One of the tasks involved in retirement, especially after 20 years of everyday being a Saturday, is to pay attention to the luxury items that you hung on to when your income acquired the title of ‘fixed’. As time goes on and you realize that living into your late eighties or even longer is possible and while that is a gift that many of my friends did not see, you pay even more attention to those luxuries because that savings you accumulated over 45 years of employment, the money that was going to help in maintaining a decent lifestyle through to the end, may not last, especially if that end comes near the age of ninety.

Over the past 20 years, the chances of having to drastically change our lifestyle has not been a big concern; we live quite comfortably although I wouldn’t consider it ‘high on the hog’ comfortable.

But we like it that way; we drive an eight year old car, live in a 1100 square foot home home and have not stepped foot in a Macy’s department store since I can’t remember when.

We brag about the dollar fifty Costco hot dog, have given up visits to the five star Steakhouses and turned down or up, depending on the season, the thermostat; a little cooler in the winter, a little warmer in the summer.

We no longer look at Alaskan Cruise brochures, even though I still get E-mails of special deals. (I expect I will continue to receive them as long as I’m on the right side of the dirt and maybe even after, all because I once requested some information on a cruise through the internet.)

And now, watching your luxury spending has become even more important since the rise of the back door tax on fixed incomes; that being the seven percent (or more) inflation; especially when your savings might as well be hidden under the mattress because your ‘conservative’ investment plan is only earning two or three percent.

But that’s enough of that. I didn’t set out to make this some sort of gloom and doom post; we’re still okay; we don’t have to eat foods containing high fructose corn syrup nor will there be any giving up our Saturday night Steak and Salmon dinners at O’Charley’s.

Still, I am aware of being caught up In the midst of all this financial volatility and I’m being pro-active in getting ahead of it if possible. The experts are all recommending that seniors start by reducing expenses where possible.so that’s what I’m doing. When the deli cuts got too expensive, I looked for something else.  

It was only after our children were raised that we started buying cold cuts from the deli. Prior to that, we ate pre-packaged things like bologna and hot dogs.We were never desperate enough, however, to eat pimento loaf. Remembering those days, I thought it might be time to return to that display case.   

That’s where the silver lining to this story appeared. I had forgotten how good a bologna sandwich with lettuce, mayo, a slice of sweet onion and a juicy slice of tomato all on two pieces of soft Rye bread can taste. One man’s bologna is another man’s luxury, I suppose.     

My bologna has a first name…..