Retired? When?

Mostly everyone I've spoken to here at the "age restricted" community have said the same thing...when did we find time to work? I'm guessing a lot of what we now do, we didn't or we managed to somehow squeeze it in to our daily lives.

Been awhile since I blogged, but the husband managed to fall downstairs the end of Oct., then fall again, then need surgery and since it was a soft tissue injury, could not drive and couldn't get around very well until just a few weeks ago.

We also live just a few miles away from the area where Superstorm Sandy hit. Just in our immediate area, 450 homes were affected! The churches in our town and surrounding gathered together to help them out with volunteers who came from out of state, and they had to be fed and housed. God bless them!!! New volunteers are coming this week from PA. Yup, 4 months later, still working on these poor people's homes. It's amazing how wonderful people can be!

So, my hint for now is go to couponmom.com and print out lots of coupons!

Life in a 55+ Community

We weren't exactly sure this is where we wanted to spend our "Golden Years" but here in NJ community living is usually 55+. We looked in Delaware and actually found several places we'd like to live in a community with all ages, but when it came down to a decision, I just could not move so far away from the "grands". So, here we are. It's a fairly new community so there's lots of waving going on since no one's exactly sure they know who you are or can remember. Some of the people have been here for almost 3 years and have found friends, some moved their friends in and some their family here. The Clubhouse is wonderful, lots of activities, however I've been told that once the builder is out of here, things may take a dive. We'll see!

We've begun the pastime of checking out the neighbors, their comings and goings. Especially funny is how the recycling bins come out around the same time, then go in and then the garbage comes out, but you never see anyone doing this!
Mostly I look around the clubhouse and think...am I really this old?

How It All Began

As my dear departed mother used to say after she and my dad retired "We're 2 cents away from Alpo" when asked how her finances were. Now, they both had pensions and both were collecting Social Security so I found her comment odd. Well, now I'm among those who are on "fixed income" due to my husband's retirement and my reluctance to get a job. What better way to honor her than to share all the advice we've received and ways to save a buck with my fellow baby boomers! Advice will be both real and tongue in cheek, it's up to you to decide which is which.

So far we've been advised to go out to lunch instead of dinner because it's less money but you get the same food. Sounds reasonable!

When you visit a friend's house, take a roll of their toilet paper from under their sink. (Thanks Angie!)

We just joined Costco and to welcome us as "Executive Members" we received coupons for free items, one of which was a rotisserie chicken. So, for no cost (other than the membership fee) we had dinner, chicken sandwiches the next day, then I made soup so we had another dinner, and there was still enough for lunch. Mom would have been so proud.

So, stay tuned as we navigate our way through the land of retirement! We would enjoy hearing from you as well!