Cutting Corners

So, I'm currently sleeping a bit closer to the ground, as the house closing gets nearer, we are getting rid of things we're not taking. Our platform bed needs replacing so yesterday David took it apart, so the mattress is now on the floor and the dogs think it's a giant dog bed. My dresser is gone too for the next load to the dump, along with some other old and not fixable things. We'll do without until we find a suitable replacement, until the bedroom is done at the new house it's hard to figure out what we want- and what will fit. 

One of the things we've been doing is examining what we need as opposed to what we want. As we move closer to retirement age that is an ongoing discussion. Everything is not much, until you start adding it up as a monthly bill. We'll be keeping our vehicles awhile longer - my next car will not be a newer one. With all the driving I do any vehicle is trashed within 3 years (I've had this car 2 1/2 years that I bought with 2000 miles on it, as of yesterday it had 109,000). Since we seen to have good cell service at this new house we're trying out ditching our landline and just adding a 3rd phone. We've discovered that David's favorite toy -his watch phone -gets no reception out at the house, but my phone does - for 40 bucks I bought a cheap smart phone and $20 a month will add the line to our plan, done. The internet will be hooked up this week and it will JUST be wireless service. We're ditching the satallite, cable, etc TV. We've found that most of the time we watch either Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. Our new internet service has something similar for 10 dollars a month so we're trying that out too. Our current satallite plan is over a hundred a month - it is not worth the 6 programs we watch a month on it!

After we get settled and the financial dust settles we are also going to be looking into solar panels - have you seen them lately? They're not the big,clunky panels of yesterday are they? There's so many alternate power sources out there, the start up can be a bit pricey but I think in the long run it will pay for itself. As we head to our sixties we're trying to figure out the rest of our lives - like most people we do not have a formalized retirement plan. We had many years we were living close to the bone and with all of our moving around I've never been any where long enough to do a company retirement. But I think that's most of us these days, no longer do you get that golden egg from the company when you retire and with so many places going bankrupt that's not even a guarantee. What we're really start to look into is low cost living, so if we do end up having to do it all on social security, we can. I had a patient years ago that her family had it all figured out as none of them could afford senior living or a nursng home. They all chipped in for a large house in an area that was affordable. When someone became of retirement age, they sold off and then moved into this house. The younger relatives took turns living in the downstairs apartment to do the shopping, driving,etc.. It worked beautifully. And I do think that's where we are heading in the future, back to the past where families took care of each other, not the nursing homes or assisted living.