During this very trying time with more and more outside influences coming our way, we need to have a plan on what we are going to do to keep not only costs down, but how we are going to make sure any savings we have for our retirements are safe.
I got my bill for February's electrical costs and it was down by about $20.00 from the month before. Not a great deal, but it does show that using small appliances can save you a bit of money. What I really need to work on is getting Harvey to make sure the back light in the basement if off. He seems to have a slight problem with this. Another way I can safe a bit on electrical costs is to perhaps start paying attention to phantom electrical users and shut those off as well. The bad thing about that is then my mini computer attached to the television has a bit of a problem reconnecting, the same can be said for the regular TV box. There are some other ways of saving on electric that I will be practicing over the next few months.
On to our natural gas usage. Winters are tough up here and so that bill usually is pretty large during winter months and not so bad at all during spring, summer and fall. I prefer to be comfortable and so things will stay as normal on this area. It would be lovely to have a fireplace, but the cost of putting one in and the wood to keep it going might be a bit high. I would definitely purchase a place that actually had a woodburning fireplace, but I rather doubt any condos have this feature.
Water bills are the next item on the list. We did go down this month which is good, but things are still fairly high. Most are items that the city charges like sewage pipe replacement fees (good because at one point when the city replaced their lines you were responsible for the cost in front of your home), and a few other costs as well. We will never get rid of the garbage pick up fee or the recycle pick up fee, so we may as well get used to that.
Property taxes will be going up this year, we just don't know by how much and that is pretty scary. Still this is lower than many places in Saskatchewan and we will just have to manage.
We got a letter yesterday about our extra medical insurance. That is going up once again as well. Harvey turns 75 this year and I turn 70 so of course the cost is going up. Bad thing is as costs for this rise, less and less is covered.
Groceries are going up and as we all know shopping sales, and using everything up is pretty much the only way to control this in our budgets.
We can also make our own dressings, spice mixes, baking mixes. Save our bones from roasts, chickens, hams and make our own broths for soup.
Dried beans, peas and lentils are great sources of protein so having a few more meatless meals a month save us some money as well.
Leftovers can be made into another wonderful meal or used as is for lunches.
Cans of tuna and salmon are great in the pantry, they can be made into sandwich fillings, casseroles, patties, or main dish salads with the addition of a few vegetables and pasta.
If something you purchase starts getting a bit soft, cut it up and freeze or dehydrate it. Those can be used in stews and stir-fry's. Nothing should go to waste if at all possible.
Plant a garden and learn how to can, freeze and dehydrate, forage for berries if possible. Put the word out for fruit like apples, here so many have more apples and such than they can use and if you are willing to pick they are more than happy for you to come and take.
I have started to make some of my own salves from the herbs I grow or the "weeds" I forage. I have also made my own lip balm which is awesome and so very easy to make.
Clothing is mended or refashioned in this house. Some of my clothing is probably 20 years old and still in excellent shape. I purchased classic styles and if I do sew anything for myself I do the same classic style.
Now the only thing I really worry about right now is our retirement savings. Most of my deposits are in those areas that get a certain amount of interest every year. I do not take big chances with my money. Harvey on the other hand sometimes takes a bit of a risk with his larger deposits. Sometimes this works very well, but with the up and down (mostly down lately) of the stock market things could get a bit touchy. I am working on him to get things put into safer investments. We shall see what happens.
What ways are you going to fight the rising costs and possible losses to your retirement savings?
Everybody have a wonderful evening.
God bless.
Eggs are awfully high but we like them and they are still an affordable protein. The dogs an egg a day and we will continue that. I found a local rancher about 2 miles from me that is selling eggs at a more reasonable price -in a cute little booth. I just have to get up early. The two times I drove by, they were already sold out.
ReplyDeleteMy husband leaves lights on Grrrrr. Just today I was thinking about getting a timer. It’s this one lamp he leaves in. In the summer, when it’s a Trillion degrees out, we close the blinds and curtains and it feels like we’re in a cave. Last year I bought those battery lights that hang around your neck to reading etc and that really worked. I can’t see cooling the house with the lights on.
You have such good tips and ideas.
The Resident Chef does his best to stretch every bit of meat we buy but even that we're doing with less. Last night he made a really nice canned salmon meal using 2 cans and that will be enough for us for a week. He'll freeze some just so we don't get tired of it. Today he made a nice veggie soup and already has put four quarts of it into the freezer. I've discovered I need to watch my cholesterol so our egg consumption is going down by half, not that we ate very many in the first place. Being in an apartment means our heat/lighting/water is included in our rent (luckily we were grandfathered in before they started charging individually for those things). We change our clothes when we come home and wear flannel pants around home (cheap dresses from Giant Tiger for me in the summer) so our 'good' clothes are lasting us for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteYou have it all in the bag, being mindful of what you use and spend is the only way, ensuring no food is wasted and items and clothes are used rather than discarded. We have plugs on electrical items, which attach to our Alexa and we turn off most things, not everything as you say some items need to stay on.
ReplyDeleteAll of your ideas are great. Hopefully most of us have already followed them for years and we are used to being a bit frugal.
ReplyDeleteDon't move any funds right now - because that is a sure fire loss. Leave things alone, and it will go back up - it always does.
Lasty BREATHE! Stressing helps nothing.
This is a great blog post, Jackie. We are doing our best to stay frugal in these hard times. That is great that your electric bill went down by $20, using smaller appliances is definitely working. Our property taxes went down a small amount last year and stayed the same this year, so I was glad about that. I just made a tuna pasta salad yesterday to use up a can of tuna from the pantry. All good things to try and save money.
ReplyDeleteYou have some marvellous ideas to save money. All our regular bills are increasing too on April 1st. The area with most 'wriggle room' is always food shopping and with meticulous planning, careful shopping and eating mostly plant based meals, we are staying within budget. Just...
ReplyDeleteA great post Jackie 👍
Angie x
I understand the worry about what is happening around us. Prices will always be high I think from now on...housing cost has almost tripled since I moved here to the country outside Ottawa. We are told to eat healthy but that food...the rainbow stuff, is the most expensive you can find. I don't know how seniors are managing at all if they are on their own. Kind of a bleak future for the younger folks. But you are on top of things, Jackie. I see myself in your words as I do many of the same things. I always have to check Tony's room in the basement as he leaves the light on there. But he's not getting down there as much these days. Anyway, very cold here but nice to see the sun.
ReplyDeleteLike you I invest quite conservatively and not in the stock market. I tried that but it didn't work for me, so I sold up my shares. My two small pensions are government ones and final salary based, so shouldn't be affected too much by fluctuations in the market, when I do finally get them. I'm planning on opening another ISA (Individual Tax Free Savings Account) before our government reduce the tax free amount you can put in them and intend to move some savings around to get the best rates, but otherwise I'm not doing too much else at the moment apart from reducing my spending and saving as much as I can.
ReplyDelete