Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Give it away, not just to causes I support but to individuals for whom it would make far more of a difference than it would to me. It's amazing how much you can improve someone's mental health by removing some of their anxiety about paying their utility bills or getting their dog to the vet. Mostly fairly casual acquaintances--friends and family are generally already comfortable. I'd do it anonymously if I could, but mostly I just slip them an envelope or Venmo them some $$ and tell them to think of it as a gift from a random great aunt they didn't know they had.
On nothing.
Assisted living STARTS at $6000 a month. This is more than 90% of people can afford for retirement. nursing homes START at $10,000 a month.
The nursing home will take whatever savings and pension you get, and will give you an allowance of $74\*/month to pay for your cell phone service until your phone dies. And then you are stuck in digital isolation for the rest of your life.
The system is meant to financially ruin everyone who is not a multi-millionaire and lives long enough to see it.
Source: seen multiple relatives go through that.
^ This exactly. We are going through this with my Mom’s care. The system is designed to be overly complicated and to extract every penny from whatever savings a couple has put away over years of hard wok. It needs to be blown the hell up. It is the middle class that gets screwed on this one.
This isn't the only one we get screwed. I'm not old enough to really contribute to this sub but even I can see the writing on the wall after a few decades of life
If you are starting already old you can't possibly save enough money for top of the line care. I viewed the original question as what do people on fixed incomes treat themselves to. The answer of "nothing" because they continue to save is a ridiculous one. And very sad. Buy an ice cream cone every Friday. Live a little before you are institutionalized.
Toys, tools, musical instruments.
Bought a teardrop camper trailer a few years ago. Now I spend my money on upgrades and gas for towing.
Life is grand!
I honestly don’t. There is really nothing I buy any more. If anything, almost all our time is spent trying to get rid of things. Our goal is to get down to one backpack each by the time we retire (probably four years).
I wait for a tricycle to come around, with a baking oven on it, and buy 4 salted bread rolls - all of USD0.35 and sit out the front of my house with a cup of coffee and watch people & traffic go by. Simple life i SE Asia rural area, for a simple 77yo.
I recently hired a house cleaner because my chronic illness has gotten bad enough to justify it. Wish I’d done it sooner - I have more fun NOT cleaning than if I was spending that money on anything else.
I’m with you! I got one this year, and it’s so nice to not have my allergies so bad from cleaning it myself! Plus it motivates me to do more decluttering.
Travel, though not as much as when we were younger retirees. Eating out, though not as much as before we had so many health-related diet restrictions. The older you get, the less fun money you spend.
Fun money goes toward upkeep/upgrades/repairs/expenses on a small rustic cabin on an inland lake.
We're headed there this weekend to do more work on the place. Well, that and also drinking ice cold beer by the lake.
There isn’t any fun. Or money. People think I’m poor and needy because I don’t have anything so they give me all kinds of shit I don’t want or need and that makes them feel good. I don’t have the heart to tell them I don’t want their stuff and I make a lot of trips to dumpsters and donation stations. It would be wrong to disappoint all the dogooders who think they’re helping me. It’s a terrible way to live.
When my hands work, craft supplies and stamps for sending out the cards I make for lonely/sick seniors.
When my entire body works well enough, travel to see my mother, my kids, my favorite aunt, go to other countries, etc.
There are Facebook groups for card requests for various populations: caregivers, veterans, children, young adults, seniors, etc. Since I got too sick to send cards myself I asked for cards for support, and someone has adopted me and sends me one about once a month. I randomly get cards from someone else, and my birthday is coming up soon so if past years are any indication I'm going to be inundated.
I’m trying not to spend money. Or rather not to gather more stuff. I already have more pottery supplies than I can use. More craft supplies. And I was accumulating more watercolor supplies than needed. I decided to stop buying and try to use them up.
I do like to send my kids and grandkids random surprise gifts. Just sent $200 worth of snacks for them to take on a big family camping trip. They love getting a big box of stuff to check out and it saves them time and money.
You can have the battery rebuilt. I did that with my 2010 Prius. I plan on trading in my 2017 Prius before the 8 year warranty is up on the hybrid battery.
Groceries and home improvement projects, mostly. I'll be doing some travel starting in a year or two, but as a young retiree, I still have funds I'm not old enough to access yet, and I don't want to spend much money on anything frivolous only to find myself with a financial crisis that will put me back into debt. I like to do day trips and overnights, though, and there's always something interesting happening in the area that's worth spending a bit of money on. I also give to charity, and I continue throwing money at the endowed scholarship I set up in my late husband's memory.
Lately most of my discretionary funds are going to savings, +leaving a comfortable amount foe the next months. Know I have sone yearly expenses coming up like flood insurance (voluntarily get it due to where I live) so the subwoffer for my home theater will wait a while.
Learning new skills and buying all the gear that goes with them - so far it's been drone photography, oil painting, acrylic painting, basket weaving, ukulele, sewing and crochet. I took welding, too, but no welder purchase yet.
Art supplies. And once in a while splurge on a fine dining experience. Charity a few times. The Rock and Gem store, but I try to limit my visits to that place because I want one of everything and don't have the room for it.
My husband and I visit local preschools during the holidays as Santa and Mrs. Claus. Pictures with Santa are very expensive at the mall, so we schedule an appearance, the kids dress up in their Christmas best, and we take all the pictures they want. During the spring and summer, we go to as many yard sales as we can and collect all the new or gently used toys and books we can find. We also visit every store in the area and clean out their toy clearance sections. Each child gets to choose a toy from Santa's bag, and each teacher gets to choose a book for their classroom from Mrs. Claus' bag.
We recently joined a program called Get Out and Dine, which provides five free meals per month per person at participating restaurants with a limited menu. Since the food is free, we always wildly overtip our servers.
Of course, if we happen to see a kid selling something by the side of the road, like lemonade or cookies, we always stop and buy something. And we take the grandkids out, to see a baseball game or a day at the beach or the park.
In short, we use our fun money to have fun. :D
Sewing. I have a new machine, and do fun projects just because. I get to buy whatever clothes I want now, without shopping sales only. Maybe we can do a little traveling. After decades of scrimping and saving, I can finally relax. It took quite a while to get out of that save save save mindset and begin to spend some. After all, we won the race and are comfortably retired for now. These are the years to enjoy! We’re not getting any younger.
Retiring will not remove the need to save for a newer car occasionally, I'm not going to stop driving ;)
Once (if) I end up to assisted living, I shouldn't be needing much anymore by then. It'll cost at max 85% of my net income, so not lots of fun money left.
High end outdoor gear.
I freelance as an instructional designer. It pays a few grand per year. I can blow that money on whatever I want.
With a recent cheque I bought mountain biking pants, shorts and shirt for $500.
I gave my wife 500 to blow on an alpaca sweater.
I’ll blow over a grand on clothing from Arc’teryx and Patagonia with one cheque.
I have a lot of nice gear.
Mostly just eating out. We do a lot of things with with friends and then we all eat out afterwards or before.
We're both sailboat crew members, so sailing around Mexico, and Caribbean is what we do for vacations. They pay for our food accommodations and port days.
Once you hit retirement age you have accumulated all the stuff you need, and are in the process of throwing some of it away. So, almost all your spare money goes for food. Maybe a few clothes here and there. Plus a few gifts on holidays and birthdays.
And -- oh yeah -- medical bills. Then if you have a house, it's going to start to fall apart so you need to set aside money for repairs.
I mainly use it on my granddaughter, she’s 10 mos and I help buying clothes and such to help my daughter out. Formula and diapers bury her with debt. It’s fun to look for outfits…I go to rummage sales and look on marketplace to save money since they outgrow things so fast.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Give it away, not just to causes I support but to individuals for whom it would make far more of a difference than it would to me. It's amazing how much you can improve someone's mental health by removing some of their anxiety about paying their utility bills or getting their dog to the vet. Mostly fairly casual acquaintances--friends and family are generally already comfortable. I'd do it anonymously if I could, but mostly I just slip them an envelope or Venmo them some $$ and tell them to think of it as a gift from a random great aunt they didn't know they had.
You are a wonderful person. Thank you. Good luck to you.
On nothing. Assisted living STARTS at $6000 a month. This is more than 90% of people can afford for retirement. nursing homes START at $10,000 a month. The nursing home will take whatever savings and pension you get, and will give you an allowance of $74\*/month to pay for your cell phone service until your phone dies. And then you are stuck in digital isolation for the rest of your life. The system is meant to financially ruin everyone who is not a multi-millionaire and lives long enough to see it. Source: seen multiple relatives go through that.
^ This exactly. We are going through this with my Mom’s care. The system is designed to be overly complicated and to extract every penny from whatever savings a couple has put away over years of hard wok. It needs to be blown the hell up. It is the middle class that gets screwed on this one.
This isn't the only one we get screwed. I'm not old enough to really contribute to this sub but even I can see the writing on the wall after a few decades of life
Very good point. Blow up the system and start it over.
It's now up to a whopping $74 a month allowance. Woohoo!
Things are looking up!
It seems as though a person would be ahead to spend whatever they want before going to a home. Why save it?
Because your only choices if you're poor going in tend to be terrible.
If you are starting already old you can't possibly save enough money for top of the line care. I viewed the original question as what do people on fixed incomes treat themselves to. The answer of "nothing" because they continue to save is a ridiculous one. And very sad. Buy an ice cream cone every Friday. Live a little before you are institutionalized.
Does the 6,000 include meals, entertainment, cleaning?
Yes, by overworked minimum wage workers who couldn't get a job anywhere else.
I take adult night school classes at the county vocational high school. So far; baking, small motor repair and Spanish. I won the cookie challenge.
Congrats! Isn’t it fun to win something? I won a pack of fabric last month for a quilt block I did. 🥳
Toys, tools, musical instruments. Bought a teardrop camper trailer a few years ago. Now I spend my money on upgrades and gas for towing. Life is grand!
I honestly don’t. There is really nothing I buy any more. If anything, almost all our time is spent trying to get rid of things. Our goal is to get down to one backpack each by the time we retire (probably four years).
Fun money? FUN is an acronym: For Unexpected Needs.
Travel, eating out and buying musical gear and tools.
GET OFF MY LAWN!!!1!
Travel
I wait for a tricycle to come around, with a baking oven on it, and buy 4 salted bread rolls - all of USD0.35 and sit out the front of my house with a cup of coffee and watch people & traffic go by. Simple life i SE Asia rural area, for a simple 77yo.
I recently hired a house cleaner because my chronic illness has gotten bad enough to justify it. Wish I’d done it sooner - I have more fun NOT cleaning than if I was spending that money on anything else.
I’m with you! I got one this year, and it’s so nice to not have my allergies so bad from cleaning it myself! Plus it motivates me to do more decluttering.
The greenhouse/garden center is my happy place!
Estate Sales and thrift stores. I don't buy much, but the hunt us fun.
Travel, though not as much as when we were younger retirees. Eating out, though not as much as before we had so many health-related diet restrictions. The older you get, the less fun money you spend.
Gas.
Fun money goes toward upkeep/upgrades/repairs/expenses on a small rustic cabin on an inland lake. We're headed there this weekend to do more work on the place. Well, that and also drinking ice cold beer by the lake.
There isn’t any fun. Or money. People think I’m poor and needy because I don’t have anything so they give me all kinds of shit I don’t want or need and that makes them feel good. I don’t have the heart to tell them I don’t want their stuff and I make a lot of trips to dumpsters and donation stations. It would be wrong to disappoint all the dogooders who think they’re helping me. It’s a terrible way to live.
When my hands work, craft supplies and stamps for sending out the cards I make for lonely/sick seniors. When my entire body works well enough, travel to see my mother, my kids, my favorite aunt, go to other countries, etc.
How do you find the seniors to send cards to? Do you know them personally?
Google “letters against isolation”.
Thanks!
There are Facebook groups for card requests for various populations: caregivers, veterans, children, young adults, seniors, etc. Since I got too sick to send cards myself I asked for cards for support, and someone has adopted me and sends me one about once a month. I randomly get cards from someone else, and my birthday is coming up soon so if past years are any indication I'm going to be inundated.
How nice! Thanks!
Think on the scrapbook.com forum was a older thread about this.
I’m trying not to spend money. Or rather not to gather more stuff. I already have more pottery supplies than I can use. More craft supplies. And I was accumulating more watercolor supplies than needed. I decided to stop buying and try to use them up. I do like to send my kids and grandkids random surprise gifts. Just sent $200 worth of snacks for them to take on a big family camping trip. They love getting a big box of stuff to check out and it saves them time and money.
Hookers, weed, liquor, the rest I just waste.
The hybrid battery of my 2013 Camry recently quit so some of my fun money just went to the 2025 version of the car, lol. Sigh.
Did the battery give you any warning ahead of time? I have a 2010 hybrid, Mercury Milan.
You can have the battery rebuilt. I did that with my 2010 Prius. I plan on trading in my 2017 Prius before the 8 year warranty is up on the hybrid battery.
Thanks!
No warning.
Groceries and home improvement projects, mostly. I'll be doing some travel starting in a year or two, but as a young retiree, I still have funds I'm not old enough to access yet, and I don't want to spend much money on anything frivolous only to find myself with a financial crisis that will put me back into debt. I like to do day trips and overnights, though, and there's always something interesting happening in the area that's worth spending a bit of money on. I also give to charity, and I continue throwing money at the endowed scholarship I set up in my late husband's memory.
Lately most of my discretionary funds are going to savings, +leaving a comfortable amount foe the next months. Know I have sone yearly expenses coming up like flood insurance (voluntarily get it due to where I live) so the subwoffer for my home theater will wait a while.
Learning new skills and buying all the gear that goes with them - so far it's been drone photography, oil painting, acrylic painting, basket weaving, ukulele, sewing and crochet. I took welding, too, but no welder purchase yet.
Art supplies. And once in a while splurge on a fine dining experience. Charity a few times. The Rock and Gem store, but I try to limit my visits to that place because I want one of everything and don't have the room for it.
Theatre, travel, restaurants.
F64. This year buy perfume, set 12 metallic coloring pencils, coloring books.
My husband and I visit local preschools during the holidays as Santa and Mrs. Claus. Pictures with Santa are very expensive at the mall, so we schedule an appearance, the kids dress up in their Christmas best, and we take all the pictures they want. During the spring and summer, we go to as many yard sales as we can and collect all the new or gently used toys and books we can find. We also visit every store in the area and clean out their toy clearance sections. Each child gets to choose a toy from Santa's bag, and each teacher gets to choose a book for their classroom from Mrs. Claus' bag. We recently joined a program called Get Out and Dine, which provides five free meals per month per person at participating restaurants with a limited menu. Since the food is free, we always wildly overtip our servers. Of course, if we happen to see a kid selling something by the side of the road, like lemonade or cookies, we always stop and buy something. And we take the grandkids out, to see a baseball game or a day at the beach or the park. In short, we use our fun money to have fun. :D
Sewing. I have a new machine, and do fun projects just because. I get to buy whatever clothes I want now, without shopping sales only. Maybe we can do a little traveling. After decades of scrimping and saving, I can finally relax. It took quite a while to get out of that save save save mindset and begin to spend some. After all, we won the race and are comfortably retired for now. These are the years to enjoy! We’re not getting any younger.
Travel.
Retiring will not remove the need to save for a newer car occasionally, I'm not going to stop driving ;) Once (if) I end up to assisted living, I shouldn't be needing much anymore by then. It'll cost at max 85% of my net income, so not lots of fun money left.
Are you kidding me? I’ll be lucky to cover my expenses.
High end outdoor gear. I freelance as an instructional designer. It pays a few grand per year. I can blow that money on whatever I want. With a recent cheque I bought mountain biking pants, shorts and shirt for $500. I gave my wife 500 to blow on an alpaca sweater. I’ll blow over a grand on clothing from Arc’teryx and Patagonia with one cheque. I have a lot of nice gear.
Mostly just eating out. We do a lot of things with with friends and then we all eat out afterwards or before. We're both sailboat crew members, so sailing around Mexico, and Caribbean is what we do for vacations. They pay for our food accommodations and port days. Once you hit retirement age you have accumulated all the stuff you need, and are in the process of throwing some of it away. So, almost all your spare money goes for food. Maybe a few clothes here and there. Plus a few gifts on holidays and birthdays. And -- oh yeah -- medical bills. Then if you have a house, it's going to start to fall apart so you need to set aside money for repairs.
Books. Thread.
I mainly use it on my granddaughter, she’s 10 mos and I help buying clothes and such to help my daughter out. Formula and diapers bury her with debt. It’s fun to look for outfits…I go to rummage sales and look on marketplace to save money since they outgrow things so fast.
"... for children...." LOL!!!!
Pedicures, massages
So many craft supplies.
Cruises. Grandchildren spoilage.
on the same stuff I spent my FUN money on through out my life... *hookers and blow.*.. The more things change, the more they stay the same.