Retirement Remedies: Fighting Back Determining How Much Is Enough

I was cleaning out my Home Keeping Notebook, setting it up fresh for the New Year ahead.  I came across an item I copied from a vintage magazine, Daily Dietary Requirements.  It's not that far off our own modern day food charts...but it started me thinking and I asked myself the question:  How much is enough?

The average adult needs 1 pint of milk daily.  That's 2 cups.  It can come from cooking, cereal, in coffee, be eaten as yogurt or cheese.  How much milk do I drink daily?  I don't know. I have milk in my coffee (three cups over the day).  I drink a coffee mug of milk at night.  Am I getting enough?  Am I getting too much?

We should only be eating 1 egg ea  per day and 1 or 2 servings of meat.  Typically that would be a 3-4 ounce portion of meat for each serving.  Most fruits and vegetable servings are 1/2 cup...Our meat may be on target, but eggs?  I'd daresay we go over that amount on the days we do eat eggs, and have a really high count on the days when we would add in for baked goods.

I recall a Weight Watchers exercise many years ago.  We were to pour out a typical serving of cereal into a bowl.  Then we were to measure the actual recommended serving amount into a bowl set beside the one we'd 'guesstimated'.  Without fail, the majority of us poured out 1 1/2 servings and sometimes 2.  I haven't measured cereal besides oatmeal in a long time.  The Butterscotch Oatmeal we like so well is 1 cup of oatmeal and 1 egg and 1 3/4 cup milk.  That means we are each eating a portion of our daily egg/milk serving and 1/2 cup of oatmeal.  It's always a reasonable portion of oatmeal in our bowl and it's never failed to keep me satisfied until dinner time each day.  But I'll wager that we typically eat far too much overall.

As I've been looking at taming costs in my home and reducing where we might, I've naturally looked over our consumption of foods.  I can see where we might increase (more fruit and vegetable, more dairy) and decrease (learn the proper serving size, less sugar, less meat).  I do think some of the serving portions are ridiculously small.  I've never in my life eaten just one cookie unless it was a large cookie.  I'm more inclined to eat two (teaspoon sized amounts of dough)...but I think there is room for a savings in this area and plan to work out a way to be more careful of ingredients and measurements. 

For months we had pump bottles of shampoo in the shower.  I used one pump of shampoo each day to wash my hair.  A bottle of shampoo lasted me forever.  For.ever.  I think the bottle lasted me over a year.  I was the only one who used that particular bottle and John had his own pump bottle.  Seriously.  Now we're using a bottle of shampoo that we share.  We pick it up and pop the lid and the stuff just pours out.  It's hard to get it to stop at the proper point.  We went through a whole a bottle and have put out a second in less than three months time.  I'm thinking I'm going to go back to a pump bottle, at least for myself.  

Do you realize we should only use a pea-sized bit of toothpaste?  Have you ever actually measured the laundry or dish detergent?  Or do you just pour out assuming you know how much you're using?  I did until I noted how low the normal load mark was on our laundry detergent cap and marked it in red nail polish so we could easily see it.  I confess I'm guilty of filling the dishwasher detergent dispenser full...and who knows how much liquid dish detergent I use to do dishes?

We would not consider opening a window or leaving a door open while running the heat or air conditioning in our homes.   Why are we so unconcerned with waste in the areas I've mentioned above?  Is it because it seems minor compared to the big stuff?  Is it lack of knowledge about what is required, as in the dietary amounts?

My remedies at present are to make a copy of the daily requirements list for nutrition and  look at it every day to remind myself of the limits I should put on our foodstuffs.  I'm going to pour out a pint jar of milk daily and remind myself that is my limit.  I'll warrant I think twice if I find myself getting dangerously low and have to skip my cup of milk at night (I use it as a sleep aid).  To put two eggs in a bowl and remind myself that is our limit for the day.

I'm going to read my manual for the dishwasher and see if there is a recommendation for what measure of detergent should be used.  I'm going to keep a spoon next to the sink and measure in detergent by the tablespoonful until I find the right measurement for our usage.  I'm going to put the shampoo back in a pump bottle to limit myself on usage of that, too.

I recently read a financial page that scorned the small savings one might make in a household.  I've always believed that once you make all the big changes you need to pay attention to the small savings.  They add up to big amounts over time!