Rethinking your life....

downshifter

Another great story, thank you.

By the way NoHope - if your wine is red you can make it palatable by adding some orange juice and heating in the microwave. If you've got some spices, add those too and it comes out like mulled wine (add sugar too if you like it sweet). If the wine is white, add a blitz of fizzy water - v nice! I'm staring at a glass of rose at the moment and it's vile (Xmas pres!) I can taste every added chemical and even those don't mask the vinegar flavour - yuk. However, my only criteria is that it's alcoholic - which it is. Good enough.

DS

TheoL

Happy New Year Everyone.

I am likely to be redundant by end of the month which I am pleased about as I have found work quite overwhlemingly stressful. However, I
am going to have very little money to live on and may not find another job in these economically difficult times. I am in the process of working out how to manage with considerably less income, so this thread has been very helpful and inspiring for me, thanks to all the posters.

downshifter

Thank you TheoL. I think this thread has shown me that how you deal with this period of our lives is determined by your personality - some people like to plan and be organised a bit about the future, because we become so aware of our own mortality at this age, others see opportunities to stop being sensible around every corner, for pretty much the same reason! I'm definitely one of the latter breeds.

There are lots of threads on this board about living on small incomes, such as the old style board and some of the amazing challenges. I'm the queen of eating for little (one of my kids favourite meals was called ' dregs dinner' - others more politely call this kind of meal 'bottom of the fridge' pie.) For me the scary cost is petrol, it's one of the things that's forcing this life rethink.

In terms of work, I found it much more fun and massively less stressful to have several small jobs rather than think about one main one - as with all of this stuff you need to think laterally. You must have amassed so much experience I'm sure could be put to good use. I have to say I have now moved so far away from my original career but on the other hand have found new friends and new skills in new jobs. The other thing is voluntary work which I and lots of other people find rewarding and fun, and most places will pay your expenses such as travel so even if you're not earning you won't be out of pocket.

Good luck TheoL and others, exciting times are ahead for us. Off to sort the house, have 2 six year olds coming to stay for a couple of days. Normally I work on Sundays so I feel as if I'm playing truant today by having the day off.

DS

ani_26

Hi DS,

Yes i did mix the grog, with orange juice. It was way too sweet. Never again, lol.

I know exactly what you mean about the cost of petrol, i posted a similar comment on another thread, and with the cost of petrol set to rise to £1.50 a litre, they say, its something thats constantly on my mind. But i seem to be in a catch 22 situation. I need my car for work. Its essential. But its too expensive to keep on the road. But i can't sell it, ( i've tried ). I really need to be running a cheaper car. But in the meantime, i've had to spend so much money keeping this car on the road, i'd be a fool to sell it. It seems that most of my cash at the moment goes on petrol, as opposed to food, although i went back to basics with food, some time ago now. I cook mainly from scratch and its amazing what you can concoct.Because i'm usually out at work until late, i also get the opportunity to call in to supermarkets as they are closing. Its amazing what you can buy for 5p and 10p, even cooked chickens for 50p. I've been living like this for a long time now, although i have to say i am just slightly fed up of buying out of date food, ( well almost )! The only problem now i've moved is i don't have a freezer anymore. I left it behing in my old house, as it was on its last legs anyway, which unfortunately means i can't buy cheap things and freeze them anymore. They have to be eaten. Nothing wrong with out of date fruit and veg, though, except it just does'nt last like it used to. Must be all the chemicals they are processed with, nowadays.


Its been a long time since i paid shelf price for anything, sigh, except petrol, that is. But i do only use garages where i can collect ponts for discount vouchers off petrol, ie morrisons or shell, though sadly i've moved away from morrisons, now. I quite regularly received my £5 vouchers, that shows how much petrol i use.


Hmm. I don't think you could ever have called me sensible, at any point in my life, but i have lost my personality. Its been destroyed. and needs to be rekindled, from somewhere. Then i can rethink my life, maybe. In fact i'm watching transatlantic, the challenge, on the tv right now, and i had a huge interest in yachting, i'd started taking rya qualifications, some time ago, its something i'd like to continue, but i just can't muster up the enthusiam and definitely not the funds, for a hugely expensive ' sport ', right now. But it is possible to work your passage on yachts. Maybe thats something i should look into. In fact its a miracle i'm even talking about it, its only because its on tv right now. Wow. That really does get the adrenalin flowing!


Have a good couple of days with the six year olds. Its good to say couple. I think its an age thing. Have you ever noticed how you go into a shop nowadays and you ask can i have a couple of ? please. What ? is usually the reply. Can i have a couple of ? please. What? How many? Well how many do you think? lol How many people are a couple, 3 ? 4? ......................



Nohope

SallyD

Enjoyed reading this Thread - totally inspiring. Been looking forward to retiring on my 60th, next Christmas but 1,000 jobs must be lost by my employer by March 2011 so I put in for voluntary redundancy and will know the outcome in a couple of weeks.

I was initially delighted at the prospect but over the past few days been thinking of the reality of it all retiring a year early and totally rethinking my life............

I've been thinking of moving for a good few years, now might have to a year earlier - will be moving up to West Yorkshire to be nearer my son - not too close for comfort mind so I am busy checking out the areas on the wonderful world wide web so any of you "up North folk" that know the Denby Dale/Penistone/Smithies area that could give me the local run down would be much appreciated.

Things are gonna change!

seven-day-weekend

hobbledehoy. wrote: »

I reached my 60th birthday in June 09 and by December had retired from work. OK money is not as plentiful, but with 1 car instead of 2, work costs etc gone, we manage OK. I took all of my pensions and with other bits and bobs, we find it works out fine.

I have no long term plans other than spend as many years as I can with my wife who I have neglected for 35 years due to going to work.
We now live a very simple way of life, and enjoy the simple pleasures.

As for me, I have taken on two charity positions that keep me busy.

Also I have decided to get back into the music industry after 40 years +. Bought myself a professional electronic drum kit, amp, speakers, & mixer.
At the moment it's just the three of us, bass, drums & keyboard - looking for at least one guitarist + vocals, though we do borrow one from another local band as a favour.
It is as though time has rolled back to 1965/70. We practice once a week in the village hall for free, in exchange we provide live music for the 'babyboomers'!! On top of that, play in our local village pub once every 8 weeks. Our combined ages at the moment is (190yrs!!). We play for nothing, just the fun of being back on stage again after all these years. If we do get a contribution, it goes to the local RNLI who do a fantastic job locally. Mind you playing in front of 100 or so is a little bit different than the 1000's we have played for in the 60's!! Plus we have guest friends that join in when they are in the area.

Bored - No not likely.
It was the best thing I have ever done to get out of the rat race.

What a lovely story!

My husband also does 'gigs' for free when we are in the UK, with his best friend who he has known for over fifty years. They do a very good Beatles, my husband has got the McCartney voice and his friend has the Lennon, they are both good musicians. His friend was a professional musician for a while in his youth.

It's great. However, when thinking of a name for them, someone suggested 'Hardened Artery Rock', which I thought was quite funny. However the two musicians disagreed!

Keep on rocking!

Newly_retired

SallyD, you are thinking of moving to a beautiful part of the country! Formerly industrial, in South Yorkshire nature has been allowed to recover itself and you will find plenty of countryside, also stately homes to visit, wonderful garden centres ( Wentworth Woodhouse), lovely walks, yet within easy reach of cities and shopping ( Meadowhall). Peak District is beautiful too. Enjoy!

ukmaggie45

I've been following this thread since it started, as it's relevant to me and OH too at the mo. I've been claiming my pension since I was 60 (now 62), OH had his 65th last summer, but is still working though will be made redundant in 2012 (he will be given the date a year before, he is told). He's been working a 3 day week the last few years anyway as I am disabled, and it makes it easier for him to take me to dentist, optician, etc without having to try do it in his lunch hour. Plus with the house renovation (see below) it would have been very difficult organising stuff if he was still working full time.

My parents both died within about 6 weeks of each other back in 2007, thanks to wise suggestions by very kind contributors on this forum we were able to claim back some IHT that original solicitor involved had paid. So we have been able to purchase a new (to us) house and we're in the process of renovating it at present while still living in our home.

While we did eventually choose to go for a semi-detached and have extended it (originally were looking at bungalows), we thought hard about what would happen when/if we got too frail to manage the stairs. So we have had a downstairs shower room with basin and loo as part of the extension, if we are not able to cope with the stairs on a regular basis we can still stay in the house and manage.

The garden is quite large, and was very overgrown (other than the lawn had been regularly mown) when we completed the purchase. We're gradually clearing the weeds, but since the beginning of September when the building work began we've not really been able to garden on a regular basis. Apart from anything else there's no toilet facilities, so makes it hard to stay longer than a few hours.

Originally we were intending to put in a wood burning stove... But when we thought more about it we realised it maybe wasn't such a good idea. We have an open fire at home, but already I find it very difficult to deal with cleaning it out and building fires. OH is fine with that at the mo, but neither of us are getting younger, and so we have decided to have a gas fire installed instead, to replace the one that was there before. Getting older sucks! I so wanted a wood burning stove, but it really wasn't practical.

It was maybe a bit stupid to get a place with a big garden, but we both enjoy gardening, and love to watch the birds... I'm hoping it will be a source of fresh food (we grew potatoes, onions, garlic, toms and beans and a tiny amount of peas last year) and exercise in the fresh air for both of us. Though I don't get to do much heavy gardening I try to get the seedlings and cuttings started. OH does the heavy digging and wields the right angle fork!

We hope to begin moving in come Spring - build has taken longer than expected due to various issues that came up when it had started. Isn't that always the case! :rotfl: But we hope we're on the final run of work now, can't wait for the kitchen to be installed!

Happy New Year to all of you, and good luck with rethinking your lives.

Best wishes from Liverpool

jinnylin

I have been interested to read through these posts. I'm 56 and have been widowed for 22 years (never remarried, just didn't happen), and have brought up my daughter single handedly. I happily worked part-time whilst she was growing up because I wanted to spend time with her, and also I didn't want the stress of juggling everything that full-time working mums have to. If I'd had a partner perhaps things would have been different.
My job has changed dramatically in the last year due to a restructure at work. I have been relocated, and this has put an hour on my travelling time, and I have been forced to apply for my own job, which is now much bigger and is taking me out of my comfort zone. The stress has taken its toll and I have gone from loving my job to hating it. The only saving grace is that the people I work with are lovely and we are all in the same boat.
I am seriously considering taking redundancy and taking my pension early. I still want to work, and making this move could give me the option of working part-time, although I could probably still work full-time if I was enjoying my job. I am tired of getting to Friday feeling absolutely shattered, spending Saturday recovering from the week, and starting it all again on Monday.
As you will have worked out, my husband died very young, at 36, and I lost a very dear friend to cancer last year at 53. These events make you reassess life and priorities change. What price happiness? I guess it feels so scary because we've all been brought up knowing that you don't just walk out of your job, but optimistically, even in the present climate, I believe I will be able to get something else. I have a lot to offer. It's hard making these decisions on my own (although friends and family have been great sounding boards), but ultimately I guess we're all in charge of our own destiny, and you're at work such a long time it would be good to be enjoying it. Sadly a year ago I wouldn't have even considered going as I loved what I was doing.
Some of these threads make me feel very positive about the future - with more time I'm sure I can make my money go further. I do so much speed shopping without even thinking about what I'm spending - it will be good to slow down and smell the roses - before I put them in my supermarket trolley!
Happy New Year everyone!

TheoL

downshifter wrote: »

Thank you TheoL. I think this thread has shown me that how you deal with this period of our lives is determined by your personality - some people like to plan and be organised a bit about the future, because we become so aware of our own mortality at this age, others see opportunities to stop being sensible around every corner, for pretty much the same reason! I'm definitely one of the latter breeds.

There are lots of threads on this board about living on small incomes, such as the old style board and some of the amazing challenges. I'm the queen of eating for little (one of my kids favourite meals was called ' dregs dinner' - others more politely call this kind of meal 'bottom of the fridge' pie.) For me the scary cost is petrol, it's one of the things that's forcing this life rethink.

In terms of work, I found it much more fun and massively less stressful to have several small jobs rather than think about one main one - as with all of this stuff you need to think laterally. You must have amassed so much experience I'm sure could be put to good use. I have to say I have now moved so far away from my original career but on the other hand have found new friends and new skills in new jobs. The other thing is voluntary work which I and lots of other people find rewarding and fun, and most places will pay your expenses such as travel so even if you're not earning you won't be out of pocket.

Good luck TheoL and others, exciting times are ahead for us. Off to sort the house, have 2 six year olds coming to stay for a couple of days. Normally I work on Sundays so I feel as if I'm playing truant today by having the day off.

DS

Thanks for the encouragement DS. I have been sensible all my life and am now trying to be the latter breed. That of course comes with a degree of anxieties...but it is also quite exciting.

I will go and search out these old style boards you talk about and see if I can pick up some ideas on managing on a shoe string. I will come and share my recipe for an equivalent Dregs Dinner when I have invented one!