The Keeping A Home Action Plan……

I was talking to a friend yesterday on the phone about homeless people and homeless bloggers. It made me think long and hard. I want to do what it takes to keep a home. I never want to be homeless again. Our conversation got me to thinking. I need to write up a plan of action for the next few years. I am on a fixed income and have to plan carefully to make it stretch the whole month. Here are some of my ideas that I have written down. These are some goals I have. It all revolves around frugality.

1) Prepare all my meals. Stay away from fast food. Eating out is very expensive. The $5 dollars I would spend on a Happy Meal would feed me for several days if I bought a whole chicken for that amount. I would even have chicken stock for soup after boiling that chicken.
2) Put aside $100 dollars every month into my savings account. I can do this and have been doing it. I just have to be very frugal with my money. In a year that
would be $1200 dollars put aside.
3) Save my current savings and do not go into it for frivolous purchases i.e. video games and entertainment.
4) Stay away from the booze. Only drink responsibly. I allow myself one night every week to have toddy and a night cap. Booze is extremely expensive and also bad for my health if it is not consumed moderately.
5) Try to stop smoking cigarettes. I am slowly gaining ground on this. I find myself smoking my pipe much more and it is much more economical in cost. Eventually, I need to quit, period, but I do love my pipe tobacco and a cup of coffee.
6) Purchase one year, three year, and five year certificates of deposit with my savings once I have a sizable amount. This way I will be drawing much more interest than with a savings account.
7) Ride my bike as much as I can. Only use the car if I must travel a long distance.
8) Only use my air conditioning at night. This is hard to do but I have done it all week. Air Conditioning is one of my greatest expenses as far as electricity goes. I
hate getting a large electric bill and it eats up my
money.
9) Purchase my own home and set up everything to be automatically deducted out of my check on the 3rd of the month. That way if I ever become extremely ill again or delusional, I will always have a home and my basic needs met such as utilities.

Well, this is just a start. I will think of more things to save money and plan for the future as I go. I just want to be smart about this and build myself a future. I do not want to wake up in my 40’s like the homeless guy with hardly anything to my name. I do not want to waste my life living in a tent in the woods. Have a good day and be well.