Change in Strategy

I am changing the theme of my blog to having an "ordinary life" in today's world. Gives me more room to discuss life in your 50's and what that means. I can then talk about our debt reduction plans, travel and just simply living in the world today. Of course my focus is a home without kids and how different your life is from those that have children around.

Kiva

On GMA this morning, I heard a story about Kiva, a small company that links people with organizations that loan money. The borrowers are small business owners all over the world that are too small or cannot get conventional credit. You can loan as little as $25 and it will pool into a fund that will loan the amount of money needed. I just loaned $50 to Luisa who is a pet supply business owner with her family in San Jose, Ca. She is asking for $5500 to buy the aquarium supply inventory of another business that went bankrupt.

I was impressed with this company because on Kiva, you can see exactly who you are helping and while I should get paid back, I don't care if I do because I hope this helps someone who is just trying to make it in this tough economy. I picked Luisa because she is from my hometown area and I have actually purchased from her business in the past.

It is another advantage of not having kids; you have plenty of money to help others in meaningful ways.

Generics

I remember a shopping trip with my husband when we were first together in my snooty single days. I did not think much about how much I spent and things had to have a "brand" name to be worthwhile. We were in the canned vegetable aisle and Bruce reached for the store brand tomatoes. I said "we don't do generics!" Now as the economy has crashed down around all of our ears, I find myself looking at any way to save money. Generics will do (in most cases) just fine! (Bruce is laughing at me right now and remembering what a brand snob I was)
Look in your pantry and you will find mostly brands you learned to love as a kid. French's mustard, McCormick spices, Heinz ketchup, Hunt's tomatoes, and Campbell soup are of few of our favorites. Hot dogs are Ball Park, butter is Land o' Lakes, mayo is Hellman's. Now I stand in the grocery aisles and wonder whether mustard from Jewel will taste just as good. There are certain foods I won't give up for taste. We aren't that hard up yet! But, still, what difference does it make in spaghetti sauce if the tomatoes are Hunt's or generic. Garlic powder is garlic powder whether Costco or McCormick.
My new project is to save money for our little tribe is to record how much I save buying generics and put that amount in our vacation savings account. How sweet it will be to go on vacation, pay cash and not remember that the sugar came from Jewel and not Domino's!

Debt Diet

I have off for awhile because we have been very busy with work but also with my latest obsession-the economy and reducing our debt. I am news junkie anyway but I don't know too many people that enjoy watching the Fed Chairman testify at a hearing looking for any sign of economic recovery!

We have been on a debt diet made easier by the changes that this economy has brought on. I wrote in an earlier post about magazines being too family oriented and the positive outcome of that was that I could easily dump subscriptions to save money. We dumped the Chicago Tribune because it had gotten so thin it was hardly worth the effort. You can read it online for free! I found that we were not using our cell phone minutes so I could reduce our cell phone plan. With gas prices down and airfares up , we are going to drive on vacation this year. All of these things are made quite easier with no kids. The dogs will cost a fortune to board but our long term goal is now to move back to Atlanta and buy an RV so the dogs will travel with us.

I just bought a vacuum sealer so I could take the ridiculous huge meat portions from Costco and freeze them. I have been making my own spaghetti sauce and planted tomatoes and strawberries for fresh stuff this summer. I have also adopted a concept called "snow flaking" when comes to our debt. We sold our boat and I received a small inheritance this year so we were able to reduce lots of debt this year. With snow flaking, you pay any extra funds you receive to your debt each week. I refund alot, apply for class action money and coupon like crazy and I snowflake all that money into our debt. My goal is to retire by 7/11/11 on my 5th anniversary with PetSmart. I will be fully vested in my 401K and hope that I can talk the Hubby into it!!

Our debt diet is all made easier without children at home. No college, no weddings, no gifts to buy. Some of the hurdles with society being children oriented are working in our favor during this tough economic time!

Bulk Packaging

I went to the grocery store with dear old husband this weekend and it occurred to me that grocery sizes and pricing is for big families not small families like mine. Go to Costco and try to buy a package of meat! Everything would feed an army! I like ribs too but buying those huge sizes and freezing what we don't use would force us to eat ribs for a week to save money.

I want these food companies to invent packaging that saves me just as much but doesn't force me to buy so much that I have to waste it because it goes bad or makes me eat the same thing for a month! I don't need to buy 10 of anything to have on hand but most of the grocery store deals force me to do just that.

My dear husband likes a full pantry but it makes me hyperventilate to have to buy such large sizes or so many packages to save money. I coupon and refund like a fiend and watch the sale ads to save but still, must I have a year's worth of mac n cheese on hand because that is the only way to save?

Make things in smaller sizes that cost the same as bulk I cry!!!

The "kids"

Want to see pictures of my kids? No? Too bad here they are......Sophie(tri color) and Dixie(red and white) the beagles and the Tuxedo cats, Tommy and Sabrina.

"Family" Magazines

For many years, I have subscribed to "Family Circle" magazine. Today, I cancelled my subscription. The last few issues were filled with heart-warming stories of "families" who volunteer, "families" who have sick kids, how to help kids lose weight or be healthier, winter activities for kids and the usual how to walk off pounds. I used to subscribe because the recipes were good and they were filled with coupons! I am a coupon queen!! Even the monthly story on how to walk off pounds seemed to change.

It seems the magazine has skewed completely to women with children. I could stand it if at least the families with kids were diverse, but the magazine's entire focus is now on women with kids. So..... goodbye "Family Circle."

I am finding that few magazines suit me anymore. I used to love "In Style" but if you are over 40, few of the fashions and even fewer of the models make sense for my lifestyle. "More" magazine is in my age group but it skews to the women that are in big office settings. I am too young for retirement, too old for gossip and style mags. I seem to be stuck with my financial mags, cooking mags and the AARP newsletter. (I have news for you AARP, not too many 50 year olds can retire in this economy!!!)

I am just not sure when I went to feeling adrift but it sure seems I am in this in between state where the media seems to have forgotten I exist. I dumped news mags last year when I found that I was reading the news on the Internet before I would even get the magazines. Someone start a website for the 50 year old with no kids! I would be there.....