Are You Getting In Your Own Way?

 

For the vast majority of my life I’ve struggled with having the confidence to do things and make decisions because I tend to get stuck in my own head.  In the past I would keep too much stuff stored up in there and incessantly ruminate on things that in the end really didn’t matter or come to fruition.  There have been plenty of restless, sleepless nights too.  It was enough to drive a poor girl absolutely nuts!

 

Daily journaling has helped me so much to quell the noise that used to take up residence inside my head and I’ve been doing that religiously since I retired.  It has made a bigger difference than I ever thought possible.  I also pray and talk to God a lot, especially if I am worried or upset about something and magically things just seem to work out.  Along with prayer I practice gratitude and I make sure to thank God for all He continues to bless me with.  I am a very fortunate person and I don’t take that for granted.

 

I also touch base once every other month with my therapist.  When I first retired I had a lot going on and I’d been through some stuff.  I was doing weekly thirty minute sessions, then after about a year and a half monthly sessions and now I’m at every other month for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Focusing on therapy like I have has made it so I am far more confident, especially with establishing and maintaining boundaries, having better interpersonal skills for dealing with difficult people and most importantly putting an end to negative thoughts and feelings about myself.  I accept myself for who I am.  I also care a whole lot less about a whole lot more.

 

When presented with options I have struggled to choose one for fear I’d make the wrong decision.  I’ve decided I no longer need to worry about that because time and experience have taught me that I can make decisions just fine and even if I do make the wrong one, eventually I will overcome it and make it right.  Right now I have a lot of options available to me for my not-too-distant future and in short order I have been able to do the research I felt I needed to do and then make the right choice for me without fear.  Now I am happily in the planning stage and executing some of those plans to start making things happen.

 

It is easy to allow fears, doubts or insecurities cloud our minds and our judgment and hold us back, but we can also do things to overcome those issues and move past them.  I am so grateful to have the tools I need, both physically and mentally, to keep me from getting in my own way and allow me to live my life with peace, love, happiness and contentment.

 

Vintage Cookery - Cornbread & Beans

 

Growing up we had this fairly often and I remember it being one of my dad’s favorite meals.  Not only is it a delicious and very economical meal but it had the added benefit of farting, something my father loved to do.  He thought farting was hilarious and I’m afraid I inherited that gene as well.  I cannot help but laugh myself silly whenever the subject comes up and if you actually do it I am sent right over the edge.  He’d love nothing more than to grab you in a big bear hug and let it rip, not to mention hold you hostage in the car with an SBD (silent, but deadly).  It didn’t matter where we were or what we were doing. He would fart and say “Yep, that’s working.”  Admittedly, there were times in my young life when I’d walk away and pretend I did not know this man.  Mom threatened to disown him on the regular, especially when he’d trap her under the bedcovers.

 

Now that I have whetted your appetite I will give you the down and dirty on how my grandmother as well as my mother would put this lovely concoction together.  They would simply wash and sort a couple cups of beans (more if needed) and then soak them overnight in cold water.  The next day they would drain and rinse the beans and put them in a big pot along with a ham hock or the bone from a ham, fill the pot with water and let it simmer on the back of the stove all day, (I use my slow cooker) stirring on occasion, until the beans were tender.  Then, they would remove the bone leaving the ham bits and chunks in the pot, add salt and pepper and dinner was ready.

 

If serving a crowd I remember there were more beans and thinner broth with the ham chunks less plentiful, but it was always good.  A pan of cornbread was always served with the ham and beans.  My dad would take two squares of cornbread, split them in half and butter (we actually used margarine at the time) each piece laying them out on his plate.  Then he’d ladle the ham and beans on top with more salt and a lot of pepper sprinkled on top and he would always go back for seconds.  I still enjoy it this way myself, but with real butter on my cornbread.

 

When I make this I like to add diced onion, celery and carrots to mine which I’ve been told by my dad ruins them.  He was a purest about his cornbread and beans, but I’ll let you be the judge of whether the addition of onion and carrot is a bad idea.  I do have a lot of fond memories of this very simple and humble meal and how it kept bellies full, especially when times were tough as sometimes they were.  I also remember all of the laughter and antics that ensued not too long afterward.  Oh my goodness!  I love you Dad!

 

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 196

 

A brand new year always feels like I get a fresh, clean slate to make changes or improvements to my already incredible life.  I find that rather exciting!  Nothing reinforces that more than a new journal to jot down my thoughts and accomplishments as I traverse the year ahead.  True to my thrifty “do-it-yourself” nature I used items I already had on hand, including a college rule spiral notebook, to create my 2026 journal.  Along with my writings I love to embellish each page using scraps of craft paper, washi tapes, stickers and my colored pens.  This year I have loads of tapes and a combination of fun stickers I already had left from previous years as well as some new ones I got for Christmas.  I also plan to use up all of my miscellaneous colored pens I have before I buy any new ones.  Hopefully I will get some cool pens I have my eye on for my next birthday or Christmas.  I really love and appreciate simple gifts like that.

 

I expect this year to be full of various challenges and I am praying for calm wisdom to make good choices and decisions as I navigate through my life this year.  Focus is my word this year.  I plan to focus a lot of my time and energy on improving my quality of life and my relationships, not only with others, but with myself.  Setting and maintaining boundaries has long been a struggle for me, but I’m getting better at it.  In the past year I have discovered a lot about my circle, especially with regard to where their moral and ethical compass points.  It was quite an eye opening experience for me which has led to tightening up my circle quite a bit.  I’m not sad for me, but rather sad for the person I am choosing to spend less time with.  The upside is that I now have more bandwidth for the people I should be spending time with - my tribe.

 

As 2025 came to a close and I looked back at all I was able to accomplish last year I find myself beginning 2026 with a renewed sense of spirit and hope.  I tackled some really hard things and in the process I was able to make my house my home.  I have always appreciated having this house, but now I really appreciate this house.  It’s mine and no one else’s.  It is my sanctuary and I am much more selective about who I allow into my sanctuary.  Needless to say, there will be no more long term houseguests.  That was definitely a lesson I learned this past year.  I have plans and projects in mind to start making my sanctuary even better.

 

I am not one to be silent.  I am not pleased with the current state of our economy or how our government is currently running.  I am not pleased with the president, vice president, the cabinet or congress.  They have all let us down.  As a fiscal conservative (with a sprinkling of liberalism), I’m infuriated by the colossal waste of our tax dollars while the vast majority is forced to do without.  I have grave concerns about what will happen as these individuals continue to run amuck unchecked, wreaking havoc at every turn.  I have deep concerns about AI and the potential for disaster if this is not handled correctly.  I have little faith that it will be handled correctly.  I am praying we do not end up in a war.  This blog was never intended to be political in anyway, but this is the realistic part of life.  I do not plan to stick my head in the sand and pretend like everything is okay.  It’s not.

 

To compensate for our high inflation and the steady rise in prices I will be working harder on my own finances making the most of what I have as well as growing my wealth to compensate.  Even though I am retired I do not feel, at this time, I can truly sit back and just relax.  I need to earn more and be a good steward of my resources.  Fortunately there are ways to do this.  To begin with, on New Year’s Day, I re-opened my Etsy store and I am currently working on more inventory to stock it with.  My goal to be more creative and spend more of my time crafting and sewing will help me do this.

 

All occasion handcrafted greeting cards

Additionally, I am contemplating whether or not to accept another higher paying part-time job that has been offered to me.  I also have another offer doing something similar as contract work.  Either one would take up time so I want to carefully consider before I accept or decline.  But these opportunities do fit with my overall criteria of what I would enjoy doing in my retired life so it is something for me to seriously consider.

 

My greatest endeavor this year is to be healthy in mind, body and spirit and I am excited to be doing the things I feel will help me to accomplish this.  Time outdoors, especially in the mountains, is going to be high on the priority list this year and I am super excited about that.  With plenty of ideas listed for the year ahead I find myself feeling really good about where I am at and where I am heading.  I am very happy and content.  God willing, it is going to be a very good year!

 

I find this incredibly sad 😔
I am so grateful not to be part of this statistic

I’d love to hear what some of your goals or plans are.  What is your priority for 2026?  I hope you are all doing well and feeling content.  I wish you much love and happiness.  God bless you my friends.

 

My 2026 Grocery Budget Plan

 

It’s a brand new year and time for my new grocery budget plan so I have put a lot of thought into this one, and I do mean a lot.  All of my life I have shopped carefully and kept my grocery budget cut to the bare bone and it has worked out amazingly well.  I have filled pantries, freezers and established my long term food storage.  In the past few years I wanted to really up my game with the quality of the whole foods I eat, which is one of the reasons I got myself a membership at Costco and that continues to be a big goal of mine again for 2026.

 

After some careful analysis of my spending and shopping habits I sat down and envisioned how I would ideally like to eat.  I drafted a long list of meal plan ideas.  What meals I would like to have on a regular basis and why I would like to be able to eat this way?  With my primary focus dialed in on protecting my health and improving my quality of life.  I want to eat well and truly enjoy what I am eating.

 

I am adding a Butcher Box subscription to my grocery food plan and I am really excited about it.  I’ve been looking at doing this for quite some time and I wrestled with the overall costs, but with the rising prices of beef this past year it has been making more and more sense for me to go ahead and do this at this time.  In addition to my regular shopping I will also be getting their Classic $169 box, for one to two people, every other month.  I was able to get a really nice introductory offer – 2 FREE rib eye steaks, 1 package of bacon and $100 OFF over the first year of my subscription.

 

After taking a good look at what I have on hand as well as my typical shopping habits to determine my best course of action I decided that this year I’m not going to have a set grocery budget.  This is going to be a HUGE departure for me because I have always had a budget to work within, but this year I’m not going to hold myself to a set budget and just see what happens.  I feel at this phase in my life it is going to be okay to do this.

 

I would love to go into Costco and go shopping without telling myself I can’t have something because it is too expensive or there isn’t enough money left in the budget.  This doesn’t mean I plan to go off the charts and spend with reckless abandon.  I will still be keeping track of my spending and buying only what I need or want for a healthy and nutritious lifestyle, while I make sure I get the best quality and value for my money spent.

 

The USDA Thrifty Food Plan suggests I spend nearly 2 1/2 times my regular budget

Even though I’m giving myself a lot of latitude for grocery spending I still expect that I will be coming in way under what the USDA Thrifty Food Plan has in mind for a woman my age.  It has been a fun challenge for me to be able to stick to minimal budgets and really make them work, but I’m looking forward to this new challenge.  A no budget – budget.  Let’s see how I do.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Praying For & Wishing You A Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year!

This Month's 2025 Grocery Spending – December & YE Totals

 

This year my grocery budget was exactly enough to meet my needs as well as the needs of others.  I had made plans to expand my LTFS and I hit that goal without any trouble whatsoever.  Also, throughout the entire year I was able to share and make food donations, which is always something I try to do and will continue doing next year.

 

Within the first half of the year my deep freezer was so full I could barely get the door closed and the freezer on top of my refrigerator was stuffed as well.  By the end of May I was looking to rein things in and by midsummer I was embarking on a pantry challenge in July and August in order to get some things used up.  In September I vowed not to make any meat purchases no matter how good of a deal it was and focused on restocking the deep freezer with frozen produce instead.  In October and November I shopped for the holidays and restocked a handful of pantry items in the LTFS as well as some meat for the freezer.

This month I kept my shopping fairly minimal with some fresh produce, fresh meat and dairy purchases.  I picked up a few pantry items to replace things I had used as well as vinegar, baking cocoa, lard and coconut oil to add to the LTFS.  Also, this month I donated food and non food items to the senior center.

 

Shelf stable milk for the LTFS

I began the month by literally cherry picking the ads to fill in the gaps which included adding two jars of mayonnaise on sale for $2.99 each.  I haven’t seen that price in a while but as I opened my last jar of mayo I was hopeful of a decent sale and was thrilled to see it happen this month.  I also picked up two five pound bags of potatoes on sale for 99¢ each.  A three pound bag of mandarins for $2.99 also made it into my cart.  Another FREE offer on salad dressing allowed me to add that to my donations.

 

Later in the month I was able to pick up some meat at Winco to fill in a few gaps I had made in the deep freezer.  I was running low on chicken and pork chops.  A pork loin at $1.98 a pound was sliced into chops, vacuum sealed and added back into the deep freezer.  I vacuum sealed two of the five chicken breasts for the deep freezer too.

 

I am thrilled to report that I am so very blessed to have a full pantry and full freezers.  As far as nonfood items go I feel really good about that area too.  At the end of summer I did come up with a list of things I wasn’t going to buy anymore this year and I stuck to it.  By doing that I was able to focus my nonfood budget on things like laundry supplies, facial tissues and a couple cans of Comet cleanser and a few other supplies.  It was a short list that restocked the shelf in the linen closet quite nicely.  

I used this coupon

on this package of markdown meat

This month, since I had the extra money in my budget, I restocked the vacuum sealer bags I like to use and added three more boxes of canning lids to replace what I used last month to can several pint jars of meat and some delicious cranberry sauce.

 

No BFF contributions this month

This is how the numbers look for my food and nonfood dollars this year.  I’m really pleased with the totals and with the extra budgeted money I did not spend this year.  I even had some money left over - $52.90.  I’ve decided to add that money to next year’s Fun & Leisure budget to be used for some camping trips I have planned.  It is enough to fund two extra trips if I want.

 

I'm rather pleased with this 😁

After much thought about how I want to improve my grocery and nonfood budget as well as my shopping strategies in the coming year I think I have come up with a solid plan.  Stay tuned for that post coming up in the New Year.  It’s going to be a good one!  You might even be a little surprised.  I’m already getting excited about it!

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 195

 

The final full week of 2025 came quietly and joyously to a close with Christmas day being the highlight, of course.  I am very much looking forward to bidding the year adieu next week and embracing a new one.  I’m sure a lot of you probably feel the same way as well.  I am hoping and praying for change in the upcoming year.  Good change.

 

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, for those of you who celebrate.  It was a very lovely day for me – quiet, thoughtful and relaxed.  I spent time in the kitchen preparing a wonderful meal and dessert so I was pretty happy about that.  I was surrounded by love and spoiled with a handful of meaningful and useful gifts that I am quite excited about.

 

Discussions this past week revolved around future plans, hopes and dreams and making them into realities.  If this past year has taught us nothing else, it has given us a sense that we need to make the most of what we have and truly improve and enrich our lives in spite of outside influences and all of the ugliness out there in the world.  We need to protect ourselves, each other and do all that we can.  It almost feels like we need to build a special bubble to surround us and keep us safe.  We need to keep the ugly away.  Does that make sense and are any of you feeling the same way?

 

As I have already mentioned, I chose Focus as my word for 2026 and as we were talking they all agreed that it needs to be their word as well so I have comrades in arms, so to speak.  We will all be working hard to make tangible and intangible improvements to our lives in the coming months and supporting each along the way.  For some of us it is to eliminate debt and boost savings, cutting back on expenses, making a job change, making a relationship change, beginning a mental health journey, decluttering and making home improvements, planting a garden and so forth.  It sounds like we have a lot to do.  For me, it will be focusing on maintaining my mental and physical health and growing stronger while improving my quality of life.

 

I want to invite you to join us as well.  You are all welcome to be a part of our community.  After all, that is what this blog is all about.  Building a community.  What are some of the changes you would like to make in 2026?  How do you want to make improvements?  Are you ready for a new year and a brand new slate?  I am!  We can do totally this!  Let’s do it together.