Getting Smaller

I am starting to cut back even more on what we spend on food.  More to follow on that later in this post.  The basis for tonight's dinner was a whole fryer (chicken) that I got for .59 cents a pound at Save-a-Lot.  I bought the bird for $3.02 on Monday and got to work on it as soon as I got home.  Before putting it in the oven, I cut off the back and wings, then cut off all of the skin.  That provided two big meals for the dog.  I roasted the meat and then pulled it off the bones.  The bones then went into stock.  We did not have chicken for dinner on Monday as I had pork from the weekend, so I made that into burritos.  Dinner for us both and three lunches!

Dinner tonight was a stir-fry.  A bag of three red/orange/yellow peppers is $2.49 at Aldi.  I think I buy two or three bags per week.  This stir fry used two peppers, thigh meat from the bird, and a good amount of smoked Asian tofu left from a soup last week.  This was served with white jasmine rice.  My estimate is that this meal cost under five bucks to make.  We have a few large lunches out of it too.

We have started serious cost cutting because we've decided I am going to fully retire.  Working part-time hasn't turned out to be as stress-free as I thought it would and I still don't have time to get to everything we want to get done during the week.  Along with scaling back grocery spending, we're planning on changing cable/internet/phone providers.  We pay Spectrum over $200 per month!  Cutting back to the most basic TV and Internet would still only take about forty bucks off the bill.

We can get Fios for $128 per month.  They advertise their deal for $79.99, but once you figure in equipment and taxes, the amount is a whole lot more.  That should be criminal, but there isn't much of an alternative.  This would be for a bundle package and gives us everything -- if we stayed with Spectrum, we'd be giving up most of what we have now.

Since I do not plan to look for another job, now is a fine time to change my email address.  My guess (and I know it's optimistic) is that if I go into full-on frugal mode, I can slice about four hundred dollars in expenses each month.  Maybe I could do even  better than that.  Living on TBGs salary alone will be a good test for how ready we both are to actually retire -- which I hope will happen in about five years anyway.  Aside from work stress, I am also having a lot of nerve issues in my hands from working at a keyboard for over thirty years.  My fingers are numb most of the time and my arms get painful.  The best relief is when I am working around the house and moving my arms.  So I hope this will also improve.

This is a big step that might seem irresponsible, but we are hoping we can be financially responsible enough to make it work.  I'll be posting more about cheap meals and cost cutting endeavors. I'll be using my new-found time to clear junk out of the house.  This  business of living small takes a lot of time and I'm going to focus back on doing it.