Ramblings on the Road to Transition

I long ago quit trying to make, much less keep, New Years resolutions. Still, the period around New Years day is a good time to sit back and think about things in life that need to be done in order to be able to retire and move on with my life.

The first of these is debt reduction. One major change here is to go to a cash only plan where day to day expenses are concerned. Anything that isn't a real emergency will be done only if there is cash on hand to pay for it. If a credit card must be used in an emergency it should be paid off as soon as possible. This goes hand in hand with paying off existing balances where possible - some bad luck and poor decision making in past years means that there are some substantial balances to pay down here. Still, my goal for the year is to have one of them paid off by this time next year. If so the "snowball" effect should make paying the others off easier. It is doable - but only if I don't take on any major work on the house. So if things work out and the back stairs can be patched up a bit more the money saved will go to debt reduction instead.

Then there is the matter of general household expenses. One area, energy costs, can be trimmed quite a bit by being careful to set the thermostat at 60 degrees when I'm sleeping or at work - when I'm up and around I still set it to 66 to 68 degrees during winter. During the summer the A/C doesn't get used until the heat and humidity make sleeping in daytime difficult when I'm on midnight shift. Another idea is to line dry laundry where possible and only run the dryer for full loads. During the winter the warm air from the clothes dryer ( electric ) is vented into the house as well. Lights have been converted over almost entirely to fluorescent types too.

In the area of personal expenses there is some room for cuts as well. For one, since I've gotten into the habit of reading the news on line in the morning my newspaper home delivery service will likely be canceled. Since my prepay cell phone is working out well for long distance calls as well as being my "on the road emergency" phone the land line long distance service can probably go as well. I'll keep the land line phone for local calls and internet service though. Neither of these are huge expenses but saving $30 to 40 a month on them is worthwhile.

Food and grocery wise, I've taken to a policy of only buying meat that is either on sale or marked down for quick sale - no problems so far and if I shop mid week the selection on marked down stuff is usually pretty good too. Given the schedule I'm on at least some frozen diners and/or convenience foods will stay in the budget but will only be bought when they are on sale. Having a big freezer is a blessing in that it allows for bulk purchases when prices are good.

Guess that's about all for now, break time is over and it's time to get back to work.