With Costs Rising and Affordability Declining: How Can You Still Live in Style

November 11, 2025 — The hottest political button right now seems to be affordability. Everything costs so much since Covid, and the COLA from Social Security is not going cover that. A long time ago we wrote an article, “How to Be a Cheapskate and Retire in Style“. It generated an amazing number of great Comments from our Members. Today’s situation seems like an ideal time to replay them. Here is a sampling from the many great Comments the article generated.

Live Like a Cheapskate and Retire in Style

1. A number of generic drugs are free at places such as Walmart, Publix, or Meijer. You will still need a prescription from your doc, though. If you are a veteran, you can probably qualify for greatly discounted drugs.

2. If you’re 62 or over, purchase a $80 Lifetime Senior Pass that gets you into more than 2,000 federal recreations sites, including National Parks, This is a perk a lot of people don’t know about. The pass covers the car passengers, too. (http://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm)

3. Do what my kids have done re phones – dump the landline and only use your cell phone. Before you cancel, be sure its cost isn’t bundled in a discounted package with TV or Internet service.

Jan Cullinane, Author of AARP’s The Single Woman’s Guide to Retirement

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One of the biggest money savers we have is couponing. My wife is like one of those people (almost) you see on TV on extreme couponing. She will usually save us 50 to 60 percent per trip to the grocery store. Most of the time she matches coupons with items on sale, often getting the items for FREE. We have also built up a significant amount of stores because we take advantage of good deals and stock up on low cost items. Johnny Jacobs

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I agree that couponing is great but I find unless I exercize restraint, it’s like being at an auction and I wind up buying items that I don’t regularly use because it’s on sale and I have a coupon! I guess I get caught up in the challenge. We do not drink bottled water and that saves a ton of money. We shop on days when there’s a senior discount offered at our groceries, department stores and movie theaters. We take advantage of restaurant deals such as Groupon and Restaurant.com when we eat out which isn’t more than twice a month unless it’s a special occasion. And contrary to the suggestion of paying with cash, we use one credit card for everything, pay it off monthly and use the points we accumulate for yearly travel. It works great if you have some ability to control your spending. I can understand the issue of not thinking of plastic as real money!

Cherie

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I can add many other ways to save money. Nonetheless, the one from the list of 15 that resonates with me is Number 15: “Make more money.”

Ernie

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I always use credit cards for purchases when I can and have one for gasoline, one for meals (and wine) out, one for travel and one for everything else. The reason? I get 2% cash back on the one for everything else and 3% to 5% with the other cards in cash back.

High Yield Consultant

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Entertain at home! People have gotten into the habit of eating out, often because they were too busy while managing a career to cook more than a simple meal. Now that you are retired and have more time,invite friends over for dinner and a game of Bananagrams, or another fun game. Most of your guests will ask, “What can I bring?” Take them up

on the offer to share both the time it takes to prepare a meal and the costs. You’ll find that eating at home costs less, is fun to do, usually means tasty-left-overs, and generates return invitations.

Patricia

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Since I retired I have cut my expenses by 50 % with out much change in my life-style.
1. I watch every penny….now I don’t spend mindlessly.
2. I shop for food and anything else once a month.
3. I look for alternatives. For example, I take out ebooks from the library.
4. I am in the process of creating a pet-care co-op so that I don’t have to spend money for
my cats when I travel short-term.
It is a rewarding challenge!

LuluM

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We love to bike and walk/hike together. Our comfort bikes (after years of trying to strain our necks on cheap mountain bikes) was one of the best investments we ever made … made bike riding a real joy (we ride flat rails-to-trails). Life can be so wonderful from just the simple pleasures.

MadMonk

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I’m surprised no one has suggested thrift shops. You can find most anything at a PTA Thrift Shop or other such resource. Clothes especially are insanely expensive and thrift shops are filled with clean, lightly used, even new clothes for everyone at dramatically lower prices.