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Pensions Planning: The NUMBER
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MoneySavingExpert
Chair, Martin Lewis · Editor, Marcus Herbert
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2 of us spend about £2,100 on food a year and eat very well. All home cooked.
We will be down to one small car in 3 years time, not new but half decent so around £ 3,000 a year,
Our utilities are low so gas ,water and leccy is is about £1,500 a year, we are very careful.
Leisure, will take that when it comes but lets say £6,000 a year.
Cash/Sundries £3k
* Repairs/Replacemnts £1k
* Healthcare £1k
About the same.
So at todays standards we are looking at less than £18,0000. Yet my number is £24,000. Certainly don`t want to give up work forever,. Nor does my wife so I think that an extra £10,000 a year might be a possibility part time.
Quite amazed at the amount people spend on food for a couple. We do meal planning now and it cuts the spend by a great deal. Just us 2. However I am surprised how much it saves us.
Interesting Comparison... and I wonder how you do it!
Please do tell....
We have £5000 for food vs your £2100
We only shop at Tesco...and do not fill the trolley with their Finest range! Where are we going wrong?
We have £5000 Car/Transport vs your £3000 (but we are running 2 x 7 yr old cars, so no big surprise)
Across Home/Cash/Leisure/Repairs etc we are both pretty close, so its the FOOD that is the big mystery... Well Done BTW!
So you have a NUMBER of £18,000 but are aiming for an income of circa £24,000. That's a great strategy, to have that extra £6k as a buffer, OR hopefully extra Spending money....Enjoy! :T
Interesting thread Gatser. I'll sort my figures out later.
In the meantime, on the subject of food costs I always find it easier to comprehend the figures in weekly terms, which is how often we do our food shopping (plus the odd trip in the week for extra milk and bread etc). Your own estimate of £5,000pa equates to £96.15pw whereas HHIW's £2,100pa comes in at £40.38.
Our weekly shop seems to fluctuate quite substantially - probably because we tend to buy what we fancy when going around the supermarket in addition to the items on a list detailing what we actually need! Anywhere between £65pw and £100+. That's for 2 adults. One of my wife's friends figures to do their weekly shop for £20 :eek:. Part of me has a grudging respect for his ability to do this but I suspect that I wouldn't be happy if we limited ourselves to £20pw.
I realise there are price variations between the various supermarkets but I feel that the bulk of any variation is actually likely to be a result of what is bought and in what quantity rather than where it is bought. At the end of the day, if you are happy with your lifestyle with the amount currently spent on food, and you can afford it, then where is the problem? It only becomes an issue if the funds aren't available / need to be spent elsewhere.
Thanks Richie.
There is no problem as such... just interesting to see if we can learn from others. Totally agree with you though that as we are not extravagant or greedy/wasteful with food...we are not interested in reducing our food bill by much anyway!
It would be an experience to spend a week with someone who survives on £20 of food though... all those baked beans!!!!
Probably a difference in definition?
I will typically spend around £100 each week at the supermarket. But analyse any bill and you find that 'food' is less than half of it.
Toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, soap, window cleaner, oven cleaner, washing powder, fabric softener, deoderant, kitchen foil, magazines, toothpaste, batteries.......
Yes...Good point... In my "Food" figure of £5k .... I should say that I have £5k for "Tesco Bills" ... but I think food still represents around 80% of that.
Working out an ideal number for retirement income is great but also a luxury for those that have the capacity to save more or might already be saving more than they really need.
Shopping in the main is done at Morrisons, Lidls and Aldi. We pick up the deals. Bogoff fans. A good tip and there are loads of mentions here is to buy a http://www.remoska.co.uk/. Amazing bit of kit. In fact when our oven packed up we didn`t bother repairing it for a while as our Remoska did the job. Low energy and does an amazing roast.
A £4 chicken will do a roast, a cold meal and still a couple of sandwiches.
Utilities are low. Low energy light bulbs, duel fuel and a water meter, the latter saves an awful lot.
At the moment we do spend more on motoring but as self employed that is claimed on the tax. I intend to buy a small second hand car at retirement for say 5k and don`t expect to do too many miles per year. Oh and have mates rates on keeping it on the road.
Thamks again for a great thread.
I would agree with this. I am 40, have a 10 year final salary and about 4 years stakeholder (employee 7%, employer 6%) plus a sipp where I pay a small amount.
On my current projection using the H-L calculator - that will give me about 50% of my "number" (which is significantly less than my current salary). Even this is optimistic because the calculator assumes pension contribution increase of 3% EVERY year (which is ridiculous), and 5% growth.
TO get anything like a suitable amount - I would have to completely sacrifice my life and put every spare penny (and more) into a pension. What is the point? I say - put as much as you can in there.
A personal contribution of 7% or so of your income into a pension at 40 seems to me to be far too little as a basis for a pleasant retirement. Surely doubling that now (which IMHO would still be rather low) wouldnt reduce you to the breadline.
Incidentally is the 3% and 5% including inflation or is it on top of inflation? Does your NUMBER at retirement age allow for inflation?