Cutting Back
I've hit that stage in life where I need to learn to cut back, financially speaking. I'm finding that a tad difficult. Here are my thoughts on a funny situation I'm considering.The closest grocery story has a weekend sale (2 days)only. I hate shopping on weekends. Just a half dozen items are deeply discounted, one of them being a frozen pizza. Well four frozen pizzas for $10. I have eaten one frozen pizza in the last five years, not a fan. HOWEVER, $2.50 for a dinner just blows my mind. Actually I probably would get two to three meals so financially it makes sense to buy, right? I can always add added flavor on the top. It's probably very unhealthy to eat frozen pizza, right? For some reason this whole situation makes me feel like a poor person. Poor, fat, sassy and happy. Sure beats $17 to $20 for delivery, right.
Frozen shrimp is also on a nice sale but I have no qualms or guilt for buying that. It is a wonderful staple to have on hand.
I'm trying to grow my own food but the education is ridiculously expensive. By the time I produce a tomato, I'm going to have $79 invested in that one tomato mind you. A few years down the road I'm sure I will have conquered gardening dilemmas.
This December I was supposed to fully retire but last week I renegotiated to squeeze out another year of extra income so more time to learn how to cut back. Much less responsibility, half the salary in 2019. This will be my first year in many years NOT to prepare taxes for people and corporations. Feels oddly wierdly good.
Comments (21)
2 friends I've known since high-school married and had two kids who are now adults. Through all their real estate investments (good and bad) they both retired last year and announced how nice it was... I asked what they do with all that free time.
What free time? was the reply. They both have part-time jobs to pay their bills!!
Go to Whole Foods Market & buy a roasted organic chicken for $10. That's enough for 4 meals. Canned corn & carrots with rice (real rice that you cook) gets a meal for around $4. It's food and not ingredients made in a laboratory and labeled frozen pizza.
I've had a bunch of frozen pizzas in the freezer now for awhile, but with my high blood pressure, I'm not as prone to be lazy about making myself something nutritional. The frozen crockpot dinners I've made have come in handy, are more nutritious and probably take as much time to heat from a frozen state as the pizza, without all the junk. Add a veg and I'm good to go.
I agree on the shrimp - easiest and quickest meal to prepare, imo.
So, if you haven't had frozen pizza in five years, I'd forego it - especially four of them. But, that's just my opinion. Especially if you don't really like it, and it's pretty much empty calories (and lots of carbs).
Congrats on negotiating another year for yourself! Sounds like an excellent plan while you get used to retirement.
I am still eating tomatoes and strawberries. I can't believe strawberries are still sweetening, outdoors, and it's nearly November.
I've my garlic planted for next year. But these are all cheap things to grow, and then you can seedsave from your first crop for future crops. I gave peppers growing too, I don't think they'll have time to ripen, so I might just save the seeds and plant earlier next time.
I'm sure there already is, or would be an interest in, a group interested in gardening which could meet to share ideas and learn from. We have a group here called giy.ie . Check their website for tips.
Finally, you could make a pizza base with flour and water, and put anything you wanted as a topper for a lot less than even the reduced price, and with none of the baddies either. There are ways and means :-)
Over all I'm a very healthy eater but every now and then I like to be lazy. I got those frozen pizzas today, I had intended to get the shrimp and some ribs on sale too BUT the butchers were out and one told me they just knocked the price of chicken down and I got like six pounds of chicken thighs (my favorite part) for two dollars, what a deal. Came home separated it and froze it before going to the festival.
My gardening is expensive because I'm killing more than I'm growing for the last many months. I also bought two raised garden beds that were pretty spendy. Then I had compost delivered because the compost I'm making is going to take several months. Nothing is cheap YET. I will get there, I have confidence that I will figure this all out. I'm living on you tube with gardening and I was never a you tube girl.
I finally sprouted an avacado seed after six failed attempts only to learn unless I get it grafted it will not produce fruit. One step forward, two steps back, that's the road I travel.
Also I've planted a lot of seeds from the foods I buy - and they are sprouting all over but I forgot to put little signs of what they are so I have no clue what I'm growing now. I won't do that anymore, I'm tagging everything.
I reuse baggies too. I don't have to I just choose to live by the code waste not, want not. Wish I could have some chickens but then the neighbors would shoot me.
I just got some used scaffolding planks for my raised bed. A friend stuck them together.
Try growing the easiest to grow plants first, to give you confidence. You can then get more adventurous.
As for gardening, I planted potatoes, nothing but potatoes, and give most of them to the neighbors, and tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers came back. And I have a few elderly neighbors, and I ll help out a bit cutting lawns, and have some fresh baking given back as a thank you. Its surprizing what abit of good will return,
With some things, just try it. Mum never grew tomatoes. I just started some, asked a friend for advise and looked up on advise how to grow them - we had lots of tomatoes all autumn and I have a good bit in the freezer for soups and sauces over the winter.
Starting up growing food will cost money. I also do my own chicken and beef stock for soups, we got half a pig of a farmer's friend of mine and we just needed more storage room. We have a big freezer in the garage now. Mum and me build a raised bed this year with blocks (again, cost a bit of money) and next year I want to grew potatoes (in growing bags, I won't even try to get anything in my bad clay soil going and growing bags sounds like a LOT less work). Btw. these will have to be stored somewhere as well. (I saw an interesting article about using an old chest freezer without electricity for it).
Coming to the point now
I'm interested in aquaponics/hydroponics and would love one of the HUGE half way buried, solar green houses - for the first one, I would pay some money to do a course and get some info and the 2nd one won't happen very likely.
Best of luck with it and most importantly, enjoy.
Fake news and fake advertsing is taking over.
Think most ppl experienced this wherein @times we need to "cut back" I had my little green house for my veggies and it is really helping my finances ...
I do a lot of cooking and love it, however once in awhile I simply don't feel like it so it is nice to have something to fall back on. You may eat perfectly healthy but it sure hasn't helped your mean attitude presentation. sheesh.