Greetings, All.
Old Mt. Woman: Best wishes on your small procedure. I hope it improves whatever is wrong. At “our” age, we can only hope to be a bit better than we were yesterday, we will never be as good as we were ½ a lifetime ago.
My energy left. It has been cool, drizzling and dreary here this past week. Plus, I have had digestive issues for the last two weeks. Today, I have no energy or desire to go outside and work. The gray days get me down, and the other issues have left me with no strength. I realize that if necessary, I cannot have the attitude of, “I’ll deal with the inside/computer/sitting-down stuff today and go outside ‘tomorrow’.” So, I must get off my chair and move outside. I really have no excuse.
About once a month I go to the grocery store and spend over $100 on food. The other weeks, I send Hubby alone to get the minimum replacements and he can keep the bill low. That way I can continue to can with new foods on the shelves, and keep the rest of the grocery bill low.
I have said that we lost money in the 2008 crash due to investments of our retirement funds in real estate. “A” bank literally wants us to repay the $500,000 mortgage dollars they lost; but we lost that much as well from retirement funds. They want more than we are now worth. Now we have just Social Security and Medicare. We really have only $200 a month of flexible spending, so we are very careful with that. No credit cards; but a savings account, and a HELOC, with sufficient amounts to cover an emergency. We have only one debt that we are paying off in addition to our mortgage. I really wish we had more flexible money. It would allow us to build the raised beds, better gardens, and do repairs on this house which has not had an update in 20 years. No solar, or wind, or even a new fence, nor money to pay anyone else to help.
So, for those of you who are thinking about moving to someplace to be self-sufficient. Allow yourself more money to use. There will be too much to do and not enough time or money to do it.
Best Wishes.