Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

PurpleFairy - Yay! Glad you could make use of your money-off vouchers too. I have never regretted buying my heated airer. I don't have the cover for it. I just drape over the top whatever I've got in that particular laundry load that is big & drapy......usually a sheet, tablecloth, duvet cover etc. Things do dry a bit quicker when the airer is covered, I've found. I've also recently found the shelves extremely good for lining with a big towel, then blocking out a hand knitted jumper and it has also been useful when we've both been caught in a big rain shower & need our coats dried quickly but don't want to sit looking at them on top of a radiator. I think the price has gone up over the years. I've had mine some years now & it was eighty-something quid. I would definitely buy another one if mine broke though.
F x

foxgloves

Well m'dears, our little family BBQ last night was lovely. We all really enjoyed it & my social distancing plans all worked ok, without getting in the way of having a good catch-up on all our news. It was particularly nice because one of our guests had been shielding following aggressive hospital treatment and it was the first time he had been out anywhere. There was plenty of food & we cooked leftover sausages for our breakfast this morning, had leftover rolls, chicken, coleslaw & pineapple for lunch and we still have sufficient for a use-it-up buffet style plateful each for tonight's meal. You know how I like 'Cook once, eat twice!' Apart from food to eat, the evening also provided food for thought....more of that later, I'll tell you what I've been doing today first.
We'd both planned a gardening morning, so after I'd pegged out my cheapo laundry load, I headed out to see which were the priority tasks. Beans! Defo the beans. Trotted back to the house to fetch the colander. Oh my giddy aunt, those beans just kept on going........went back for another (bigger) colander & filled that too. They weighed in at 1.3 kilos. Some in fridge as needed for this week's meal plans, the rest prepped, blanched & frozen. Back down the garden to fetch secateurs & string. On the way, spotted a big yellow courgette I'd missed last time. Discovered another 5 which needed picking. Then sorted out the jungley greenhouse. Picked some jalapeno chillies & tomatoes then tied in the tomatoes again, weeded the greenhouse border & then the same for the outdoor tomatoes. Then decided the time had come to clear a heap of abandoned crud from behind the greenhouse. Found a couple of lettuces presumed dead, now rallied, so planted them into the lettuce bed. Got rid of some trays of un-germinated very ancient seed and dealt with a Budget Snail Hotel I didn't even know I was running - 14 of the b*ggers! Put them up behind the shed where they can take their chances but may well end up as impromptu escargots for our resident thrush & his family. Mr F cleared a lot more of the overgrown area around the side of the shed & uncovered yet more rubbish buried by previous occupants - I thought he'd have got it painted by now, but the clearing process has been a much bigger job than we originally thought. Never mind, it will be great when it's done. OK, so tomorrow's packed lunch made, more laundry on timer for Economy 7 wash, sourdough bread baked & cooling on its rack, that's my jobs done for today. 
As for the 'Food for thought' I mentioned earlier? Well, at our little family BBQ last night, we asked our guests how they are progressing with their moving plans. They revealed that they are actually very strongly considering relocating to a different part of the country - an area which would kind of be a 'dream' move for them. They'd been giving it a lot of thought & it was nice hearing all the plans & can-do attitude. This morning, I found myself feeling really motivated by their plans. As I've said before, Mr F & I very much hope to relocate when he retires - it will be a good while yet as I'm still 10 years off the current retirement age & he is  younger than me - but the only thing that would really stop us from fulfilling our dream of doing this is if when the time comes, the price differential between where we live now & the area where we want to live is too big. It is definitely a more expensive area as it is a good bit further south. We would be able to make up a bit of a shortfall, all being well, but there would have to be a ceiling on this, as we won't make a move which incurs debt. Listening to our guests' plans has motivated me to save more. I am going to think about our Savings Pots & savings generally & consider what tweaks I could make to get more money (even quite small amounts, as we have time to do this) squirrelled away to make it more likely we could make up the likely house price difference.
I'm going to turn this over in my head over the next couple of weeks.
Oh, that was another long post.....I can yak for Britain - I'm pretty much the same IRL - I like nothing better than a long chat over a coffee & a cheese scone, to hear people's news & chew over the gossip!
Still time left for some time in the sun with my book.
Stay safe,
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Your barbecue sounded lovely and I bet your guests really enjoyed it . 

It's a good idea to start planning for your ideal move now. I don't know where your dream area is, but I must admit that I do love living near the sea and moors as there are so many options for days out and so I feel very lucky to live where I do.

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

Lockdown was eased too early & I don't think there was sufficient time between each stage to analyse its impact. 

This is exactly my thoughts. 

crazy_cat_lady

Good to have a plan foxgloves - and putting away savings for relocation is a fantastic plan. I wish I could get my head in the game like that, but am still unfortunately going for the short term gains of doing the house and garden - not that I'm planning to leave mind, I love my home.

amber03

Great when u can put money away for future plans re retirement. Once we had paid off our mortgage,  we then put that money away each month with the idea that we would be able to retire comfortably when we wanted too. DH took early retirement last xmas and I retired from work in june aged 56. It always seems years away when u think of retirement but it does come around quick. Get those plans in place and have so.ething to aim for.xx

foxgloves

Thanks all - Yes, it does make sense to add more savings to our plans, especially as neither my state pension or final salary work pension will be 'full' pensions due to me taking VR a few years ago. I checked current house prices in the area we ideally want to move to again last night. There is a definite price differential but as we could also downsize a little (2 bedrooms & a smaller garden would be fine), we could accommodate that at the moment. If prices in the area (near the coast) increased more than prices in our region, we could be stuffed. But by then, we intend to have formulated a back-up plan in which we would still probably move house, but to a less distant area. Anyway.... that's still a long time away - boosting our savings is the key part of it at the moment, so I will ensure that we crack on with that. 
F x

marionmgcars

Good luck with yr plan to save for retirement.  I saved up to pay off my mortgage & was given a £5000 gift in a dear friends will.  That enabled me to pay off mortgage, she would have been pleased with my decision to use the gift for that.  I am now able to work part time & enjoy my leisure time.  So many people say to me they cannot afford to move now they have retired, so saving early would make a great retirement gift to give youself and hubby.  X

[Deleted User]

Phew I have finally caught up from my last post months ago, need a strong coffee now! x

foxgloves

Thanks, Marionmgcars - What a lovely thing for your friend to do. I haven't worked since taking VR in my mid-40s. I was always prepared (& still am) to look for employment should a change in our current circumstances require it, but so far, this hasn't been necessary. We decided, as yet another horrible round of austerity cuts rolled around, that our finances might not change too drastically if I took VR (meaning we'd only need to worry about one of us in future) because I have a lot of what would be described on here as 'Old-style' skills - growing food, crafting things for gifts, preserving, cooking from scratch, make-do & mend, etc, and that if I put all those into action big-time, we would be ok. That's what we did. So at the moment, because I am a good way off statutory retirement age, my personal income is zero. Our thinking is that as Mr F is younger than me (& providing he is able to stay in employment, as we have now added a pandemic to all the years of public sector austerity), then when I do access my pension, that will be additional money to our budget, so barring disaster, my aim would be to save that each month as well as stash the lump sum from my final salary scheme - actually I think it is now a 'career average' pension now, but it won't really make any difference as I spent most of my professional years in a service management role. Of course who knows what could happen to Mr F's job sector? Nobody! And we are living in very uncertain times at the moment, but I do think you are all absolutely right that I need a plan, so that is what is going to happen. Another aspect of it is using some of the money I inherited from my parents for doing the upgrading work needed on our current house. I think of it more as our home rather than 'an asset', but when the time comes to see if we can realise our dream seasidey move, it will very much be an asset so the first part of our plans for the future has to be to see through the building work & the rest of the improvements.
I'm motivating myself even as I type.......
F x