, taxes, gasoline, utilities, water, food, insurances, etc. However we always save so that we can pay cash for all of our purchases that are necessary and unnecessary. We do splurge on the wants that we truly want without worrying about them. Eloise is just one example. But to be honest our wants are far and few between. Hence, we save a lot of money each month so that there will be generational wealth. We started from $ 0.00 all those years ago so the generational wealth is very important to us.
Have you saved any money in the past week or so? Feel free to share those savings with us.
This is 4 month old Eloise. She has already taken to Hubby. We adopted her from a rescue about an hour and 15 minutes ago. Right now while I type this she is sound asleep on his chest. I love her name so Hubby said let’s keep it then.
We have decided we don’t need to exercise any more because we chase her all over the house. She darts so fast.
She is fully vaccinated, has all shots that she should at this age, is spade, and is chipped. She will be be an indoor cat but I am glad she is chipped in case she darts out the door.
It was a busy day because I had a Walmart delivery at 9:30am with canned wet food and some litter. As soon as the things were in the house, I shot up to Petsmart and got a litter box, a scratching post, some toys, a feeding station, and a pet carrier. I forgot a bed and a thing for her to climb on. We will make a bed out of a box with a soft towel. I will get the thing to climb on shipped to me.
Then we went to the rescue and fell in love with her. We are happy that we got there when we did because another couple came in specifically for her right after us. I mean within minutes! Eloise was meant for us!
She went right to the scratching post and knew how to use it which made me happy when we got home. We have a law in New York that you can’t have a cat declawed.
We will be busy over the weekend getting her acclimated to her new home and us. You all have a great weekend!
Hubby and I had doctor’s appointments today. We try to schedule together when we go to the same doctor. That saves us gasoline and wear and tear on the car.
On the way home, we stopped at Niagara Produce to get a 5 lb. bag of potatoes for $ 2.79, two tomatoes @ $3.99 a lb. totaling $ 6.78 , and a 3 count package of Romaine hearts for $ 2.99. Total cost was $ 12.56.
This was all we needed in the way of produce. We have onions that should last a while, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, corn, green beans, etc. that are frozen. We have frozen diced onions as a back up to the fresh ones. I also have other canned vegetables.
I am finding that the fresh produce from N.P. lasts much longer than what I can buy in a grocery store. So it is worth the higher price.
We will watch the Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins tonight on TV. We never order out for football games so we decided there is always a first time. I am picking up a Domino’s pizza before the game tonight. That will be a real treat especially since I don’t have to make it. I will be paying cash out of my grocery money to pay for it.
My grocery money has really accumulated since I have not been doing much shopping over the past few months. That is a good thing so that when it is turkey season, I can purchase a few of them and some other items that are the cheapest at Thanksgiving like butter.
Any of you trying to eat down your freezers so that you can have room for the Thanksgiving and Christmas deals?
Early Sunday morning, I went to Top’s to get meat that was on sale for the lowest prices that I have seen in over 3 years. I purchased 2 whole chickens at $.99 a lb., 2 top round roasts and 1 eye round roast for $ 4.99 a lb.
On Sunday, I roasted the 2 chickens in my turkey pan. This pic was taken when they still had 40 minutes to go. I was just checking the temperature. When they were done, I took all the meat off of one chicken and put the carcass and skin in the crock pot and cooked it until about 7PM to make chicken broth. We had chicken sandwiches for dinner and the rest of the chicken I froze in portions. The other chicken had been chilling in the fridge. I took that one out and took all the meat off and saved a portion of it to make my homemade chicken soup. That carcass and skin went into the crock pot and simmered on low until I got up the next morning. I turned it down to warm while I went to a doctor’s check up which went well.
On my way home, I stopped at Wegman’s for a bag of avocados that looked so good. I have not had them in a while because they have been awful for weeks. It was one of Wegman’s new “Hot Deals” that cost $3.99. I also went to town hall and paid our water bill. It was $ 212. from May 30th through August 30th. I was quite shocked because it was much higher than the same period last year. We used a lot less water with our sprinkler system this year because we had so much rain. But then I realized that the crew that built the wall had used a lot of water to mix the mortar and didn’t turn the water off and on. Ugh!
When I got home I strained the broth and took the bits and pieces of meat and threw those in my broth that I was putting in mason jars. Between the two chickens, I got 7 and 1/2 quarts of bone broth. Late in the afternoon, Hubby cut up the celery and I got some carrots and corn out the freezer. Using those, some meat from the birds, some rice and about 1/2 of the broth, I made a huge pot of soup which we each had a cup for dinner. We will rotate it in between roast beef meals this week.
The broth will get used up quickly so instead of canning it, I decided to freeze it. The rest of the chicken got frozen for future meals.
Two of the beef roasts I put in the freezer. One I cooked last night for a roast beef dinner. I again used the turkey pan with a rack to roast it because it allows the air to circulate around the roast. I roasted some baby potatoes under the rack of beef on the edges of the pan. We had green beans with it.
The roast was very tough so Hubby made sure to cut it across the grain. It was made to look like a regular round roast in the packaging but when I opened it, it was long and narrow. It was edible and had flavor but I am hoping the 2 in the freezer are truly top round roasts because I don’t think this was. Do you have any clue what it could be? When I open the next one, if it looks the same, the two of them will get returned to the store. I told Hubby I will go to Niagara Produce next time they have them on sale. They are always good.
Today Hubby sliced the rest of the meat using our new meat slicer so that we have cold cuts for cold and hot roast beef sandwiches. These roasts at Top’s were not very big but it was all they had.
For entertainment this weekend, we watched our Buffalo Bills play and they won. I am so happy that football is back! They play again this Thursday night which doesn’t give them much rest and they have to travel to Miami for the game. I hope they do well.
It has been hard to get much else done around here because with Hubby’s shoulder healing, I have had to help him a a lot. But it is getting better each day and hopefully soon it will be back to normal.
That is what I have been up to. I will be back when I have something else to talk about.
In the ’90’s both of my sons graduated from their private high school. One son chose to go to a NYS Community College that cost $2500. a semester. He was able to commute and live at home. We paid his tuition as he went. My other son chose to attend an expensive private college doing a 5 year engineering program. He got scholarships for each of his years there. So we paid for his room and board the first year and and an additional $12,500. for his tuition every year. He also took the FAFSA government loans each year with interest that he qualified for. We had too much income for him to get any FAFSA loans without interest. His second year he moved into an apartment with other students and got a job to pay his rent. When we would visit, we would load him up on food at Sam’s Club. He did condo and apartment living until he graduated. My son who graduated from community college chose not to pursue his 4 year degree. Instead he went to work. When he was married and had a daughter, he did what Hubby did and got his degree the hard way pursuing it nights.
Hubby and I worked hard to do this for them. We took our lunches 9 out of 10 days to work. On the 10th day, we would eat from the food trucks near where we both worked. In the winter, we would go out to a reasonably priced restaurant or get takeout Chinese or pizza on one day every 2 weeks. Most of the years that I worked we carpooled. We never really splurged always keeping our eye on making sure all of their tuition was paid before we did. We cash flowed it. We had made a promise to ourselves that we would not use any of the retirement money that we saved for their tuition. Matter of fact Hubby met with people at my son’s college and told them that they had to up the amount of his yearly scholarship or he would have to go somewhere else. He explained that we were retiring soon. They knew that he had been offered 11 college scholarships from other colleges. They must have wanted him badly because they upped the yearly scholarship by quite a bit. Don’t ever be afraid to ask for more than they give your student.
In 1996, the book “The Millionaire Next Door” was first published. I bought the original. It has been published many times since. I read that book cover to cover. It was so interesting. We were well on our way to getting to be one. So we saved every dollar we could before we retired and have saved every dollar we can without going without anything since. We have given our sons and their families money many times through out the years keeping within the government yearly limits.
My eldest son moved to AZ after he married. We had been thinking about retiring for a long time and wanted to get out of the snow and go south. We had never considered AZ. But after visiting our son, we loved it there. The weather was dry and my arthritis loved it. So we had a house built there two years before we retired. I had left my job by then so I was free to fly out and stay for a few weeks at a time which I did a # of times. We had an HOA so my son and his wife made sure our property was kept up. Keeping up two homes with all of the expenses was a pain. Our home in AZ was paid in full by the time we moved there. Our home in the eastern part of NY sold quickly just before Hubby retired. That home had been paid off many years early. We sold it ourselves so there was no commission to a realtor. It was so easy that I think we would do that again.
My youngest son graduated and went to AZ to see how he liked it there and to find a job. I don’t think he liked it there because he did not look really hard for a job. He came back to NY and found a job within days. He still works there. Luckily after he came back, he met his wife. They married about 10 months after we moved to AZ.
Hubby’s retirement party was before we moved. I don’t remember if we moved the next day or a couple of days after. Atlas moved all of our things. We road tripped it there in my car because it was only a couple of years old. I was so proud that I had paid cash for it. Hubby donated his Jeep to the fire department because it had no A/C. We decided we would try to function with one car and we have been doing that for all these years that we have been retired. We had to trade my car when it started giving us problems in AZ. So we bought a minivan and paid cash for that too. We had to get rid of that after we had been here a couple of years. That is when we bought our SUV and paid cash for that. It is now almost 12 years old. We only put about 4800 miles on our car a year. We maintain it well and it is still going strong. But if we have to buy a new one, we will pay cash for that one too.
Those of you who have been following me since I started blogging pretty much know what those years were like in AZ. I started blogging 6 years after we moved there. We loved it there. We had a beautiful home and pool. We had planned on staying there forever.
My granddaughter was born there but unfortunately my son and DIL moved back to the eastern part of New York when she was almost 2 years old. I was heartbroken. Hubby and I decided we would not follow them. A couple of months later my other son called us to tell us that they were having a baby. That was it. We were moving back to NY. Even though it was the 2008 housing crisis that had made the housing market extremely bad in AZ, we decided we would sell. But first we came back to NY to find a house that we loved. We found a builder in this area and contracted to have our present home built. We looked in the Eastern part of the state also but there was no one building there at the time because of the housing crisis. We went back to AZ and called a realtor. She told us it was taking about 9 months to sell a home in their terrible market. There were houses all around us that had been for sale for months and some for a couple of years. We put it on the market and it sold in 36 hours for the price we asked for. It didn’t hurt that it had been showcased on the Phoenix News a few years before.
Then we had the problem that our house wouldn’t be ready till months after ours closed. But that didn’t deter us. We hired Atlas to move our things cross country into storage for 4 months. We road tripped it to this area and had rented a two bedroom apartment and lived there while our home was being built. That way we were here when West was born. Finally we moved into our home. But we had to wait about 2 weeks for our furniture to be delivered. So the first few days in our new home, we slept on an air mattress on the floor. Our sons came out that weekend and moved all of the furniture that we had used in the apartment so we had our bed and a living room chair. Then we went shopping in Rochester to buy furniture that we needed in this home. We had sold some furniture to the buyer in AZ. Furniture that we would not need here.
The rest you have all seen on the blog ever since.
Do we continue to save? Yes, we do. But we live well, eat well, and are happy! We don’t go without what we want but we have few wants. I am one of those people who leave things in online carts for a few days before I buy them. Most of the time, I end up emptying the cart because those items are no longer important to us.
We have reached the age that we no longer do airplane travel. I have been to Disney enough over the last few years and I am done. We will road trip it to travel and to do day trips.
Now I will let you decide if we are now the millionaire next door and or how many millions we have. I am not telling! We do have a small pension and now get Social Security but we have known that both of these things could go away at any time. So we have never relied on them. Nor should you especially if you are younger because I do not believe SS will be there for you. Over the past few generations, people are having less and less children or no children so it isn’t sustainable.
The reason I tell you all this is so that you will know that if you save all your life or even part of your life that your dreams can come true too. It is never too late to pay off credit card debt, mortgage debt, student loan debt, car loan debt, or to start saving for your retirement or any other goal.
I realize that these are tough times right now. But we have had many tough times especially during the Carter administration and many recessions all during our life. There seems to be something every decade. Don’t worry about what is going on around you. Do what is right for you and your family! Take care of your money and it will take care of you!
