"Have to go into town, anyway" (retired, psycho, friends)
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During the weekend, while it would be the ideal time for shopping between time and my energy levels, I often don't. I don't leave the ranch unless I have to because, afterall, M-F, I have to go into town, anyway, for work.
But once we retire, is this a habit that is ingrained into us? To find a reason to have to go into town, anyway?
During the weekend, while it would be the ideal time for shopping between time and my energy levels, I often don't. I don't leave the ranch unless I have to because, afterall, M-F, I have to go into town, anyway, for work.
But once we retire, is this a habit that is ingrained into us? To find a reason to have to go into town, anyway?
Not for me. My best time was 2020 during the covid lockdown. I have plenty to keep me busy at home, and I live in town, but I don't like shopping. I go once a week. When I was working and taking care of my aunt I only left the house on Saturday when a comfort Keeper person would come stay with her for a few hours. Now that I am retired I do leave the house more often because my aunt goes to a senior center twie a week. So, I do feel tied down now because of not being able to leave her alone, and I spend the time she is at the center visiting friends or getting supplies at Home Depot to work on a project, this house needs a lot of fixing.
P.S. I worked from home since 2016 so maybe that makes a difference in my attitude.
During the weekend, while it would be the ideal time for shopping between time and my energy levels, I often don't. I don't leave the ranch unless I have to because, afterall, M-F, I have to go into town, anyway, for work.
But once we retire, is this a habit that is ingrained into us? To find a reason to have to go into town, anyway?
When you retire the weekends is when you don't go into town
I lived rural for 10 years of retirement....met friends for lunch, went shopping, etc all during the week.
I live in a town now and still stay home on weekends.
During the weekend, while it would be the ideal time for shopping between time and my energy levels, I often don't. I don't leave the ranch unless I have to because, afterall, M-F, I have to go into town, anyway, for work.
But once we retire, is this a habit that is ingrained into us? To find a reason to have to go into town, anyway?
I never had such a habit. I want to go somewhere, then I go. The day does not matter a whit.
I don't have a particular day of the week I go or don't go (unless there is a festival or some kind of marathon going on in a weekend), but I do all of my weekly errands -- post office, bank, weekly grocery shopping and any miscellaneous errands -- in the nearest 'big little town' (pop. about 10,000) on the same day, although this day usually varies from week to week. (The big little town is 15 miles from us, and I don't like to waste gas, so if we need something between the weekly trips, we go to the small local market which is just two miles from us.)
One of the major joys of retirement is more freedom to go wherever you want whenever you darn well please! You can be spontaneous, even frivolous about scheduling your time. Wasteful, efficient or not, you could even (shudder) retain the same exact patterns you followed while you worked. So many OPs who start threads here seem to view crossing the threshold of retirement as equivalent to transiting into the fourth dimension. Let's not drift off into the whole "wasting fuel, energy, atmospheric gasses, wear and tear on the car, money" aspects of being frivolous, shall we? Totally different concerns. Some people become misers in retirement for good reasons. Others become misers for no good reason. Another facet of the retiree population doesn't. Financing day to day living in retirement gets done to death and will continue to be. There's no one-size-fits-all answer. I get it. Retirement after 20, 30, 40 or more years in the working world is a big change. What I don't get is the urge/desire to psychoanalyze such minutiae to such a degree or to nail down every aspect of one's daily retired life so firmly. Who's going to leap out of the bushes to shake their finger at you if you don't do exactly what someone else does anyway?
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-03-2023 at 02:02 PM..
I don't have a particular day of the week I go or don't go (unless there is a festival or some kind of marathon going on in a weekend), but I do all of my weekly errands -- post office, bank, weekly grocery shopping and any miscellaneous errands -- in the nearest 'big little town' (pop. about 10,000) on the same day, although this day usually varies from week to week. (The big little town is 15 miles from us, and I don't like to waste gas, so if we need something between the weekly trips, we go to the small local market which is just two miles from us.)
This is sort of me with one exception, sort of, get to that in a moment.
One of the things about doing the trips when I have to be in town is that I can conserving "petro" and in that area, that is at least one area I am very financially conscious about. It is a pain to be doing do much on those days, especially when another one of those days is "tomorrow", however. Another pain is getting home with the car loaded with so much and so limited of a time to put it away before bed. I try to have them bag all the cold stuff in the same bags.
The exception is pets in the car. Essentially, to prevent the forgot about the backseat horror stories, that's an only one thing trip, that I am only thinking about that. When I retired, that will stay the same.
How I will do the rest of it? Well, working on that.
Freedom is doing what you want, when you want (assuming stores are open when the urge or need to go hits).
Freedom is one thing.......available funds for it is another.
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