Posted by Canadian Dream on August 26, 2010
The kids start back to school next week around here and that means buying ‘stuff’. Some it makes sense like new shoes since my oldest is entering Kindergarten this fall and he out grew his last pair. I would like to take the credit for keeping our over all school related bill low, but that actually was my wife.
First off she did not buy any new clothes for the start of school, instead she knows our son tends to our grow this clothes by about October. So when on vacation she picked up some pants and shirts in the next size up on clearance. So that was taken care of over a month ago. The added advantage here is this is my son’s first time at this school so having ‘new’ clothes is rather pointless as he has no friends there to impress.
Then when the school supply list arrived she went shopping for the few items we didn’t have around the house such as:
Shoes – $18.92 (splurge item to get the Transformer pair)
Plastic school box for markers, etc -$2.26
Two Sets of Markers – $5.00
Large Scrapbook – $3.29
School Fees – $13 classroom, $4.50 agenda, $4.50 bus fees for class trips
Total $51.47
So after the splurge item of ‘cool shoes’ the next biggest cost item on the list was school fees. Overall I’m not complaining about the agenda since I know that is done at cost. I’m even ok with fee for class trips but I don’t understand what is included in the classroom fees. So my wife sent a note to the teacher asking so what is up with that, but I haven’t heard what the answer is yet.
Since we are new to this ‘back to school’ shopping I’m not sure how that total ranks compared to other people or what ideas people have on saving money on back to school shopping. So all you experienced parents out there, how much did you spend this year and do you keep you ‘back to school’ shopping bill down?
Posted by Canadian Dream on August 25, 2010
I was having a discussion with someone who asked “If your site is about early retirement, how does that help a broke 50 year-old?” To be utterly honest most of the planning ideas on this site will apply to anyone regardless of age. Early retirees have some particular issues that are unique, like a reduced CPP pension, but otherwise planning to retire at 65 when you haven’t started planning at 50 is similar to what I’m doing. You have a really tight time frame to save and not much compounding interest to help you out.
So what are the steps for a broke 50 year-old to retire? Well they go something like this:
- Lower Your Expectations. Replacing 100% of your current income when in your peak earning years is not realistic anymore. You just don’t have the time to save for that. But relax most people retire on just $30,000 to $40,000 anyways so a 50% target actually might be realistic for you.
- Live Well Below You Means. Start practicing on living on a lower income starting now. You are going to need to cut your expenses to boost your savings and ensure you pay off all your debt prior to retirement. So rein in that spending.
- Spend on Happiness. The trick to step 2 is not to feel deprived while doing it, so start looking at what really makes you happy and focus on keeping some of those items in your budget. Then hack out the rest of your wasteful spending (everyone has some so don’t feel bad). Just remind yourself when you go to buy something: do I really want this or do I want to retire? Retirement usually wins.
- Cash First, Invest Later. Don’t panic if you don’t know much about investments at the very start because it doesn’t matter that much. An extra 2% return on $50,000 is only $1000 in a year. Compared to losing more than 2% or more in a day from a bad investment it really isn’t worth the risk of investing in things you don’t understand. Park the money in a GIC or term deposit for a year and get to work on educating yourself. Then invest when you have a better understanding on what risks you can handle.
- Count Your Blessings (Literally). Retiring at 65 means OAS and CPP payments. Figure out how much you will get and include that in your plan (especially since CPP which won’t run out of money until long after you are dead). You will be surprised to see how much easier that makes things (up to $30,000/year for a couple). So don’t panic thinking you need a million dollars to retire. If you pay off all your debts and have a modest nest egg of $200,000 to $400,000 the majority of couples would be fine.
Then one last little suggestion: have some fun in life! Retirement isn’t only about money, you also have to plan what you want from your retirement. So start day dreaming on what you would like to do in your retirement and try out a few new hobbies or rediscover some old ones. Heck, you might even decide you want to keep working part-time past 65 and that’s ok too.
What advice would you give to a broke 50 year-old? Please leave a comment and share.
Posted by Dave on August 24, 2010
I picked up 272 pounds of beef from a farm on Saturday, which cost me $1,088 ($4 per pound). I recently purchased a freezer (9 cubic feet) to put the meat in. Which if used only for this load of meat would increase the cost per pound marginally, but it will get additional use over the years that I own it, reducing the cost of purchasing it. Other than the freezer, I have basically pre-purchased most of a year’s worth of meat for my wife and I. We will still probably buy chicken and pork (mostly bacon), but not significant portions of it. There are a few reasons why I decided to buy my meat straight from the farm rather than going through the grocery store:
- It was cheaper: My wife and I have significantly increased our meat consumption over the past few months, as I discussed in a previous post around paleo/primal eating. Eating this way was having a very positive impact on our health, but was significantly more expensive than eating beans and rice a few days a week. The $4 per pound its cost is less than the majority of cuts of meat we were able to find at the store, even when it was on sale.
- I know where my food comes from: I visited the farm where my meat came from and seen the herd that my animal was coming from. When we went and picked up our frozen meat, we were given a tour of the farm. We walked the pasture that the animals were grazing in, discussed with the farmer his philosophy on the business he was in and saw the condition that my food grew in. Couple this experience to what I had been eating – that meat had probably grown up in something like this, which requires significant antibiotics. Likely because of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions and also because the grains that the cattle are being fed make the animals sick. Instead my beef had never been given drugs – it grew up on a pasture with plenty of room.
- My beef is “green”: Part of the problem with conventional farming is that it requires significant resources to produce a pound of meat. It takes a lot of energy to create the grains that are fed to livestock. The growing of the grains have a significant impact on the environment from tilling of the land, as well as the inputs such as seed, fertilizer, and pesticides. At some point in the future this is going to become a significant problem, which is discussed in two books I’ve read “The Vegetarian Myth” and “Dirt: The Erosion of Civilization”. Instead I bought grass-fed and grass finished-meat. The grass just keeps growing with little inputs. When talking to the farmer while walking through his field, he noted that the land we were walking on was essentially bare 2 years ago when he started farming. Currently, it is an incredibly lush pasture that supports his herd of cattle – this farmer is actually helping the land rather than removing needed topsoil.
- It is Healthier : Grass-fed beef has been found to have a higher quantity of conjugated lineolic acid, which is thought to have anti-cancer properties.
These were the main reasons why I bought the beef from where I did. As a side-note, if you were to purchase the same amount of meat from a farmer who raised their animals in a grain-fed feedlot, you could save approximately 50% over what I spent. So, although the beef I bought was significantly cheaper than what can be found at the grocery store, it is possible to find cheaper meat straight from the farm. I chose to pay a premium for grass-fed beef because of the reasons noted above.
Do you buy your meat in bulk? Do you take an interest in where your food comes from? Do you pay a premium for organic or other specialized food?
