MSE News: Retirees face 'lowest incomes in six years'

Pincher

"Londoners can expect to retire on an annual income of around £18,200 this year"

That's a joke. Council tax £2,300, Gas and Electricity £1,600, Water £700, Phone and Broadband £400, Food and groceries are easily £10,000. That's £15k already. A car would add £3k, including depreciation.

The only way to survive is to take in a lodger or two.

mark55man

food and groceries 10,000 - you've never read the old style board have you - assuming two people with time to cook and shop around - they would be looking at closer to £2500

jamesd

Pincher: Westminster Council Tax is £456 for a band A property suitable for one person, not £2,300. Gas and electricity you'd actually use £1600? Really? For a one bedroom flat suitable for one person? Maybe £1,000 if you're paying attention to usage and costs. Water, estimated at £180 a year for two people with a meter. You'd spend £27 a day on food for just one person? Extravagant taste, someone on a limited budget is more likely to do it on a generous £5-10 a day, call it £4000 a year.

That comes to £5,636 not £15,000.

Add rent of £150 a week for a studio flat and that's another £7,800 a year taking the total including rent to £13,436. Still doable with decent margin on net income of around £16,360 on gross of £18,200.

Now add a second person and their average of £18,200 and some of those costs are shared by two people so it's not an exclusive bill any more.

Of course if you've been working in London you don't need to retire in London. You can take that higher London pension income an use it in other parts of the country to get more for your money.

Pincher

People who say you can live on £5 a day for food (including tea bags, milk, sugar etc.) for three meals a day are living in a fantasy from 20 years ago. A loaf of bread (breakfast/lunch/supper), one tin of sardines (lunch), one tin of tuna (supper) and a tea to go with each meal (with milk and sugar, sheer luxury) leaves you enough change for an instant coffee and maybe some cheese and butter to go with some cream crackers.

For a proper COOKED meal, you need a bit of chicken, and some curry sauce at least. Eking out a living on rice and potatoes is just an exercise in severe asceticism, and unbalanced diet.

I do shop around, and got nine sea bass for £10 just before Christmas, from a market trader. That was a one off price, so you can't rely on that. Even at that price, the ingredients for one course came to about £4 (one fish per person, so two fish, plus ingredient packet, ginger, garlic, spring onion, oil). A soup, some vegetables and some rice, followed by a bit of dessert, a COOKED supper for two is £8-£10. On top of that there's breakfast and lunch.

Linton

Pincher wrote: »

People who say you can live on £5 a day for food (including tea bags, milk, sugar etc.) for three meals a day are living in a fantasy from 20 years ago. A loaf of bread (breakfast/lunch/supper), one tin of sardines (lunch), one tin of tuna (supper) and a tea to go with each meal (with milk and sugar, sheer luxury) leaves you enough change for an instant coffee and maybe some cheese and butter to go with some cream crackers.

For a proper COOKED meal, you need a bit of chicken, and some curry sauce at least. Eking out a living on rice and potatoes is just an exercise in severe asceticism, and unbalanced diet.

I do shop around, and got nine sea bass for £10 just before Christmas, from a market trader. That was a one off price, so you can't rely on that. Even at that price, the ingredients for one course came to about £4 (one fish per person, so two fish, plus ingredient packet, ginger, garlic, spring onion, oil). A soup, some vegetables and some rice, followed by a bit of dessert, a COOKED supper for two is £8-£10. On top of that there's breakfast and lunch.

We eat well with no attempt to minimise costs. Our groceries come to a total of about £10/day for two people. In your example £4 for the main ingredient for two people is not unreasonable though there are many things that would cost less. Take my delicious chilli con carne which we always make with enough for 4 portions for which the meat would be less than £4. What is an "ingredient packet"? Veg for two is probably £1-2 at most. Do you really have a soup and a desert every meal? We find that the main course is normally sufficient. Breakfast is less than £1 and a lunchtime snack perhaps £3 at the most, though again it can be a lot less.

Consumerist

jamesd wrote: »

So this is a poll about people's expectations, not actual numbers about what their incomes actually will be. . .

It [might] have been more informative to get predicted pensions estimates from across the pensions/insurance industry rather than across individuals who may not have maximised their options.

jamesd

Pincher wrote: »

For a proper COOKED meal, you need a bit of chicken, and some curry sauce at least.

Using Tesco prices as an example I see:

1kg whole chicken £2.48
300g can sliced carrots £0.20 x3 = £0.60
290g can garden peas £0.37
500g Brussels Sprouts £1.00
1kg baking potatoes £1.50

So without a lot of work on variety try that as the base for four main meals of meat, potato and a couple of other vegetables for £5.95 total, £1.49 a day, £543 a year. Add in more variety of course but that is a start on getting it done.

Perhaps baked beans and pork sausages canned at three 415g cans for £2.50 (an offer, base price is £1 per can) and a loaf of wholemeal bread for £0.50. The bread will probably last for around five cans (four per slice, sausage and beans on toast, though a couple and half a can would be enough for many) so that's perhaps £0.93 a day for these meals, though half that would be sufficient for a couple of slices of sausage and beans on toast.

For a snack or breakfast try a banana, £1 for at least five of them, so that's five days taken care of for £0.20 a day.

That's say £1.49 + £0.93 + £0.20 = £2.62 a day for three meals.

Dessert is optional, not required if on a tight budget, but these income levels aren't a tight budget so something could be added for that. Maybe £0.34 for a jelly a day or £0.35 for a jar of jam to go with bread at a few pence a day or add £2.50 for 1 kg of puff pastry and make a few jam tarts.

This may not be the sort of food you'd want or lots of variety but it does show using real supermarket prices today how you can get decent meals for a few Pounds a day and shows why I gave £5-10 a day for one person as being generous.

The old style people will be grumbling at the wastefulness of using canned and prepared goods...

gadgetmind

jamesd wrote: »

The old style people will be grumbling at the wastefulness of using canned and prepared goods...

This old style person wonders where the stock veg is 'cos we never waste a chicken carcass, or much else for that matter.

Pincher

By "ingredient packet" I mean a packet which contained the batter for marinading the sea bass, the spice sachet for flavouring during cooking, and the bag of Chinese sauerkraut which gives the distinctive flavour of (Chinese) sauerkraut fish. I neglected to mention the cooking wine, which is needed in a lot of cooking, along with spring onion, garlic, all of which cost money.

If I was doing chicken curry, I would be using a jar of Lloyd Grossman sauce or equivalent, which I stock up on when TESCO does half price deals. Even doing spaghetti sauce, you need some bottled sauce.

Also, when I say groceries, I include washing powder, kitchen towel, Harpic and lots of little things that add up. I use quite a lot less toilet paper than I used to, since we put in the shattaf (Arabic douche, hand bidet, bottom washer).

An interesting thing is how much the little pills cost. Cod liver oil, Centrum vitamins, Glucosamine for the joints. The "ointments" which shall be nameless.

I am NOT including cosmetics that women need, which will really blow the budget. God knows what all those jars are for.

Proxy

£50 quid a week for our groceries (for two) and we eat very well.

That's just £2500 a year. It's really not difficult.