Crossing the Financial Finish Line

I treated myself to a glass of bubbly before dinner, celebrating that our full retirement plans have been established. Our advisors gave us the thumbs up and even told me I could splurge a little more.  Chances are I probably won't change much.  I'd rather spend less and know I have nothing to worry about than be caught unaware or with something to be stressed over.

Here's a frugal example that I've used for the last ten years or so to keep my skin care affordable, which I plan to keep on doing for another ten (at least).  Retinol products that help with lines, wrinkles, and other signs of aging are expensive.  My hack is to combine serum from Dollar Tree and prescription retinoid cream.  For years, I needed Retin-A for adult acne that was pretty bad.  Now that I am older, insurance no longer covers it, so I stock up on product from outside of the U.S. because other countries let you buy it without a prescription. In addition to Retinol, Niacinmide is another ingredient that expensive serums use. 

When I run out of serum, I save the empty bottle. Then I mix two bottles by combining a 50/50 mix of each.  Then each bottle gets a good-sized squirt of Retinoid cream.  This is what I use after washing my face each night and before I put on my moisturizer.

One bottle goes in my nightstand, and I apply it before bed.  The other is stored in the refrigerator until I need it.  My label maker is how I know the serum has been mixed. When I put it on, I am not wearing my glasses, so I can't read the label!  And I do know it works because I have a mole on my face that grows if I don't keep using a Retinoid.  I know because I stopped for a month -- and also, because my brother has the same mole (courtesy of our paternal grandmother), and his is waaaaay bigger than mine!

After mixing serum, I made vegetable stock using up stuff in the produce drawer.  I make mine with the vegetables first, then strain those, and do another boil with an onion.  Doing it this way, means I can give the veggies to Frankie.  I mixed some in with the oatmeal I made yesterday, and also in the rest of a container of her regular food.  This means we can really heap her bowl full -- since she never feels as though we've fed her enough.  It's trickery, and also a way to avoid food waste.  Composting is on hold because everything in the bin is frozen.  If I feed scraps to her, food won't get thrown away.  But I will eventually have to pick it up...

I dressed casually conservative for our financial planning date. Unfortunately, Frankie jumped up and snagged my necklace. It broke. Luckily, I have all sort of jewelry pliers.  When I was putting it back together, I eventually decided to double it up, since it really is too long to wear as an opera length piece. Today I mixed a bunch of different pieces.  The long necklace is costume, the rest is gold, but a variety of different gems/simulants.  All of my clothes were thrifted.

The money men suggested we go out to dinner to celebrate our saving success.  I had the fixings for dinner already, so that was a pass.  We had tortellini from yesterday, a tray of butternut squash, and the rest of a bag of frozen shrimp.  Since everything ends up being a multi-step plan, the squash and shrimp we didn't eat tonight will be combined with the veggie stock to make a squash and shrimp bisque.  

I think the reason we were able to save enough, is because everything we use in this house is a DIY or scratch effort.  We can continue to live this way without any worries for another couple of decades -- so the effort is worth it!  Have you been able to reach your goal based on your frugality? And how do you feel about it? Do you wish you could splurge more? Or are you happy you've found a way to work it out? Just curious!