Friday Fiscal Wellness Check April 11, 2025
Thank you so much for all the kind words and celebrating my retirement with me. I found that I'd have just replied thank you after each comment so didn't reply to comments. Know though it meant a lot to share with you all and to read the lovely comments. One more paycheck and things get real. In May I start paying a huge health insurance premium, my regular bills, and am going to cash flow for as long as possible as the volatility in 401K plans have hit mine hard. I'm fortunate to have options, but doesn't mean I have anything spare to waste. Here's my recap of Friday, April 3-Thursday, April 10.
Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs
- Meal planned for the week to keep groceries to just essentials.
- I walked to the grocery store saving gas to both mail a bill and for said essentials ensuring based on weight I didn't buy impulse buys. I figured if there were truly any great deals, I could go back.
- I took advantage of loss leaders when I stopped for dog food after The audiologist. The other foreseeable additional need was coffee, so stopped on route home at Aldi for both the flavored I like and espresso brick at the lowest prices I can find.
- My daughter picked up a few rock bottom loss leaders at her local store for me including 5# of flour for 99¢.
- Bought another reduced rotisserie chicken which yields enough meat for two meals plus leftovers. Made broth from the bones and got the rest of the meat to make third meal of hearty soup,+ jar of broth for freezer.
- We saved money by eating at home after the play, but splurged on guacamole and whole grain chips.The play was a belated birthday gift from my older daughter. We saw The Mousetrap.
Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls
- Loaded receipts and played on MS Rewards
- I got a few gems at the library bag sale, $3 a bag. My son and younger daughter found too much! These book sales become a revolving door of donate, buy, donate, but support the effort of the Friends of the Library and the extra events offered in the community so happy to participate. I'm not happy I added to my clutter.
Then, there are often other things that impacted my check book that came up without much planning or notice, or an all out splurge.
- I spent a small fortune ordering in pizza on Tuesday, my last work day. I wanted to thank all for the lovely party and with gifts I received towards gardening, I figure this was just a bit of a budget shift.
- Fri - pork chop, baked sweet potatoes, cooked apples, and Caesar salad
- Sat- chorizo and potato burritos, made extra for freezer
- Sun- Chicken wild rice soup
- Mon- Forgot I was ordering pizza next day and made homemade flatbread with salad.
- Tues - leftover pizza from work and salad
- Wed- Mock lasagna with medium shell pasta
- Thurs- Leftovers but also made Chicken tortellini Alfredo soup since I had broth made and a partial bag of tortellini (brought some to SIL and brother)
You are doing really good. Son 2 in military lost $11 K over weekend in his retirement. It's in govt funds safest place he could put it... He was shaking in his shoes as he is looing at being disabled. Said worse would be he sell his home, motorcycle(trike) (combat vets bike club) and move home. I told him to bring bike home, cheaper to drive to town for errands than any of our trucks.
ReplyDeleteYOU ARE DOING GOOD !!!
It's sickening to see what I lost in a single quarter. Duffy e it to say it was more than I earned in an entire year and nearly as much as two years. But, I am not going to panic.
DeleteI am studiously not looking at how much we lost in our retirement accounts, but that's a position we can only take because we don't need to tap into it right now. For folks just retiring, or my parents who pull money out each year to live off of, it's incredibly painful. When I received my severance last year, I kept a ton of money in cash (CDs), knowing we would need to cash flow two kids in college. That has really made a huge difference. I could have made some money in the market (although, most would be gone now), but the peace of mind has been worth it. I earn some money each month in interest, and the money is readily available and doesn't require selling any stock right now.
ReplyDeleteWe are going through a ton of groceries right now, and I need to pause for a bit & see if it's just a price increase driving our higher bills (hard to do much about that, save for trying to find cheaper options), or if we are wasting in some areas, can move to cheaper alternatives, etc. - Hawaii Planner
The funds in CDs are what will get me, hopefully, through the immediate and near future. But as you said, I need to find lower options in so many areas and keeping $20-$30 a week in my budget is necessary.
DeleteMy friend is lightly into stocks, she lost hundreds. I lost maybe 10k at one point and then it went up again, but others are losing more and it is worse :( It is hard to cut back on food/groceries sometimes, so the next option is cutting back on wants. but i think you'll be ok!!
ReplyDeleteI hope so, but can't be panicking. I'm just going to shift timing and change my want priority.
DeleteDave Ramsey said this week that the stock market will go back up and not to worry, and I hope he is right. Kudos to you on walking to the grocery store, that is terrific and so good for you.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed reactions to Dave Ramsey. He's a little too "boxy" and has a twinge of prosperity gospel vibe going on for my taste. I do hope in this case he's right.
DeleteWe lost a whole bunch in our 401K. Very scary as it's not really that big. It may not seem like we lost a lot but to us it is quite a chunk, a chunk that took us a while to save and while some people say it may bounce back it's certainly going to take a long time. Who knows what that crazy man is going to do next! For real people, those ups and downs matter. I thought we were on track, but now I'm not so sure. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteWe're paying off our house this year and we were going to invest that payment in our 401K but now we're not so sure. We might just put it into savings.
Health insurance - are you doing a COBRA plan or have you tried the marketplace? I know a lot of people moan about the National Health in England but I also know a lot of people who moan about insurance companies in the US. I really think a lot of the retirement worry for US people is health insurance.
Hope you are enjoying your retirement
Insurance was my biggest worry. I'm able to keep, but at a hefty premium,my insurance as a retiree. I will have HSA to cover two years, enough to get through my daughter's eligibility to stay on mine then hopefully she'll have either through her job or student. If not, she'll go open marketplace. It's insane what I lost - two years living cost in just one quarter, and I supposedly have a balanced portfolio. Not enough apparently.
DeleteThis really brings it home to me; the reality to people of what has been happening in USA. praying for all of you that some semblance of stability returns soon.
ReplyDeleteI know it's a gamble as to where 401K accounts are invested or saved. I just never imagined the plunge being so great so fast. And to hear him bragging about Charles Schwab, the person, making billions in a day, I'm literally sickened. This administration gives not one F about any of us, and outwardly hates anyone that dares challenge a thought.
DeleteI was worried that Tommy was not worried and refused to see what he lost. He said he has some kind of account that is a guaranteed amount no matter what. He hopes that works! If/when you work a small parttime job, maybe that will be good enough. I found an article about flowers for tree root areas that I wish I had found when I was dealing with tree roots. It is on my blog today (4-12-25). I do hope my health support holds up since I was in ER three times this last two weeks and ICU and almost died according to the surgeon. I don't know what I would do otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't have to be worried about your health care- that saddens me for you and all of us that worked for decades and decades. I'll look for the flowering tree root resources you mentioned. Thank you for the idea.
DeleteLooking at the comments and reading the blog post, I think we are all in the same mode right now: no idea what is happening in the economy, many of us took a hit with our accounts, and where/how do we save money? We are not "spenders," and at the price of food in the groceries, I am grateful we are not!
ReplyDelete