Month: September 2018

Stretch Your Budget with Senior Discounts

Time to do more activities, but low on cash? Take advantage of Senior Discounts!

Eliminating that 40+ hour a week job means time in retirement to do more of the things you’ve always wanted to do. Unfortunately, more activities generally means spending more money! Luckily, one of the perks of aging is that lots of special discounts are available to help seniors keep costs in line with their budgets.

Most people are aware of senior discounts or specials at various restaurants, but there are many lesser-known discounts out there. Here are a few of my favorites.

AMC Theaters: Relax and enjoy a movie for less. Seniors 60+ get up to a 30% discount on admission at most locations.And on Tuesdays, that discount may be up to 60% off!

Southwest Airlines: This airline offers discounted senior fares to those ages 65 and older, and you can book flights online. Southwest also allows seniors to board early and will refund their fare in full if they have to cancel.

National Parks Pass: While the $10 lifetime national park pass for those ages 62 and over, there is still good news. Seniors can still get that same pass for $80, which is still a bargain! This pass will get you into every national park for the rest of your life – plus you get a 50 percent discount on amenities like camping, swimming, and boat launches.

Michael’s: These crafts stores offer a 10 percent discount (including sales items) every day for those age 55 and over with ID. The discount is not available online.

Cornell University: If you’ve always wanted to attend an Ivy League school and 60 or older, Cornell will let you take classes at a discounted rate for no credit during its summer program. Not close to Cornell? Many schools provide free or cheap classes for seniors – contact the institution convenient to you to see what they have to offer.

Want to learn about more senior discounts? These links will get you started:

Best Senior Discounts of 2018

Age Pays: 120 Senior Discounts (Some Starting at Age 50!) 

Best Perks for Seniors in All 50 States

2018 List of Senior Discounts on Restaurants

17 Discounts Seniors Did Not Know They Could Get

Discovering new discounts is always exciting! If you know of a great Senior Discount, please feel free to share in the comments!

Organize Your Bookshelves

Love to read? Hate how much new books cost? Take a look at PaperbackSwap.

When I decided it was time to retire, one of my first thoughts was, “Wow – now I’ll have time to read!” I have stacks – and stacks – of books living in bookcases, boxes, bags and closets. I’ve read them all. I want to hit a bookstore and buy more. But…have you seen the prices of books these days?? Yikes!

Enter www.PaperbackSwap.com, an online book swapping club. This site has been around for years (I joined in 2005) and currently has more than 1.5 million books available for trading in every genre you can think of. To join, just add books that you are willing to trade to your bookshelf (it’s easy – you just type in the book’s ISBN number and verify that the photo matches). When someone chooses the book, you mail it out to them (PaperbackSwap provides a printable mailing label). When they receive the book, they mark it as received and you get a point to use to order a book you want.

I spent a good part of an afternoon adding books to my PaperbackSwap bookshelf, and already have six books ordered and ready to send out. Of course, I also found more than six books to order! And I’ll get them just for the cost of the postage to mail out books I no longer want. Win, Win!

An extra benefit of PaperbackSwap is their ‘friends’ program. You can search for people that live nearby. As friends, if you offer a book that someone local wants, you can drop off a book or meet with them to get it – saving the postage cost, too! Plus you just may make a new local friend.

Hope to see you on PaperbackSwap.com soon – let me know in the comments section if you join! Or if you know of similar programs, please share that information too!

I Did It!

Retiring is both a happy event – and a confusing one. How do you navigate its ups and downs?

Today is my first official day of retirement! It’s exciting…and also scary. I’d been in the workforce for more than 45 years (well, except for six months when I was between jobs which doesn’t count, because I still had the job of looking for a new job!), and while I had many interests and hobbies ‘bc’ (before children), I just can’t seem to remember what they were!

What will I do with my time? Travel, volunteer, party with friends, cook delicious meals every day, find some new hobbies? Are there other people off during the day to do things with? Will I be able to keep myself busy or will I get bored? Will I have the money to do the things I want?

Right now I have a lot more questions than answers! And that’s why I started this blog: to help organize thoughts and ideas about what retirement is – or should be – all about!

Top on my list is spending more time with family and especially my two granddaughters! Luckily, they are just a few hours away by car and yes, I can still drive! And just as luckily, they do still need a babysitter.

Another high priority is to get up to the Wisconsin Northwoods more often. Our family has been vacationing near Minocqua for many years, but 1-2 weeks in the summer just isn’t enough time to relax and enjoy the many pleasures of lake-side life. (Note: the photo above was taken at Lake Shishebogama in Minocqua.)

I do have another less enticing list item – cleaning up and organizing the 30+ years of clutter and memories taking up space in our house! That may just take up all my time for the NEXT 30 years!

So…my life is ready for some new activities and events. I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open to new happenings and ideas. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. (Oh…I just thought of one…a book club – anybody know of an online club or a local club in the Illinois Valley? If not, maybe I can start one!)

I hope you’ll join me on my retirement journey. Please feel free to follow this blog and post comments and suggestions about how to get the most out of the retirement years.

And stop by tomorrow to see what I end up doing with the rest of my first day of retirement!

Stay young!
Jill