Edinburgher gets cracking!

edinburgher

Barclays have paid the £250 incentive for mortgage completion into my current account - they have a pretty slick operation (complete with automated texts and emails at each stage of the application process).

£252.51 to the Baby Pot :T

misscousinitt

Baby Pot looking good - nice one!

MCI

elantan

thats a very healthy baby pot you have there

edinburgher

Cheers ladies, I'm thinking of it in terms of every £12 saved = £1/mth of income replacement :beer:

We are already at a point where we can meet our obligations without cutting anything further and still save a measly amount on top of all our usual savings (about £100/mth).

I'd like to do better than that, we've still got 4-5 pay days to go

In other news, we're all doomed (again). Not making light of the unfortunate 20% or so who are depending on the state pension alone, but I figure their assertion that an income of £717/mth in retirement means you're in poverty a bit odd.

If we had no mortgage, our total expenses as a couple are c. £250 above this figure x2, £500 of which is fun money...

elantan

I think it's a relative v absolute poverty situation ed

Without mortgage or debt payments our cut right back no treats clothes haircuts etc spending is just shy of £1k that's purely council tax,food,car,gas and electricity,broad band and mobile ... Nothing else so for some only in receipt of £700 odd a month yep they would be struggling

edinburgher

Fair point El, but the £700 is for one person and there are two of you?

elantan

Yes there are two of us so £1400 a month, but remember that's us also cutting right back ... Basically scraping the very dregs of the barrel every month add haircuts, clothes, treats, birthdays/ Xmas and more heating etc onto that and we would struggle... Never mind the luxury items we don't have like tv/ sky etc

That's why it's important for people to prepare for retirement it's not like we can pretend it ain't gonna happen ( unless you die early obviously) at some point your gonna have to stop working, so best make sure you can afford to live when you do as beans on toast and being too scared to heat your house is no life

edinburgher

I'm not sure how we're managing to keep our expenses so low, maybe I've misread the spreadsheet? :eek: I thought we were £1700 ignoring the mortgage, but this includes plenty of treats, savings, and running a small car.

elantan

Other luxury items not included would be holiday, house maintenance and decoration, a landline phone ( we did away with ours to save money) trips to the swimming pool to keep fit, theatre outings, days out basically all the things you dream of when your slogging your guts out for 60 hours a week for the miserable pay that just covers your expenses and no more

You know that kinda stuff lol

elantan

Maybe your needs are different from our though ed? I'm sure yours are right for you

For eg we are £200 a month council tax, you will be less ( we don't live in a mansion just a two bedroom bungalow)we spend £250-£300 a month on food ( keep trying to get this down but fail miserably everytime) we are £140 a month gas and electricity we are £220 a month for the car that includes diesel insurance and tax and very minor repairs ( maybe one tyre a year... So more if the car needs work done) our broadband is £33 a month and the mobile phone £39 a month

That's our basic ... It doesn't even include insurance etc our living costs are way way way higher than that though tbh