I Found Out The Secret To Having A Successful Retirement Life Despite The Current Cost-Of-Living Crisis.

 Apparently there are some retirees out there who have discovered, as I have, that there is a formula to follow that will have you successfully surviving the current global crisis-of-living. What is it, you might ask? Well, watch this CBS Evening News video and listen very carefully to the second older woman, Chrissy Berker (?) the news correspondent (Skyler Henry) interviews. Chrissy casually says she and her husband are getting by. They are able to take a few trips/vacations, buy tires for their car...two things unheard of from the many struggling senior citizens. The first interview with Barbara Hawk, who strictly is living on her fixed income thinks the solution is to just cut down on expenses, do without and chase after sales and bargains. That frugality system may have worked in the past but we are into a whole new ballgame now. New rules apply and they're not pretty. Please watch the entire 4.46 minutes.

Did you hear what Chrissy sited as to why she and her husband are doing OK?  In addition to their pension and social security checks both are WORKING. Chrissy and her husband both work part time. The extra money is making all the difference. The extra cash is coming in handy. Sort of a rainy day fund that is allowing them to live a bit better and take in a few extra benefits along their way.  

Isn't it a coincidence that hubby and I just came back from a little road trip and before that we bought new tires for BOTH our cars? I had often wondered as to why hubby and I were doing fairly well in this current cost-of-living crisis while others are not. What was the difference? I realized my husband is working part time and that income combined with our own pension and social security checks, have us doing OK. We're getting by. BINGO! Having that extra side job, despite being in your 60s or 70s (we're really still young you know!) is how America's retired senior citizen are currently making their ends meet. (Also, being debt free doesn't hurt either).

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Road Trip and What I Learned Along The Way

 Hubs and I have been talking about taking a road trip for a very long time. We finally had some time off. We had the opportunity. And we had some extra cash to just jump in the car and see the landscape. As a side note I'd like to say that The Great Depression is alive and very unwell in the United States. Tons of closed stores, closed restaurants, closed hotels and the absence of tourists can make for a very sad adventure. Nonetheless, we made reservations to see the real Amish Country up in Lancaster, PA. Much to our surprise the hotel was actually fully booked as we managed to score the last available room . Hubs and I, when we aren't RVing, like to stay at the Hilton Tru Hotels. They always accommodate customers who travel with their pets (dogs and cats). Plus the room rate ($92 a night) always includes a free, delicious breakfast! Coffee, tea, hot chocolate are free all day and night long, which can come in handy at times.

Our hotel stay included access to a heated, indoor pool, exercise room, snack bar etc.

This was the view (of the many farms) from the back of the hotel.

Check in was 3PM and after we were settled the front desk recommended this dog park we could take our little "puppy" to. It was located on a local college property and offered some very heathy walking trails (as well as some nice scenery). Afterwards, we stopped at a local Amish restaurant, specializing in steaks, meatloaf and smashed burgers. We ordered two burgers to-go, baked potato, steamed broccoli  (no dogs allowed inside the restaurant) and had an amazing dinner ($31 with tax & tip). 

When we got back to our room we noticed there was an Aldi located in the back parking lot. To get there was within walking distance. After paying another $24 the next day for lunch, hubby took a walk to the Aldi grocery store and bought that nights dinner, as well as snacks, bottled water and food for the ride back home. Our hotel room had a mini fridge so all in all, it was a very good thing!

The next day we rode around the area. We found an actual Amish Village we could tour and visit.  Across the way was an authentic eatery, Katie's Kitchen complete with a funky statue at the front entrance. We had that lunch there but realized if we didn't watch our bottom line we'd go over budget.

We also found a small, picturesque little town, called Strasburg (click here) just outside the tourist area. Hubby and I took a walk through the quaint little town. We found a charming little coffee shop, The Speckled Hen and sat in their (almost empty) patio sipping a hot capacinno, enjoying the blossoming of spring.

The best part, however, was just being able to sit in our car and drive around the area taking in the views and all the many, many farm acres all around us. The Great Depression isn't hitting the Amish as much as it is hitting us regular folk. Our capitalistic society is crumbling right in front of our eyes. The Amish, who don't even power their homes or equipment with electricity (they rely on propane) are totally self-sufficient and support each other from womb to tomb. They grow their own food, raise their own livestock, make their own clothes and depend on the Lord Jesus for all their good fortunes. Maybe it's something we outsiders may be learning for the very first time.

Here's a video I made of our recent ride through Amish Country. I re-started my original YouTube channel, The Frugally Retired Couple and will be again making my videos. The pandemic is over. My cancer treatments are over. I think it's time for me to get back in the game and start enjoying my life again. Many, many changes are going to be coming my way. Hubby and I used this time away to reflect on our lives and start making adjustments to it as we move forward. Stay tuned. Perhaps we all need to re-adjust our lives, our lifestyles and the way we think about life, money and the world around us. 

Bottom line, the entire trip (including gas and tolls) 3 days (2 night hotel), restaurant meals and miscellaneous expenses cost us a total of $435. We got back around $500 in a tax refund, so our journey was not a budget buster. We thought it to be a good use of our 'newfound' money. 

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Wellness Week

 Hubs and I are taking this upcoming week off. The TV is turned off. Our cell phones are shut down. No news will be good news. We need a break from just about everything. It's been a bit too much.

See you all in a few days.

More Outrageous Prices And My Solutions.

All the snow has melted. Temperatures are warming up and this past cruel winter is nothing more than a bad dream. This is when I start making plans for the spring and the summer. First up, getting out our RV and hitting some of our old camping grounds. I logged onto our multi-year KOA membership and proceeded to book our usual week-long spring camp site in The Outerbanks in North Carolina. Our normal fee for the week was $65 a night, bringing the total for six nights (seven days) to $390.

Enter heart attack here!!

I know most everything has risen in price BUT I wasn't expecting a 215% increase in pricing!! KOA raised a one night fee to $205. Yup. You read that right!! A week at this resort would now cost $1,230!!! The camping spot isn't even paved. It's messy grass! And to make matters worse, they only had one site left!!! Am I the only brokester in the RVing world? Needless to say we won't be staying at many KOAs campgrounds this spring or summer. Thankfully there are oodles and oodles of state and federal (almost free!) campgrounds available. Granted we won't be getting many amenities, like WIFI or cable, sewer service or running water, but this is camping, isn't it? We will survive.

Next up, I was scouring outdoor concerts that hubby and I love to attend over the summer months. It's been a while since we ventured up to Tanglewood, out in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. Last time we were there, we attended an outdoor concert of Harry Connick Jr. given out on the lawn. We brought our own beach chairs, packed a picnic and for $6.50 per ticket we had a lovely time. 

I logged onto the Tanglewood website and discovered that Bonnie Raitt was scheduled to close out the 2025 Season in August. I chose the lawn section again and discovered that the tickets now cost $89 per person. I was at first a bit shocked but decided it would still be a great evening out and proceeded to buy the tickets anyway. By the time Tanglewood added in their service fees ($18 X 2) and online service fees ($8), two tickets to "hear" Bonnie Raitt in concert (you can't see the stage from the lawn) cost a whopping $222. That's two hundred and twenty two dollars to sit in a beach chair and hear Bonnie sing. I'd get the same results if I sat in my backyard and played my radio loud. Needless to say, I scrapped this disappointing non-event.

That orange band across the bottom of the stage shot is the lawn area. You bring your own beach chair and scout out a decent spot. If the theater overbooks, oh well. 

Back to the internet. I surfed some more and found a great concert deal! Bard College (click here) was sponsoring a free concert starring the West Point Band at their infamous Fisher Center Theater. When I looked at the seating, I was able to score two free tickets, orchestra center on a Saturday night. I'm not much of a West Point fan but hubby is, so he is looking forward to en enjoyable, FREE night out to a concert.

The Fisher Center at Bard College is an architectural achievement. The Fisher Center was designed by the distinguished architect Frank Gehry, whose other projects include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Concerts are given both outside on the lawn or inside the fabulous theater!

Thankfully, our local community offers 14 free concerts over the summer at two of the local parks here. Granted the bands aren't famous BUT it's good music, at a beautiful outdoor park and the price is right. Lastly, in addition to our camping trips, outdoor concerts and local community pool ($75 season senior membership fee), I'll be starting up my veggie garden again. I got a great deal on Burpee seeds. Normally they sell between $2.50 and $3.50 a packet. I got them for $1.50 per packet at Job Lots. Paid $15 for all these seeds rather than my $35 directly from Burpee. Good deal!

looks like good eating this season!!

Hubby (and me) relaxing at a campground in Rhode Island (within walking distance to the ocean)

Our community pool. Very rarely crowded!

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Saving Money Doesn't Stop On A Holiday. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Happy St. Patrick's Day. I am sure there are a lot of people out there who go out on this holiday and celebrate. A quick look at some of those celebratory prices can make a person change their mind.

Here's a menu from a local tavern where I live. At $21 per person, if hubby and I were to go out to eat, our dinner alone would cost $42. Throw in a few beers, tax and tip and we'd be looking at a very expensive way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

I did a quick search of our local supermarket grocery stores and saw this two day advertisement:

In addition to the corned beef sale, cabbage was only .19 cents a pound, five pound bags of potatoes were 2 for $4.00 and a 2 pound bag of carrots was $1.00 off bringing the carrot total down to $1.49. If my calculations are correct I bought a 4.5 pound corned beef for only $8.95. The cabbage came to .98 cents, one bag of russet potatoes came to $2.00 and the carrots came to $1.49. All totaled together my St. Patrick's Day dinner shopping total came to $13.42. There was enough to feed six (6) people bringing the price per person for a St. Patty's Day meal to only $2.24. Lesson learned: look/shop for the sales, cook at home and have a pint or two on me! Tura lura.

Here's my receipt. Note: I also bought milk and cheese, but you get the idea.

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Buying A New Wardrobe After A Forty Two Pound Weight Loss

 I'm even ashamed to say I had forty two pounds to lose, but there it is.......over the past year (and during my chemo treatments) I lost a whopping forty two pounds of ugly fat (to put it bluntly). I shouldn't have had the weight to lose in the first place but once I turned seventy, the weight just popped up (and on to me!) outta nowhere. Besides, cancer loves, loves, loves fat and being overweight is just an invitation for cancer to come and haunt you. So, perhaps it was a blessing that I lost all this unnecessary weight. 

In any event, NONE of my clothes fit me anymore. Not even my PJs. I needed a whole new wardrobe from top to bottom. At first I thought I would go to Goodwill and start from there but in reality, I really didn't want second hand clothes. Not at this time. I wanted all new clothes. Unfortunately, my wallet didn't agree with me. Then a miracle happened. I got this notice in my email:

It was right around Christmas time and I had once shopped at a Kohl's a while back. I had no idea I had earned five dollars in Kohl's Cash but I quickly learned how to use it, earn more and stock up on savings towards a new wardrobe. Since it was also the holiday season, Kohl's was also offering 15% to 20% off on all new purchases in addition to the $5.00 Kohl's Cash.

I needed a very simple new wardrobe. The first being I needed a pair of jeans. I had gone down from a size 16 to a 12.  I also needed several tee shirts, since that's basically all that I wear. So, I bought 4 short sleeve tee shirts, 4 long sleeve tee shirts and 4 V-neck, long sleeved tee shirts. I also needed a hoodie sweat jacket, a pair of workout stretch pants, a pair of comfy flannel PJ bottoms and an actual flannel night shirt. I'm a very simple girl (LOL!) I am very happy and proud to say that I purchased ALL of the above, on sale, at an estimated almost 50% off of Kohl's pricing! Remember, each time I made a purchase I had earned an additional $5 off. Here are just some screenshots of some of the new clothes I bought. 

Here's what some of my invoices looked like when it came time to pay my bill. Those $19.99 PJ bottoms, pictured above, were reduced to $12.99 but when I used my Kohl's Cash and promo codes, the final price only came to $4.14 (there was another item in my order, so technically the PJ bottoms were only $2.00!!!) I was saving so much money at Kohl's I decided to buy some of my Christmas gifts there. By doing so, I was able to score more Kohl's Cash. The $5.00 Kohl's Cash kept rolling in!!

 

The only problem I had (you knew there would be a glitch) was the price of jeans. I am very specific when it comes to jeans because I wear them every day and I wanted quality. I usually wear the straight leg Levi Strauss jeans and Kohl's pricing was a bit high:

So, I priced the same jeans over at Amazon and they were a whole lot cheaper (by $13.66 cheaper). Click here if you would like to purchase the same pair directly from Amazon. 

All in all, I purchased a whole new wardrobe from Kohl's for only $128.45 (before tax) and a pair of jeans from Amazon (click here) for only $28 (before tax). Kohl's has a great new set up where you can purchase the items you want online and then get notified by Kohl's email when they were ready for pickup in the store. No shipping charges. No fees. No messy trying on clothes or waiting for a delivery only to make a return. I knew exactly what size I would need in all my tee shirts, PJs and pants. I always make sure when I order from Amazon that the item includes free returns! The jeans fit me on the first try! 

Here are just some examples of what my invoices looked like (Note: the invoices also contain some of the Christmas gifts I purchased). You can SEE all the savings.

Due to the economy, Kohl's has been closing some of their stores around the United States. Twenty Seven stores to be exact are set to close in 2025, click here for more info. Thankfully, ours is still open and will remain open for the near future. In all fairness, I haven't set foot inside a department store like Kohl's or a Macy's or a J.C. Penny's or a Sears in decades. When I first walked inside the Kohl's store I couldn't believe how beautiful it was.  All those gorgeous things to buy, buy, buy!! Thankfully, I remained calm and stuck to my wardrobe replacement errand and holiday shopping. If you have never been to a Kohl's I would highly recommend it. Their products are of decent quality and their pricing is competitive. I only wish them the best. I am very thankful and grateful to them for helping me afford a whole new wardrobe. Plus my husband got a great holiday gift through Kohl's as well as my granddaughter (I bought her two collectible dolls from the Wicked selection). Summer is coming and I am going to need a new pair of shorts. 

Hello Kohl's! Remember me? 

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Getting My Last Chemo Injection. My Cancer Treatment Journey Is finally Over. Now What?

 I got my last cancer (chemo) injection yesterday afternoon. And with that, I got to ring the bell. All the nurses came over to me and gave me a hug. The infusion room filled up with applause. I did the scan. I had a slight scare and had to have a biopsy. Thankfully, all came back negative. As of right now, I am 100% cancer free. I have to take a maintenance drug for the next five to ten years in hopes (and prayers) no cancer ever comes back. For now, I am in remission but as all cancer survivors will tell you: the next step in their cancer journey is the fear of recurrence. Will my cancer come back? If so, where will it be? What vital organ will be in danger? If my cancer comes back it will be a Stage IV (4) with no chance of a cure. The medical profession will just keep pumping my little body with more and more drugs to simply keep me alive.

I'm not complaining. I'm certainly grateful to God to be where I am today. It was a brutal journey and one that I wanted to quit many, many times. But here I am. Ready to connect back with the world and make the most of the remaining life God has granted me.

And so it begins:

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