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I love to find bargains other than dining ones too. For instance, AARP has discounts or information where I can get a percentage off of my shopping.  AARP does have a yearly fee for membership (there’s a current limited time offer of $9/year right now). Even on a tight budget the AARP membership may pay for itself in savings.

 I am finding that there are special days to shop and save. For example, there is 15% off each Tuesday at Goodwill and 15% off purchases at Kohl’s on Wednesdays. There are various senior discounts on different days at Ross, Walgreens, Joannes, Michaels, Lowes, etc. as well. Plus there are senior passes for the movies and Ticketmaster for instance. A little researching is needed to find these discount options, but the savings are worth it. Getting older can have its perks. You just have to figure where you shop/spend and find any bargains in your area for that. 

Internet Leads for Savings

Along with the senior-specific AARP website and publication to study, there are also general coupon sites for people to save (not just seniors).  Now that retired me has more time, I can utilize my schedule to full advantage. I have discovered Savings.com, Swagbucks.com, BeFrugal.com  among others. These are just some of the cash back and coupon sites to research. You have to read the fine print and reviews of course. Prioritize what items you want to allot for your budget. Cash back for buying designer clothes may not be in your budget, but deals on home decor items may be.  

Plus my thriftbooks.com has multiple reading options for saving tips that look interesting.  There are “The Best Free Things for Seniors” by Linda and Bob Kalian, or Geoff Tibballs “The Seniors’ Survival Guide: New Tricks For Old Dogs.”  

Being retired is a game of sorts. I am trying to learn how to maintain as much of my previous working lifestyle as possible on a very fixed income.  

In one old Seinfeld TV show episode, on a visit to Florida, Jerry Seinfeld learned a hard lesson. It was to not resist his retiree parents’ habit of early-bird dining to get a discount.  Discount or not, Jerry refused to eat so early. By bucking his parents’ lifestyle, he and his parents ended up with unexpected complications. (It only happens that way on a TV show of course!) 

“Hunger will make people do amazing things. I mean, the proof is cannibalism.” (Jerry Seinfeld)

Hunger has not driven me THAT far, but I am apparently turning into Jerry’s parents. Like them, retired me now has a quest to find those dining bargains also. In addition, as covid restrictions lift, I find going out to eat has gained more significance. Eating out-scarce during lockdowns- is now even more of a treat.

But back to the bargains… Thankfully there are some reasonable dining bargains out there. AARP has lists of participating restaurant/fast food discounts. These range from IHOP, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Corner Bakery, Rainforest Cafe, McDonalds to Fisherman’s Wharf, Denny’s, Dairy Queen, or Sonic.  Lists change, so check (https://www.aarp.org/membership/diningbenefits.) or call the place to see if they still participate. 

Calories Don’t Count When Couponing

Other dining coupons are available in the newspaper (remember those things called newspapers- retired folk do?!) Or other good bargain dining options can be found in those mailers that come with the junk mail, with offers for local restaurants. It is good to look for those local dining bargains. It can help support your local dining establishments that struggled along with you through the pandemic.

Keep Your Coupons Close, and Your Couponing Friends Even Closer

Searching for dining bargains often forces a person to be social, since most coupons are set up to work for two or more. Even though one could grumble that the coupon world favors a “couple’s world,” doubling up for dining bargains can be a good thing. A social network of friends and family is particularly crucial for a retiree’s (or anyone’s) mental health. Using that dining coupon to socialize over food can be a well-being win-win.

So the Seinfelds and I look for those dinner discounts. And if some restaurant near me offered an early bird discount at 3pm, I’d probably go!

Being retired and not re-employed (yet) has me analyzing my sense of worth. Right or wrong, in our society, a paycheck/job often equates literal worth. Many retirees report experiencing a new lack of status now that they have no job or reduced money. I struggle with these new perceptions of reduced worth as well. So before I get practical reconfiguring my lifestyle and budget, I take a look at some origins of my own worth.

It reminds me of the times when I was a stay-at-home mom with young children.  As a young mom back then, at-home employment did not seem valued much in our society.  My at-home job was hard for people to classify-and not deemed particularly crucial. Stay-at-home work consisted of those mundane “unimportant” activities- cooking, cleaning, doing errands, carpooling, and keeping curious toddlers educated, amused and away from self-destruction.

I Was Even A Baby-proofing Failure!

My toddler son used to bring me all the outlet plug covers with which I had carefully baby-proofed the house’s outlets. His methodical diligent removal of these plug covers just reinforced my feelings of irrelevance.  (I was a baby proofing failure!) True relevance seemed to be in money earned, and a paycheck was much more important than stay-at-home duties.  Incorrectly, that was how I felt sometimes back then. Retirement “status” causes inadequate feelings like these to still crop up now.

I reiterate healthy thinking- My worth is not my income. It was not then, and it is not now. In retirement, I also have the advantage of hindsight, something I did not as a young mom. I have accomplished some things over my years that I had not yet achieved then. Maybe those achievements can help me make more empowered decisions as I work out my life during my retirement phase.

Who Is Really Essential?

By the way, I thought covid revealed some hard truths about work and value in our consumeristic society. During covid times, who were the most “essential workers” among us? Ironically, they turned out to be those that did the most mundane, hands-on service jobs. Cooks and cleaners, grocery store personnel, delivery people, all became essential workers as we were shuttered in by the pandemic. Teachers and child care workers gained new respect as harried parents struggled to take over those child-rearing duties.

The paychecks of these essential workers mostly do not reflect the great importance that these workers truly have. Nor do they indicate the important role these essential workers assumed during strange covid times. That does say something about how our society has set up its priorities and rankings. I think these are values about due for change.

AD to AR 

My pastor likes to say that there was an event in history- Jesus’ birth- that split the world calendar between BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domino “in the year of the Lord”).  However I now have a new personal delineation of my life’s passage through time.  My calendar has gone from AD to AR- After Retirement. 

It is this new change that I now chronicle.  My AR (After Retirement)- began in 2020. It was a time initially marked by the global impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.  The onset of the covid 19 epidemic actually was the catalyst that caused my struggling airline employer to offer retirement packages in the first place.  The economy was in covid tatters, and my airline was struggling to stay alive when their flight schedules plummeted to near nothing with drastically diminished customers.  Twenty percent of their workforce- 18,000 employees- took the package deal they offered. So I joined with the other departing workers- becoming anonymous departing employee number 7,892 (or maybe it was departing employee 16,340?)- and became an officially retired person.

So 2020 became my AR (after retirement) year.  AR split my personal calendar into two parts forever, just like the BC to AD time designations did for the world. 2020 AR.

MyAR (After Retirement) journey began with facing the stark reality that my income is now very fixed, and vulnerable to any unexpected changes or increased living expenses. Since I live in the highly expensive state of California, rising living expenses are a given.  So are unexpected factors such as car repairs, medical or dental expenses, increased food costs, etc. My new fixed AR budget was a new scary reality. 

According to AARP (American Association of Retired People) a good retirement income is about 80 percent of your pre-tax income prior to you leaving your workplace (https://www.annuity.org/retirement/planning/average-retirement-income/). The eighty percent number factors in not having to pay income tax, or paying for other job-related expenses.  It does NOT factor in things such as cost of living in your area, everyday expenses, potential healthcare costs, and the lifestyle you desire. People often retire with a 401k, or a pension, or other investment sources, or some combination thereof. But many in the US are dealing with a retirement income that is nowhere close enough to 80% of any previous working income.

It is estimated that 36% of Americans now believe they will NEVER have enough money to retire, and roughly 41% say that their ability to be financially secure in retirement will take a MIRACLE (this according to the annual GRI-Global Retirement Index).  In 2019, an alarming 22% of American adults were found to have less than $5000 in savings for retirement, with 46% saying they have no idea how much they have even saved at all. 

Talk about bleak stuff. I am not the only one dealing with “inadequate retirement income syndrome.”  This After Retirement life journey is going to be a creative one, to say the least.