I’m nearing the mid-point of my third year in retirement. When I retired I got a financial boost in my first year when I was able to land a part-time engineering contract. This helped to pay off debt as well as finance the purchase of the 2020 Acura MDX that is our only form of personal transportation these days (that Acura replaced the two 2012 Priuses that had done considerable yeoman work for us). That contract finally came to an end in January of this year. Since February I’ve been living on what’s left and what both my wife and I get in retirement; our fixed income. What follows is a sample of what our life is like now.

Inflation is our biggest concern. There’s no doubt that inflation has had a big negative impact on us just like it has on the majority of Americans. Nearly every cost is going up, many costs rising to ridiculous heights.

I’ve watched the price of gasoline double since late last year. The only way to keep that cost impact as low as possible is to travel as little as possible. We don’t drive unless we absolutely have to. We plan our trips now so that when we do have to travel we do as much as possible on one trip, making stops along the way from the house to the final destination and back again. We stay at home as much as practical with the Acura sitting quietly, like we did at the height of the pandemic lock down. After nearly two years of Acura ownership we’ve barely put 1,400 miles on the vehicle, which is ridiculously low compared to what I used to put on my Prius on a yearly basis (the Acura is the most expensive vehicle I’ve ever owned, so I baby that machine). Low mileage helps keeps vehicle maintenance to a minimum, and  in particular helps preserve the health of the Michelin tires it rides on (those tires are expensive; I fear the day I have to replace them). We can do this because we are both retired. I feel sorry for those who have to commute on a daily or near-daily basis.

The next cost to hit us has been food. I’ve gone through and stripped out every food item that’s not a necessity. Although it started because I wanted to live a more healthy life, we stopped the consumption of all soft drinks. We stopped the consumption of anything sweet, even if it’s non-sugar (Stevia, for example). We dropped the consumption of as much processed foods as possible; we used to eat veggie pizzas that were made with cauliflower flour, patting ourselves on the back about how healthy we were eating, until I took a cold hard look at how they were made. Yep, processed (as opposed to simply baked) foods. We stopped eating red meats a while back due to health reasons, but even if we hadn’t we would now because of the cost. What animal protein we eat is poultry and fish (tilapia primarily). We buy vegetables and fruits and I prepare everything here. Very, very few trips (now once/month) out to eat, as the cost of a meal out has gone up significantly. We’ve cut down food waste even more than in the past. Meal leftovers are a significant part of saving money. I try not to prepare too much, but whatever is left after a meal goes into the refrigerator for the next meal(s).

The benefit of dietary changes due to saving money is helping me lose weight. I’ve lost 30 lbs since the start of retirement and it’s staying off. I want to loose more, but my weight loss has slowed, so I’m trying to be more active. Since I no longer commute and work my health has improved, so I have more time and energy to do more. I’m working more around the house so that actually kills two birds with one stone.

Another big cost savings is to drop off the high technology merry-go-round. While I have two new MacBook Pros, both of those were acquired because of the needs of the contract I had. I haven’t spent my money on any new Apple gear since I retired and I have no plans to do so in the future. Our iPhones (an iPhone 8 Plus and an iPhone 11 Pro Max) still work quite well. If the battery goes bad I’ll pay to have it replaced. I wrote that I would probably replace Apple gear if Apple would no longer update its software, but I may not even do that. Apple has pledged to provide important security updates to older gear it no longer automatically updates, which takes some of the sting out of being dropped. But when I think of how I use my iPhone, I don’t use it for much more than communications, primarily texting and voice. As long as it’ll work on the current wireless networks then I see both phones going until they flat-out stop working. As far as the wireless providers are concerned, 4G will be integrated into 5G for at least the next decade. After that, who knows.

As for photography, my biggest money sink, I now have more cameras than I literally know what to do with. I have to go remember what I still have and dig out some of my cameras to check and see if they still work. They always do. I then exercise my muscle memory a bit and appreciate the results. Every current camera is now so far outside of my budget that I don’t bother to follow the various photography sites, as it’s always about the gear and hardly ever about the practice of photography. What I have still works marvelously.

As for all the other devices in my house, if it breaks I attempt to fix it. If I can’t fix it, I ask myself was the device necessary. If the answer isn’t a resounding “yes” then I recycle it. Otherwise I’ll purchase a cost effective replacement (which doesn’t blindly mean cheaper).

I’ve rediscovered the joys of gardening. I’ve also rediscovered the joys of growing from seeds and propagating what I already have through cuttings. I spend a lot more time to take care of what I have, only buying what is necessary. That has been whittled down to mulch, fertilizer, and seeds. That’s a lot less expensive than driving up to Sanford (I live in southwest Orange County) on a regular basis to a nursery to purchase potted plants. I’m home and I can give proper attention to everything growing, with the results that a lot less is dying. And it really makes me happy.

I’ve spent my initial retirement simplifying my life as much as possible. That initial simplification gave me a foundation to work from during this period of high inflation, and this period of high inflation is in turn helping me to simplify even more. This isn’t some smug feeling I’m having. I know how adversity can come hurtling out of nowhere and leave your life a miserable shambles. I’m preparing as best I can by removing the fragile non-essentials that all too often wind up in the shambles, to leave a more resilient core.