Well the second year is up – and the roost is full! My first bill just arrived and I have to pony up $170 per month to keep the service.

I won’t.

I’m looking for suggestions on how to cut costs and separate as much of my services as I can.

Well, the answer was most evident when I removed the chicken from the pan to cut and add to my Creole Chicken and Rice dish. When I had about half of what I would like in the rice mixture, I was out of chicken: It had shrunk nearly in half — all that spattering was the water releasing from the chicken and popping and spattering in the oil I was frying the chicken in. What was left in the pan after I removed the chicken looked like about 1/3 of a cup of chicken broth; however, when I tasted it I found it had little flavor — not much good as a broth.

But, “Where’s the Chicken?” Where’d it go?

Well, I did some research and found out that it really wasn’t there to begin with. I found that before 1997, chicken processors were allowed to add water equal to 12% of the chicken’s weight. Then, inconceivably, the USDA removed the limitation! No, it didn’t increase it to 20%, or 25% or 30% — the FDA totally and completely, removed the limitation. Chicken processors can add virtually any amount of water, although they must state so on the packaging.

Is this a joke? Of course not! Now you’ll see remarks on labels like “20% flavor enhancer added”, “20% natural solution added”. What is the “natural solution”? Usually it’s just salty water — what could be more natural? So, not only are you paying $12 for $10 worth of chicken, but you are adding huge amounts of sodium to your diet: as much as 822% more sodium than natural chicken, according to the Truthful Labeling Coalition (www.truthfullabeling.org/)! So, while you thought you were reducing your sodium intake to fight your high blood pressure, a chicken is stabbing you in the back.

Often, a broth solution is used but what’s interesting about that is that MSG is often included in broth. I avoid MSG like a poison (oops, did I say it’s a poison?), why would I want it to be in my food without disclosure? More research told me that the FDA is attempting to re-regulate the water content in chicken by reverting to the 15% limit on water, the industry is fighting it beak and . . . I mean tooth and nail. Can you blame them? After all, they’re being asked to give up some of their excess profits!

If you are thinking this all affects only chicken . . . think again? I recently checked out the labels on a turkey tenderloin and a pork tenderloin both of which, in very small type, stated that ‘up to’ 30% flavor enhancer was added. Now, when I look at a package of ham and see “water added,” I have to wonder, “How much?” It will be an educational experience, I promise you, to look over the labels of the prepared foods you see in the meat cases of your favorite grocery store.

And that’s the most important message here . . . “to look over the labels” . Now more than ever before, manipulation of our food supply is striking you where it does the most damage: in your body as well as your wallet. It happens to be my pet peeve, so you can be sure you’ll hear more about it from me, in the future!

We gave it a lot of thought and researched methods of cutting our meal prep time and came up with a very obvious solution. I say “obvious” mainly because it should have been; however, it took an article in someone else’s blog to remind us that by doubling the amount of food prepared each time, and therefore doubling the number of meals prepped in the same time, we cut our cooking time in half.

Some trial and error is necessary to refine your technique, however. If you knew me personally, you’d realize that I have a problem with food: I eat too much of it. So, making a double batch of dinner, also doubles my temptation to overeat. That challenge can be overcome, though, by immediately packing away the 2nd meal — it’s not ironclad, but it adds a layer of security, so to speak.

One hurdle to overcome is the fact that just doubling ingredients gives you two batches: not so. Certain seasonings, notoriously salt, should not be doubled (try 1-1/2 the original amount). Others can be more than doubled, like garlic, or stock. Err on the side of caution and taste as you go.

There’s a cookbook around, called “Cook Once Eat Twice”, which gives you a recipe for the second meal in which you modify the leftovers and create an entirely new meal from it.. Not all of the combos appeal to us, so I sometimes try to modify the rerun myself. Today’s roast chicken can become tomorrow’s chicken pot pie (using low fat additions, of course) Take some of Sunday’s pot roast, cubed, and add it to some beef stock and frozen or leftover veggies, throw in some barley and a bayleaf, and you have beef barley soup. Bigger cubes and more barley and you have beef barley stew.

Some great ideas come from a menu/meal planning service called E-Mealz (www.e-mealz.com). They provide, at a cost of less than $5.00 per month, a weekly meal planner that includes shopping lists! When you sign up, you select any one of several categories. I’ve tried a couple of them, including one designed for WeightWatcher’s fans (not endorsed by WeightWatchers), a low-fat category, and one which just prescribes meals of ‘general’ type. Many of the meals may be called “comfort food”, to my way of thinking. Some of the meals are downright ingenious, like one which takes simple broth, chicken chunks, veggies and other simple ingredients, to which you add a few flour tortillas, cut in strips, and PRESTO you have quick and easy chicken and dumplings literally in minutes.

Each week’s E-Mealz edition gives 5 or 7 recipes for dinner and gives a consolidated shopping list, so that if there are two recipes calling for 1/2 pound and 3/4 pounds of chicken breast, it’ll tell you to buy 1-1/4 pounds of chicken breast.

As soon as I figure this blogging thing all out, I’ll be providing links to many of the things I’ve referred to.

It’s particularly true if you are already on a tight budget going into your mid-sixties. Perhaps you don’t feel confident that you have enough of a nest egg to enjoy your “golden years,” and you feel a nagging anxiety in your soul as the calendar pages slip away. Good or bad, it is essential that you have a handle on what to expect financially as you transition to living on your savings and a fixed income. It helps to know what’s ahead of you.

The first thing you might consider doing is to create a few spreadsheets and do some “proforma” projections of how your income is going to flow. If you own Excel or a similar spreadsheet program, you can begin right away to create these spreadsheets. Now, if you don’t own such applications, don’t go out and spend a couple of hundred dollars on Excel or some expensive budgeting software. Assuming you have some skill in using a spreadsheet, you could just go to Google.com and sign up for a FREE account where you can immediately take advantage of “Google Docs”. Google Docs consists of a suite of free “productivity” software, including spreadsheet, word processing and presentation functions. If you don’t have experience with Excel (or Word), remember that it costs nothing to sign up and explore Google’s free online applications.

Google Docs makes “office suite software” not only CHEAP to use, but also incredibly easy.  There are books available to help you, including the “for Dummies” series. You will likely find them in a well equipped library, but these are books you’ll want to own for reference, so after looking them over at the library (or the bookstore), pick the best and buy it so you’ll always have it close at hand. In a coming article, we’ll get into more depth on this; for now, you may want to check out some of the resources mentioned.

Let’s say you are born in 1950 and would have a normal Social Security benefit commencement age of 66 (for someone born from 1943 to 1954). Further, let’s say you would normally receive a monthly benefit of $2,000 at age 66, but you decide to take early commencement at age 62. According to the Social Security Administration website (www.socialsecurity.gov), you’ll get hit with a 25% reduction at age 62. This means that your benefit would be reduced to $1,500 per month at age 62. At some point in time, according to theory, the totals in each scenario will equal out. So, based on that theory, you decide to wait till age 66 and then apply for your benefit. Then, you decide to celebrate your decision and gleefully run out to Ben & Jerry’s for a nice big sundae. In your glee, you neglect to look both ways and don’t see the bus coming.

Total received: $0! Had you decided to take the age 62 benefit, you would have received $72,000!

As time passes, the difference becomes less significant. At age 70, you would have received $144,000 since age 62, vs. $96,000 since age 66. At around age 78 it balances out and having started payments at 62 looks less advantageous.

None of this, however, takes into consideration that you might not have earned a salary from 62 to 66, nor that you might have invested any of the proceeds.

I’ve heard the question often. It goes something like this: “I have $X of credit card debt, and while I want to be debt-free, I’m sure I could miss some great investment results if I throw all my money at my credit card debt!”

To me, if you look at the math, it doesn’t make any sense. If you invest in some common stock or common stock funds, you might grow by some percentage as time passes. While you are waiting for time to pass . . . Google these words:  “stocks plunge 2008 2009″. What appears as a result of that search should shake you back to reality! Fact is the market can be volatile. Hopefully, we won’t see the plunge that we witnessed in those years. Investing involves the risk that the same thing could happen — even as you are reading this!

The question behind the question, though, is more like, “Would I borrow money at 20% interest to invest in a market where I could very well lose that much and more?” When you make the choice to not pay down debt in order to use your money for another purpose, it is as if you are borrowing that money again! To be sure, it could go up by twice that rate, but if you’re reading this blog because the name fits you (baby boomer), can you afford this risk? Twenty, ten or maybe even five years ago, your answer might have been clouded by the distance to retirement, but now it should be clouded by the distance you could add to retirement!

Another point of view, to me, is this: What better investment is there where the investment result is guaranteed to be at least twenty percent? Think of it: by paying off a debt accumulating at 20% it is as if you have invested at that rate. A $10,000 debt right now will become $12,000 a year from now. So if you pay it off today, logically, you will have $2,000 more in your asset pocket a year from now.

So how do you accomplish such a feat — paying off debt? There are a few turkeys out their selling bogus software and books teaching you to “borrow your way out of debt” (my words, not theirs!), but there are also quite a few solid sources of wise advice. One of my favorites can be found at: http://www.daveramsey.com while another can be found at http://www.thesimpledollar.com

I frequently refer to each of these often when I discuss money with my friends. Where do you get your advice?

Instead, we should study a good map; a map that will help us visualize the continuity of our path. A companion to that map, might be a guide to hotels, motels and restaurants along the way — maybe even an auto club guide with information on the quality of not only the restaurants and lodging but even where the roads are “under construction”! In short, planning our trip will get us where we are going with the least outlay of time, and cash.

To approach retirement, is no less important, yet some of us arrive at the gates of retirement with no idea of how we got here and less of a clue as to what we are going to do now that we’re here!

Much of what you’ll read here, is about planning for retirement — whether you are in your forties, twenties or sixties! We’ll take a look together at the journey from the point of view of planning and mapping it out, financing the trip, packing the car, hitting the road and reaching our destination.