The Wrinkles Can Wait

It was a great sale.

25% off my favourite moisturizing cream and serum. Normally, I would just click on it and order it.

Now, I have to look at the budget.

I still haven’t checked out my order online… the wrinkles can wait. Apparently at this stage, my face and my bank account are in negotiations.

It’s like this now since I stopped working. I didn’t want to stop working. Full stop. But I’m now getting to “that age” (as per my doctor, see this post) which seems to be medical code for “your warranty has expired.” And I’m post breast cancer treatments, so it’s about what your body can do. Even now that almost a year is behind me since I finished ALL the different treatments, my body says otherwise. AND my doctor is suddenly very interested in words like “energy conservation” now that I’m “that age.”

So that leaves me only a couple more medical employment insurance payments before I’m contributing only my pensions to our budget.

I’m luckier than most because I worked for an organization that had pensions. That extra amount makes it easier financially. However, when I stopped working my income dropped dramatically.

Thank goodness my husband, a couple of years younger than me, still works. I can’t see him stopping any time soon. He has two part-time jobs that equal full time, plus a couple of on call jobs.

This suits his ADHD perfectly because he’s always moving, going somewhere, no boredom. Something new every day. He treats a quiet day the way most people treat a house fire (meanwhile, I consider a successful day one where I folded laundry and didn’t need a nap afterward!)

This also suits our budget and may just allow my expensive skin care purchases now and again.

We lived on a fixed income for 30 years as Salvation Army Officers, so budgeting was simply a way of life. Since I handled most of the budgeting, I was always looking for financial advice and trying to plan ahead.

Before we retired, we managed to buy a small townhouse as a rental property. If we hadn’t done that, we likely never would have been able to afford a house ourselves later on. The market had gone crazy and housing prices had more than doubled.

Honestly, if we hadn’t been able to scrape together a down payment in 2017, we’d probably be renting now like many of our colleagues.

I sometimes wonder how seniors survive here if they don’t own a home. Honestly, I don’t know how some of them do it.

The average rent in Vancouver is astronomic. If you live out in the Fraser Valley, you might at least have enough left over after rent for heat, hydro, and a bunch of bananas.

If you’re fortunate, or have someone to advocate for you in the system, you might get into seniors housing. Then you have rent geared to income.

I remember when my father passed away at 68 in 1981. He was seven years older than my mom, which meant she was only 61. Since she had never worked outside the home, she didn’t qualify for CPP because she hadn’t paid into it through employment. And because she wasn’t yet 65, she didn’t qualify for Old Age Security either.

My parents owned their small home, thankfully, so she only had property taxes and household bills to cover. But all she had to live on was half of my dad’s city pension as a widow, along with the small CPP survivor’s benefit, until she finally turned 65 and qualified for OAS.

That’s it. That’s all.

No investment portfolio. No secret savings account hidden in the flour tin.

I know I am blessed because I have a reasonably healthy husband who loves working. But I am still mindful that we are at “that age” (although he’ll never admit it!)

And I’ve already had cancer, so I know how quickly life can change. And my wonderful husband has been on blood pressure/cholesterol medication since his 30s. It’s hereditary.

Then there’s groceries. These days our steak aspirations are being fulfilled by creatively seasoned ground beef. I was thinking of going vegan, which would please one of my sons greatly. Our grocery bill in 2025 was significantly higher than 2024 and in 2026 it isn’t going down. It’s going up.

Let’s not discuss the cost of gas right now. Let’s just say in 2024 I should have bought an EV instead of a gas car. Every time I fill the tank, I whisper an apology to the planet and my savings account, which is dwindling quickly.

If something happened to one of us, the other might have to sell the house and downsize. It’s just the way it is.

I have to say this: I am extremely grateful for every day I get to be here with my hubby and my family. Last night my youngest son sent a video by text. There was my youngest grandbaby, Summer, making faces, smiling and saying “Nana” and “Papa.” I hope I get to make many more memories with her and the others.

Maybe that’s what happens as you age, especially after illness. You stop assuming there will always be more time, more money, more energy, more tomorrows. The small things become the big things. A video text from your kids. A grandbaby learning your name. A quiet evening with the person you’ve spent your whole life with. Those things begin to feel very rich indeed.

Does security matter? Yes. Do budgets matter? Yes. Does planning matter? Yes.

But in the end, the richest parts of my life have never been things.

They’ve been people.

Lord, thank you for the ordinary gifts that make life rich:
family,
love,
laughter,
quiet evenings,
and one more day together.
Give us wisdom for the future,
peace for the uncertainties we carry,
and grateful hearts for what we have today. Amen.

Dear friends, thank you for continuing to journey through these seasons of life with me. So many of us are navigating aging parents, adult kids, rising costs, changing health, retirement worries, and bodies that suddenly have opinions about everything. It helps to know we’re not doing it alone.

And if you, too, are standing somewhere between gratitude and a grocery budget, between joy and uncertainty, I see you.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my moisturizer and I need to continue our financial negotiations as I begin my nighttime routine!

You can also buy me a coffee, which is honestly how some of these essays get finished.

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