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How to survive till/past 65!

71K views 285 replies 33 participants last post by  CPA-Kim 
#1 ·
Hi, Frugal Villagers,

Will I survive, till or past age 65, or not? :ponder: Place your bets here... (just kidding)
Offers of matrimony, with or without insurance policies, are politely declined. :smirk:

Many of you know of my less than limited circumstances, and what some of my challenges are at present. Here on Frugal Village, we are a group of sincere and supportive persons, with the same goals in mind...frugal living and coping with our challenges.

I hope to post here weekly with an update of my latest challenges and results, and invite others to do the same. :grnwave:
 
#28 ·
Rinsing them well with many waters should clean them out well incognito. Sounds like you have a lot of potted plants growing! :clap:

Prayers for peace. :)
 
#29 ·
#30 ·
Thanks for the great article about dandelions, wunsagin.
God has really provided well for us in regards to the nutritional value of this plant; as well, it's almost indestructible.
But somewhere along the way, we got turned around by the "green lawn" industry.
I'm glad to see the new gardening movement of having less and less grass in front and back yards, and more and more beautiful and edible plants.

I think I'll be able to harvest a lot of seeds from the "spoiled" plants of my garden. The lettuce, dill, beans, tomatoes are going to provide me with a lot of seed for next year, and when you think of the cost of flower and vegetable seed nowadays, that's a real savings. So, in spite of the loss, I should still have some gain.
Another bit of good news: today I found a mallow plant in the front lawn, and dug it up and potted it. I want to try it out to make homemade marshmallows (that's what the plant roots are actually used for).
My beet top pieces are already growing tiny new leaves. So far, so good on all the other plants I just potted. I think I can make room for them by setting 6 pots on my little step-ladder, then put the 3 larger ones on the floor in front of the big window; some of them do well in the shade, so they can go on top of my china cabinet hutch, and on the cabinet itself. I may also set a few on the main floor where the sunlight shines; visitors will have fun seeing those dandelions in the wintertime growing in pots in my living room! (hee hee):winter:
 
#31 · (Edited)
Let us continue in prayer for peace and that God will temper our reaction and response to the evildoers of this world who instigate strife and unrest.
"Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known."
May God help us all as we deal with those who use aggression to harm and provoke others.
 
#40 ·
let us continue in prayer for peace and that god will temper our reaction and response to the evildoers of this world who instigate strife and unrest.
"destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known."
may god help us all as we deal with those who use aggression to harm and provoke others.
amen and amen !!!!
 
#33 ·
Well, work is better than worry, says this Canadian beaver, so I've been busy with my fall start-up this week. :va: :teach:
It's nice to earn some money again, and that will help with my summer shortfall. I've done my accounts and should be caught up again by end of next month, and after that, I can save and designate any earnings towards an increase on my monthly budget over the next 5 + years. That would be good, because $120 per month for variable expenses is not working out well, due to rising food prices.
The weather remains hot in the daytime and cool at night...perfect harvesting weather.
I'm enjoying my patio again...in a few weeks, there should be quite a bit of good seed to harvest from everything out there in my garden.
 
#38 ·
My retirement is looming though I don't know when. I'm ready to start doing the serious actual budgeting to see if it's going to be possible at all anytime soon. I should keep working for the income and the health insurance we have here, but my chronic arthritis pain is making it harder and harder - not to mention I am just very very tired of working.

I'll follow this thread and learn what I can from you.
 
#39 ·
Good news for me!
I have more paid work this month. And if it keeps up till next summer, I will be able to save this income, and increase my variable monthly budget by an extra $25 per month for the next 5 years. That would amount to a total variable budget of $145 per month for the next 5 years. If so, I think I can manage on this amount.
I've been living on a budget of $120 per month, ($100 for Food, $20 for Other), but have been having a shortfall at times. The things I forgot to include in my original budget were vitamins, bus fare, office expenses (printer ink, paper), home maintenance repairs and equipment (lawnmower cord!). And I had not budgeted enough for postage and gifts.
I'd like to have enough $ per month to be able to cover bulk food sale purchases, and to be able to squirrel away a bit more in savings, or even save for a good pair of winter boots.

One thing I've learned is that it's never too early to look at the real dollar figures of one's own situation. And get the budget and retirement plan figured out. I am revising my budget plan at the end of October, and again at the end of December to reflect any changes, and if I'd waited only 1 more year before attending to all of this, I would be absolutely sunk...there would have been no way I could have managed to survive till retirement.

I am not an accountant, or even particularly knowledgeable about these things, and I have to deal with my illness and all of the mobility problems I have now...this impacts me continually, and slows me down, and makes some things I used to do impossible to do now. And another thing I've learned is that I'm alone in all of this, as far as human aid is concerned.
But God is helping me to figure it all out. One of my early prayers was to ask the Lord for the financial help of Matthew the tax-collector, and ever since then, I've been getting regular 'insights' into how to better manage my finances, and general situation. (Don't laugh...really, it's true.) :angel2: My prayer is being answered.
 
#42 ·
I've been busy planning an indoor hydroponic setup for a few plants. It won't be anything fancy or expensive, but I am trying a few ideas to find something workable. Right now, I have green onions in a jar and the jar is covered with a dark sock to keep out the light. I've also done the same with 2 jars of 10 basil cuttings. I am using a water-soluble all-purpose plant fertilizer (1/4 tsp. per gallon of water) to fertilize them. Other plants I'm going to bring inside now for this project are: dandelions, chives, plantain, impatiens and cuttings from my tomato plants. I also have 3 6-packs of basil outside which are now rootbound, so I want to take these out and wash off all the soil, and try growing them in a jar of water indoors. My tomato seeds are drying nicely, and I have pepper seeds drying as well, from a pepper I bought at the Farmer's market. There's a big cucumber ripening for seed as well.
Will let you all know how my frugal hydroponics turns out as things progress.
All of the plants I started in pots of soil outdoors a few weeks ago are doing well, except the dill, which I'll have to reseed.
The romaine lettuces and celery (centers) seem to be doing well, and are growing larger.

My plan for indoor winter gardening projects:
1. plants grown from cuttings in water
2. plants grown from roots in water
3. plants grown in potted soil
4. plants started in soil and grown in water tubs: lettuce, tomatoes (this is a rather ambitious plan; but I'd like to use my picnic hamper for the water container, and I have some styrofoam pieces that I can cut to fit the top of the hamper to keep out the light, and I can make a few circles in the styrofoam to hold the plants, with the roots extending down into the water. The tomato plants are the very small bush variety, and I'd like to try buttercrunch lettuce too. We'll see.

Oh, I love the aroma in my kitchen with the fresh basil and green onions.:lip:
 
#45 ·
I've decided not to use water-filled glass jars to hold the plants, due to a fire hazard risk from light refraction. I did some internet research today on the subject, and apparently, many fires have been caused by light refraction occurring through water-filled glass or plastic bottles (even dew forming inside thrown-away bottles).
So I won't be using them. Live and learn.

I've collected many plants in the last couple of days, and prepared them for an indoor kitchen garden. There is already some growth in the onions. I also have dandelions, basil, impatiens, 3 kinds of tomato cuttings with their developing florets, and some grapevine branches (for leaves for cooking).
 
#46 ·
Today, I got some wonderful deals at the Farmer's Market. I got there at the very end, and there weren't any other customers around, so the vendors wanted to unload their produce. I bought enough tomatoes to chop and freeze in plastic bags for the winter, a few large onions (some of which I will plant indoors in a pot), lots of cucumbers for salads @ 8 for $2.00, plus the vendor gave me a yellow seed cucumber for free, a zuccini for seed (only 50 cents), and 2 bags of carrots for only $2. My indoor onions in the water jar grew about 1 1/2 inches last night. The carrot tops in the water dish were rotting, so I threw them away; I guess the only way they've thrive is in soil. Tonight it's supposed to freeze, so I plan to pick off my garden for seed, and I will bring in some soil for sterilization, so I can plant up a few pots next week. I guess I'll have to harvest my potatoes too; I'm not sure if they will be edible, what with all the toxins in the air this summer...I harvested my basil leaves, but they made me sick, so I threw them away...I will plant only the top new growth into fresh pots of soil for my indoor garden. All of the old growth on all my garden plants is showing spots.

I bought a new men's terry/velour bathrobe at the thrift shop last week, never used...so I am saving that for a Christmas gift for one of my DS's. It was bag sale day...all you can fit into a plastic grocery bag, for only $3 per bag. So I got a pair of dress pants & 2 black tops for work, 2 large plant pots, wooden salt and pepper shakers, a fondue maker (for heating things with a candle), and the bathrobe. It was a tight fit, but I put things inside other things, and rolled and flat-folded other things, and got it all into 1 small plastic grocery bag with the plastic handles fitting snugly over the top of the bathrobe. (all this stuff was new...unused)

The grocery store has a few good deals this week...10 kg flour for $5.99 per bag, 18 eggs for $3.99, so I got a bag of flour, and hope to get another one today. I like to get these heavy sacks of food staples into my pantry well before winter, as it's a lot easier manoeuvering my walker when there isn't any snow to deal with.

Things have been so busy that I haven't had time to bake or do much cooking, but now is the time to make the most of the good deals out there, and when I'm housebound I can spend more time in the kitchen again.
 
#48 ·
It's been busy this week...getting the indoor kitchen garden in order. Much got done except possibly digging up 2 or 3 cucumber plants, and 2 or 3 scarlet runner bean plants...I think it could be done with the smaller cucs intact, and by just cutting off the first 3 feet of the beans, and letting them branch out again, both kinds of plants curling around 2 tomato cages indoors. The 3 tomato plants have transplanted well so far, and there are many tiny tomatoes starting up on them. The rest of the plants are in the kitchen, and a few are 'wallflowers' in my studio. I found that the plants I started in a jar of water and plant food tended to 'slime off', except for my impatiens and grapevine, so I dumped the 'slimed', and the cuttings are doing better in water alone. Most of my kitchen garden plants are now planted in soil, and so far, so good. The onions and chives are doing very well, and I trim them off every couple of days for cooking. I saved some more tomato seeds...Roma and some large tomato seeds from some Farmer's Market tomatoes.
The worst part of all of this was sterilizing my garden soil in my oven...smelled just like cooked weiners...and no, I don't think I cooked any earthworms in the process, though I may be wrong, and I kept hearing high-pitched queals throughout the process. I'll have to cook up a few more batches of garden soil to bag up for the winter, to start my seeds in next year.

People may wonder why I'm doing all of this.
Answer: I felt deprived of my garden after CPR wrecked it, so my 'necessity is the mother of invention' mental-motivator kicked in, plus...I just got so disgusted at having my plans wrecked, I figured I would find a way to make it work anyway, if at all possible! Might as well let my anger give me energy to work out a different solution.:tom:

What with all this activity, I haven't had time to do anything else except for my studio work...needed milk, so I'm getting the downtown errands done today.
 
#50 ·
I've been reading up on the 'B. A. Kratky Hydroponic Method'.
This looks like the easiest and least expensive way to do things.
Will post the best videos on this source asap.
I'd like to try growing lettuce in large Folger's coffee tubs...he sure makes it look easy!:clover:



Here's another song of power:
Sandi Patty and Wayne Watson - Another Time Another Place - YouTube
 
#54 · (Edited)
Here's another one of my mistakes you can learn from:

Do not put plants in garden soil for indoor use...the soil will stink after a few days, and it's very heavy for the plant roots to handle the transplanting shock.
I bought rough peat moss, and spent several days this week transplanting all my plants into it, and wet the peat moss with a plant food/water solution. So far, so good with the new transplanting experience for these plants. My...they have been put through a lot, haven't they? But I've learned quite a bit too.
My lettuce seeds sprouted on the second day, and I've transplanted them into a round pot to develop their first leaves, then I'll transplant them into the hydroponic containers in the Kratky method.

Here's some pics of the method; when you click on the pic, you will be taken to that particular website of interest:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Krat...AO6qYDwBw&ved=0CGQQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=571&dpr=1


And I've got lots of great tomato seeds now too.

Here's a good one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3tz5LVVR_o

Basil in the Kratky method Folgers coffee tub:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l6xHEVlQWs
 
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