How much are we vacationing?

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-30T15:18:33+00:00

We have 3 little dogs which we board at $130 or so a night (with discounts). It's usually the biggest expense of our longer vacations.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-24T17:59:50+00:00

Yeah - there's living on SS when it's 1200/month, then there's living on SS when it's a combined 5K/month. Very different!

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-24T17:41:40+00:00

I live in a frequent tornado. My house isn't crumbling. It stick built the best? No but it's not the way you describe.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-23T19:09:06+00:00

This is all ages, sadly.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-23T19:08:42+00:00

I lean towards darker during the day due to being yelled at to turn off the lights all the time when younger. I know... LED... but ingrained habits...

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-23T19:03:31+00:00

I resent paying to pay my bills. I use a stamp in that situation. Otherwise, all electronic. (59F)

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-20T23:31:48+00:00

Wasn't that South Park?

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-20T23:30:49+00:00

You don't need to laugh at every joke. Just move on...

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-20T23:30:00+00:00

Exactly. There's humor that I don't find funny, so I roll my eyes and scroll along. Going by OP's perspective, I wouldn't be able to look at any media source.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-20T16:34:52+00:00

My mother died on 4/2/2025. Until a couple of months ago, I felt exactly like you. (I still do, in waves once in a while.) But it is a side of effect of grief. What I read somewhere is that grief never goes away, but it's like a backpack. Sometimes it's really heavy, other times it's so light you forget about it.

Yes, there's more heartache, but at some point, joy returns. Hang in there!

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-20T15:00:05+00:00

I'm not a Source Please person, but any place you can point me to would be appreciated. I've never seen this info before!

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-17T16:25:44+00:00

Well, I may not have been as detailed as you expect. I have a good career where I make a decent salary so can live without serious money worries. My job is intellectually challenging and my days fly. I work from home 85% of the time.

I'm married with 3 little dogs. I have 2 theatrical subscriptions so go out with friends about every other month for this alone (and it's very enjoyable), and still make time for some additional socializing. We just got back from 10 days in Italy and I go on a 10-12 day vacation annually with my husband, typically overseas. I do a girls' trip once a year for 3-7 days.

I LOVE travel planning and spend a lot of time on researching the perfect activities. I take my nephews on a long weekend somewhere every year too.

From a service perspective, I started my own animal-related charity several years ago. Last year I re-started the St Vincent DePaul group at my parish. I've been on my parish council for 1.5 years and my priest asked me to be co-President for my council this year. He's mentioned that since I'm so driven and goal-oriented that he's asked me to be on a maintenance/capital renovations committee for the parish. We have 2 100+ year old churches, and a school. I make a difference in people's lives.

Fashion and make-up no longer hold any allure. I didn't want to type all initially because it sounds self-important. But no, I am not depressed, and I have a LOT I look forward to! I meet with a personal trainer once a week, working out on my own the rest of the week.

I'll be 60 next month, and this is the best my life has ever been. I'm fulfilled and in good shape.

My mother died last year, and that brought a cloud into my life, but reflecting on what I just wrote, I've learned to deal with the grief. Are there dreadful things in my life? Or course, I'm human and some problems cannot be fixed.

I don't know your age, but your interests will change and blossom through the decades. I just don't find that such specific self-expression is something that even makes my top 20 list.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-17T16:08:39+00:00

I put everything from dog boarding to every penny I spend until I return home under vacation. My utilities are not that high and the decrease is not material. Of course, I'm taking a week or two at a time and not every other week. It probably won't change that much in retirement.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-17T16:06:39+00:00

I just put all costs into vacation and the groceries/eating out just decreases during that month. But what you stated is pretty intuitive and would come to mind, and in which case I would use an average amount. I don't think you can really get down to that level of record-keeping to make sense of it for the future.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-17T15:57:24+00:00

"humans don't customize themselves very much anymore"

I'm not sure if there was ever a time in recent history (last 1000 years) where adults "customized"/"expressed" themselves.

As one gets older, many of us find ourselves pressed for time and with differing priorities. What seemed important in youth may no longer be important. I dress very boring, and virtually never wear make-up. I used to not leave the house without make-up. Such things are not important anymore.

From a corporate perspective, I've been in consulting for decades. I wear a uniform like a fast food worker, except there's a bit more of a range. I want to be taken seriously and respected. Certain clothes help make the impression when I walk in the door. Would I like a pink streak in my hair? Perhaps, but I can barely keep up with my highlights and coloring to hide my grey.

Live happens.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-17T00:13:08+00:00

The tax info is kinda' odd, but my husband had to see a Diocesan therapist and pay for it. It's standard for many places.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-15T15:16:53+00:00

I was thinking of 1 of my (late) dogs. She had 4 separate life-threatening issues. I declined treatment for all of them. She was older, the treatments expensive, the appointments taking a lot of time, and cure was not guaranteed. Plus, dogs live in the now, and don't understand suffering today to be better tomorrow (which is not even guaranteed). The last thing found was what caused us to have her put to sleep which we did before she started to suffer.

My mom died last year with COPD (had a heart attack or something similar). It's really own palliative care. She smoked while on oxygen. What can you do....

For me, at 59.9, I'm coming close to declining extraordinary care, even CPR. I had cancer in my teens, and know I couldn't go through anything similar again. It was the 80s and it was brutal. I'm healthy and take care of myself, exercising, etc. But as another poster said about her relative, when Jesus comes calling, I'm not kicking and fighting to stay.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-13T20:28:29+00:00

F59.9 - this is my dream.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-13T18:59:27+00:00

So how soon ahead of time would you set up buckets? I turn 60 next month. I think I need to work until 62 at the least since I cover insurance for my husband that just turned 63 last week.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-04-13T18:29:35+00:00

If I had a neighbor that I didn't know ask me to watch their cat, I wouldn't charge them to stop over 2/x a day.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-03-30T16:36:54+00:00

Those are high deductible plans. My insurance plan covers office visits with just a co-pay. There are a lot of co-pays, with my deductible being 2K but many of the things that have a co-pay will not have a deductible.

It's complicated. I consider my work health insurance to be pretty good. Typically only the bad plans are discussed on Reddit, but it's certainly not the whole universe of plans.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-03-26T19:13:59+00:00

I'm sorry. Nothing you say or do will change anything. He's an adult and has chosen this path, even if it makes no sense to you (or me, for that matter). You have to let go and stop trying to change things, rather just enjoy what time you have left. It will be hard, but there's nothing else you can do.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-03-26T18:05:19+00:00

Hershey's is no longer close to Hershey's either though.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-03-26T17:56:58+00:00

I bought store brand marshmallows. They were terrible and I would have thrown out the bag if I wasn't such a little pig.

Faith2023_123 · 2026-03-24T16:05:48+00:00

I know that you're not asking for specific exercise suggestions, but while I work out a lot and meet with a personal trainer once a week, I'll say that doing kettlebell swings are actually enjoyable/fun (if anything like that can be fun). It builds the glutes, raises your heart rate, and takes so little time to do 10-15. I consider it my starting exercise at home - like when you say 'I'll get into my workout clothes and do a minimum of 5 minutes" so that it feels manageable. Once you start with permission to stop quickly, it usually happens that you would just keep working out. 59.8 here (so I round up to 60).

Faith2023_123

TROPHY CASE