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The Joys of Retirement and Renovations

 My other half didn’t quite get the concept of budgeting when we retired.

“I haven’t scraped and saved all my life so that I cannot buy what I want,” he said. 

I try to explain that the savings should be used for the ‘big’ or ’important’ things – the car repairs, a new appliance, our frequent trips to see the grandchildren (and coffee)! He still doesn’t get it – so potentially the savings could disappear quite quickly. I didn’t worry about the scaremongers who told us how many hundreds of thousands we needed to save for our retirement – well we couldn’t have done it anyway unless we lived in a tent and cycled everywhere (which might have been good for the health). But we squirreled a bit away in our retirement fund, plus a bit more in savings and even some money for renovations. Seems like it wasn’t enough! The reno’s cost considerably more than we had saved. Maybe the cracks in the shower wall weren’t that bad. The holes in the linoleum could be disguised and the toilet only leaked a bit!

However, it was reluctantly decided we did need to do some renovations in those oh so important small rooms for the sake of our health let alone the aesthetics value. We consoled ourselves with the thought it would make selling our house easier if we ever came to that decision.

Purely by accident we discovered we had asbestos-backed linoleum in the bathroom, toilet and laundry. So we had to get the ‘boys’ from the local asbestos removal crew to remove it. Quite a job it was too so I am glad we didn’t attempt it. Being very good about drinking my water, and having the problem of an aging waterworks, I had to make several trips a day across to my dear old mums for a toilet break. She loved my brief visits.

Of course, there was also the local café where I could go grab a coffee then use their restrooms. I drank a lot of coffee during those renovations. Seemed like a good use of those savings. Let’s face it, where is the joy of retirement if not for coffee. Happy coffee-drinking friends.

 


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