Warning: Newly Retired Husbands Can Be Dangerous

After selling our family business in 2007, my husband and I found ourselves with enough money to live comfortably and a lot of free time. I considered myself too young to retire (56) and set out to start my own internet business. This meant spending long hours in front of my computer trying to learn the ropes and find my focus. This also meant leaving my newly retired husband to find his own ways to fill his free time.

He soon established a routine of spending his days looking at things on Google Earth, checking his finances every hour or so and watching old movies. I started to grow concerned that his total lack of physical activity would contribute to his early demise. So, I encouraged (maybe he would use the word "nagged" here) him to find something to do.

Being the frugal type, he always wanted to make sure he'd saved enough for us to live well and, although he is a very generous man, he doesn't like to be considered wasteful. This gave birth to what we now laughingly refer to as the "$400 Candle Project."

After admiring a table centerpiece we had seen while out shopping, we decided we could make one of our own for less. We purchased a nice leather-look tray, filled it with pebbles from our own backyard and added an array of candles we'd purchased on sale. It looked as good to us as the "high end" one we had seen and we spent far less on ours. Great. Since he liked burning the candles each evening at dinner we soon found ourselves combing the discount stores looking for inexpensive candles to replenish our supply. That's when he had his "light bulb" moment that he could recycle the melted candle wax and make his own candles. (This could potentially save us, maybe $10 or so a month but it was good to see him being "productive.")