How to Make the Most of Limited Retirement Resources

I wasn't planning on retiring until I was 65, or perhaps even later. I've heard that if you want to make God laugh, you can tell Him your plans. Well, I'm certain this is true in my case, but regardless of what my life-plans may have been, God always gives me the resources to make lemonade when life gives me lemons. Okay, what does a person do when most of their retirement investment has disappeared due to an economic crisis and Social Security has been locked in at the current rates for the next two years?

Be creative, don't be discouraged, and don't give up! When the going gets tough the tough get going. Many of the suggestions I am about to make are lessons I had to learn "the hard way", but I've found the greatest value in success is being able to share it. The first thing that became apparent was that I needed to make a list of my assets and liabilities - income and expenses. Since my wife and I were compelled to live on income which made us eligible for many low-income social services we needed to be cognizant of the fact that 'luxuries' to us might be things we'd considered necessities before. Our list of necessities must now be very basic.

Number one for my wife and I was preserving the roof over our heads. We both agreed that even though our home was considered "under water" we would try to keep up our mortgage payments. We also agreed that there wouldn't be much point in selling our car since we owe more than it is worth. We will still need food, of course, and our household utilities - gas, electric, telephone and even the 'luxury 'of cable TV (since we would not be able to spend a great deal of our limited income on entertainment we would still be able to enjoy some classic movies). The challenge would be able to save a substantial amount by minimizing our variable expenses:
Exercising more planning and prudence to reduce driving ($40.00 per month)
Use public transportation as much as possible
Shop more locally
Plan trips to combine several chores in each automobile trip
Eat less prepared food and cook more mixed meals ($65.00 per month)
Spaghetti
Tuna Casseroles
Mixed leftovers
Homemade Chili
Homemade Macaroni & Cheese
Homemade ChiliMac
Fish and Poultry in combinations, etc.
Close some of our rooms to reduce heating/cooling ($10.00 per month)
Limit water use ($10.00 per month)
Grow some of our own produce ($15.00 per month)
Pick up garbage once a month ($10.00 per month)

Although our efforts to make the most of our fixed income are a "work in progress" we have been able to reduce our monthly budget by $150.00 per month. This has enabled us to save a little for emergencies ($75.00 increase) and have an occasional opportunity to go camping ($75.00 for a yurt) every six weeks. It's not an extravagant lifestyle, but we don't have credit cards and make all our payments online with our Internet access (component of telephone service).

The main thing is that we are able to survive the "worst recession since the Great Depression", we're able to spend a great deal of time enjoying each other's company, and still fellowship with friends and family. Life continues to be good, by God's grace!