I'm baaaaack!

I am absolutely mortified that I have not posted since last September! This being retired is tough! I had been working a bit more for The Oncology Group but things seem to be slowing down...of course the fact that I also broke my arm falling over my briefcase in a hotel room while checking out a snow storm has kept me a bit limited in my computer skills. And then of course, a major adverse event at my favorite hospital which caused me to have a second surgery to correct their error didn't help my mood much! Sooooo...I think I should start posting again if I can come up with some fun things to write.

We are heading to Florida soon with one of the grands and her parental units. We do this every year. Now that our son and his family are moving back to Tennessee, we are going to drag them down next year. It will be great to have everyone within just a few hours of us, but I will miss stopping off at Harrah's Cherokee on the way to NC...I could always rationalize that Woody couldn't drive all the way to Chapel Hill in one day...now I have to make a special trip to gamble and can't pretend it's just a way stop!

Now...what else do you need to know to catch up on our crazy life? We are not selling our house since the market hasn't quite returned enough to make it worth it so I've added granite in our master bath, redone the kitchen cabinets, subtracted and added some furniture and am trying to figure out what more I want to do. Now we really won't recoup our investment, but it sure looks pretty! Woody wrecked the RV in October when he blacked out...still don't have it back but we've been promised it soon. None of the doctors can figure out what happened so we're just hoping it was a one time event. Christmas was uneventful in 2012...as you recall in 2011 the entire family got sick! This time we just ate and had a ball with Savannah opening presents. We've also been to almost every Boomerangs' concert...and gleefully call ourselves groupies. Throw in lots of movies, a trip to the Egg Bowl in November (that's Ole MS vs. MS State and State lost and Woody was bummed and Jennifer was ecstatic since she's an Ole MS grad) followed by a long postponed trip to New Orleans...of course, there is a Harrah's Casino there! Oh and Woody had to drive me to work in South Bend, IN after the broken arm and before they would let me fly and we stopped at Harrah's Horseshoe Casino in Elizabeth, Indiana so we had a great trip. We've also had Savannah almost every weekend and have lots of fun memories with her, including planting flowers since she loves to garden! It's so much fun to have a grand close and we can't wait to get Riley closer too!

I'm sure there are tons of other things you should know to catch up on everything, but it's late and I'm tired! I'm still rehabbing the arm and shoulder...water aerobics and swimming....so now I'm tired AND sore but am regaining range of motion rapidly! I will try to do better...so my tip for this long delayed post is Don't get so caught up in day to day stuff, that you forget to do what you like to do...in my case, it's to write this blog!

Saving Money is Fun...and Other Fallacies!

Living on a budget is important to retirement success...to date...I am a miserable failure! I am addicted to Chicos and any place that sells children's clothes. I do try to check sales and stores like TJMaxx, but I still spend too much for an old retired girlfriend. There are a few tips...Chicos has a passport club that automatically gives you 5% off all your purchases and some days even more. You also get coupons that apply to purchases.  When you shop their sales and use the coupons and the passport discount, you can get cool stuff cheap! Plus their clothes are designed by real people so even if you're a bit square (physically not emotionally!) you can still wear things that don't look like your grandmother gave them to you! Coupons for department stores are a source of free money...keep your eyes open in the Sunday papers for deals! Another tip is to cash in your American Express or other credit card points for generic gift cards that can be used to buy things! AMX points can get you $50 gift cards that will go a long way to buying things that aren't on your budget! You can also give them as gifts.

Now for the grandchildren!  Each year I set a budget for birthdays and Christmas for the kiddos...and do pretty well for those two holidays.  It's the spontaneous purchases when I gravitate first to the children's department in any store I enter and the other holidays like Valentines, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Ground Hog Day and 50 other major and minor occasions for which I am compelled to purchase presents! I can't give you any tips other than never enter a store again or at least shop the sales racks first. I do try to stay away from toys as I never know what they already have unless I get their Toys R Us Christmas list...that worked great!  I could pick things they wanted and didn't already have.

I'm also trying to write a closet plan...a closet plan lists the things that I have and the things that I need to make the things I have work.  Like more pants.  Last year it was tops and jackets.  I can't seem to get organized.  I also need to move the things I can't wear because I still haven't lost that 10 or 20 pounds.  By moving, it needs to be to eBay but it may just be to my storage closet in the attic.  A girl can dream! You can sell high end stuff on eBay without too much trouble.  I had several Brahmin purses that went really high.  A closet plan should be a realistic plan based on what you really wear in retirement...not what looks really cute.  An Ellen Tracy suit does not really fit in at WalMart, regardless of how great it looks. Let's face it...when you are retired you don't need as much...and if you have a closet plan you may actually only buy things you need and would wear.

I think shopping for clothes, shoes and grandchildren stuff has been the hardest thing for me to control. So...if you have any tips besides just say NO, let me know.