(Note: This article is purely fictional, if you have similar experiences, it is purely coincidental, please read it sensibly)
My name is Zhang Yanhua, and there are three people in my family, me, my wife and my married daughter.
Although my wife is over 60 years old, she still continues to work for the sake of this family. But I'm retired a long time ago, and I have a lot of free time, and I spend my days trying to see if I can do something to pass the time.
Usually there are only two people at home, my wife and me, and my son-in-law's house is a bit far away from us. On holidays and holidays, the younger couple has time to come and visit us. Although we have less company, we also have more time to enjoy life.
Our family lives on the first floor, in front of the house, with a small yard. In normal times, it is to plant flowers and plants in the yard, dry clothes, and take a cool ride in the summer.
Now that I have free time, I tidy up the yard and plant all kinds of vegetables after a series of ploughing and watering.
First, it is healthy to eat, because the vegetables grown by themselves do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and such green vegetables are almost impossible to buy in the city. Second, you can save most of the money for groceries, and you can virtually save some of your living expenses.
But what I didn't expect was that the vegetables in the vegetable garden were growing so well that the two of us couldn't eat them at all. So, I would pick some for my daughter and take home to eat. Sometimes there are too many vegetables, and we will give some to our neighbors in the community.
Until my wife also retired, our only source of income was our pension.
I have a pension of 4,000 yuan a month, and my wife's pension is more than mine, about 6,500 yuan, and the two of us have more than 10,000 yuan combined.
Although it sounds like a lot, if you exclude some daily living expenses, we don't have much money left, and it may be that at this moment, we started a minimalist retirement life.
However, even we didn't expect that in such a life, we would be able to save about 8,000 yuan a month.
In case someone gets sick or causes a disaster in the future, the two of us will not reach out to our daughter to ask for money. On the in-laws' side, there is only one child, the son-in-law, and both sides are only children.
As they get older, their health will become worse and worse, and even if the young couple gives up all their jobs, it will be difficult to take care of so many elderly people.
At that time, if the young couple can't take care of them, my wife and I will find a better nursing home, and the quality of life will not deteriorate. It also saves the young couple from too much pressure in their lives, and if they burn down their bodies, their lives will be even more sad.
So my wife and I discussed, in our pension matter, try not to increase the burden on the young couple. Usually save as much money as possible.
So, after discussion, my wife and I decided to choose to prepare for a minimalist retirement life and save more retirement money for emergencies. Since then, my wife and I have been consciously saving money and trying to avoid spending unnecessary money.
Later, our old couple hardly bought new clothes, and the clothes we wore before were still good, but we would throw away the old ones, and we would buy new ones when they were not enough to replace them.
Moreover, except for the necessary gatherings between classmates, colleagues, and families, we never had a meal out. I cook and eat it at home. There are many modern ways to eat nutritious, and you can learn them on the Internet.
In addition, many of them are self-grown fresh vegetables, so while eating a clean and nutritious diet, we can also make sure that we do not repeat the meals every day.
Today, when household appliances are updated so frequently, our family is still using the old-fashioned household appliances purchased a few years ago. If the bad one can't be used, I will take it out and ask someone to repair it, but if it can't be repaired, I will buy a new one.
Usually when the two of us go out, we almost always walk, or go to the stop sign to wait for the bus. In the city, you only need to pay one dollar for the fare;
Go to the farmland outside the city to dig wild vegetables, only two yuan; It only costs five to ten yuan to go to the county seat dozens of miles away. Travel safety is one thing, and the most important thing is that you can also save these seemingly inconspicuous small money.
My daughter and son-in-law couldn't bear to let us live so frugally, and when they came to visit us, they would buy more clothes and daily necessities. And often told the two of us, "Tell us what you want to eat, we will buy it and bring it over, but don't be reluctant."
The little couple will not come empty-handed every time, and they will carry large bags and small bags every time, and we will save a lot of expenses.
There is an old sister who has known each other for many years, and she also does not agree with the lifestyle of my wife and me, she thinks that our life is too hard, and says that we should enjoy it when we are older.
While chatting with this old sister, I accidentally found that many neighbors in the community would go to other communities to play mahjong and push pai gow in their spare time, so as to pass the boring free time.
After my wife and I inspected and discussed, we finally decided to vacate a room in our house and want to open a chess and card room. Because our family happens to live on the first floor, there is no situation where the sound of mahjong disturbs the rest downstairs.
The neighbors all knew that after our family opened a chess and card room, no one went out to play cards so far away, and they soaked in our house almost all day.
Sometimes there are not enough people, and a few people will sit down together to drink tea, chat, and laugh. As a result, our house is lively every day, and there is no longer the quiet, deserted atmosphere before. While passing the time, I can also earn a little pocket money to support my family.
The most important thing is that opening this chess and card room will not delay me from taking care of my family's affairs at all. I can take care of everything in the chess and card room by the way, so my day is more fulfilling, and there is no idleness when I first retired.
Some neighbors want to come over to play, but there is no one at home, and there are children who need to be taken care of, so they simply bring the children of the family to play together. In addition, it is close, everyone is very familiar with each other, and it is more casual.
One of the main reasons why my neighbors choose to come to my house to play cards is because it is so close that they are not afraid of wind or rain. Some neighbors have no one in their house, so when relatives and friends come to put something, they just put it in my house, and the neighbors come back to my house to pick it up.
Because my family has lived here for many years, my neighbors trust me very much.
Sometimes, when there is no one in the neighbor's house and there is nowhere to go after school, they will let the children come to me and wait for the family to come back while doing their homework. Sometimes the neighbors come back too late, and I take care of the children for dinner at our house.
After my wife retired, she usually exercised and occasionally followed a few old friends to climb nearby mountains. When I don't have anything to do, I will come to help me.
Maybe it's because after retirement, you don't need to worry about work anymore, and the tight string is relaxed. My wife and I are slowly becoming more and more regular.
My wife and I wake up early every day and go to the park to exercise. After coming back to pack up the morning's work, the neighbors who came to play cards came one after another, and they all arranged their own games, and I hardly had to arrange them. When I have nothing to do, I go to the vegetable garden, watering, catching insects, pulling weeds, etc.
Since my wife and I have become more regular, our physique has become better and better. Even the values of the physical examination report are getting closer and closer to the range of health values.
The small cold that is usually prevalent, the two of us have hardly been infected. The previous feeling of headache, weakness, and body aches at every turn has all disappeared.
However, my wife and I still have physical examinations twice a year, and we will check our bodies regularly, and strive to achieve "early detection, early prevention, and early treatment of problems".
Our old couple unanimously felt that this testing fee must not be saved, in case the body is really a little unwell, it is not this testing fee can be solved. Not to mention the more sinful, maybe it will drag down the daughter's family.
After a month like this, I was able to earn about 2,000 yuan. With the remaining 8,000 yuan from the pension, the total monthly income can also be 10,000 yuan.
My wife and I lived a minimalist life for about a year, so we took our passbook to the bank to deposit money, and we both wanted to know how much money we had saved in the past year.
The two of us calculated it carefully from beginning to end, and the result surprised my wife and I that the two of us actually saved 100,000 yuan.
If we save at this rate, it won't take a few years for our old couple to save enough pension money. Immediately, the two of us agreed that this minimalist life would continue to be lived.
My wife and I have been living a minimalist life, and after almost a year, we have both gotten used to it thoroughly. In the past few years, my wife and I have also traveled a few times to experience the scenery of other places.
According to the words of the old sister, it should be enjoyed, and it is enjoyed. After coming back, our old couple still lived a minimalist life.
Although my wife and I have saved enough money for retirement now, it is difficult for us to return to the previous way of life after we are used to this minimalist life.
What do you think about our old couple continuing to live a minimalist life?