The Piano Diary

South_coast

Well done for trying the greengrocer experiment. It's a shame it didn't work out, but I agree it's probably not worth the extra cost. Is there a Lidl or Aldi near you that you could try visiting to see what you think there? You mention dropping brands, which sounds like you are buying food rather than ingredients. Cooking from scratch more is likely to have a big impact in that case. It would be a shame to have to scale back on the pension experiment, but you've got to do what's right for you!

glass_half_full

savingholmes said:

Like you say you've been radically saving this year. Hopefully you can get your groceries down and that will free up other money without you having to divert too much money from your pension goals. It's a balance and you are doing amazing whichever way you decide to go.

Thanks @savingholmes! Yes I am hoping that some of the savings I can make in this and other areas will offset a bit and allow me to stay focused on the pension savings at a decent level.

South_coast said:

Well done for trying the greengrocer experiment. It's a shame it didn't work out, but I agree it's probably not worth the extra cost. Is there a Lidl or Aldi near you that you could try visiting to see what you think there? You mention dropping brands, which sounds like you are buying food rather than ingredients. Cooking from scratch more is likely to have a big impact in that case. It would be a shame to have to scale back on the pension experiment, but you've got to do what's right for you!

Thanks @southcoast, yes both are reasonably nearby, about 15 mins. OH loves the chocolate at Lidl so maybe I can tempt her that way! I will try Lidl for the next shop and report back! In terms of what we are buying, there is a mix of food and ingredients. So I do cook from ingredients eg fish, vegetables etc, but also perhaps we could do more on that front. We don't buy any ready meals but maybe we pay more than we need to, for example buying rice in handy individual portions rather than in bulk. Lots of scope I suspect to save a bit by challenging our choices.

South_coast

Challenging is good 👍 Keep asking yourself "Who do I want to have this money? Us in our retirement, or J Sainsbury plc???" 🤣

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Tried the weekly shop at Ald1 today (was confused with L1dl). Got there when the store opened at 8am and it was quiet. Was pleased because I managed to get everything on the list. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find some of the items. The total came to £98. I did a price comparison with Sainsb*ry when I got home and the total was £113. There were some items that are price matched with Ald1 but there are some items that are either just cheaper or there is a non-branded alternative. So I think its about 13% cheaper which agrees with a Which report I read. Some other considerations are that you can’t pack and scan on the way around which you can at Sainsb*ry if you have a Nectar card. You have to pack super quick at Ald1 as the check out is fast.  I also quite like the mid-aisle stuff as there are some great bargains there. I think its worth the saving as monthly this could work out as on a monthly budget of £720 it would reduce by around £90-100.

I have redone the budget on YNAB based on funding holidays and other extras as described in my previous post. I have reduced the pension contributions from a total of 89% to 83% of gross salary. So this is a bit less but still a decent level. Not sure what the exact impact of this will be but it will come through in the payslip once it is applied.

savingholmes

Well done. Better you having the money and time freedom it buys than the store

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Since the holiday we have done a bit of a tidy / clean of the house. In doing this, I have found myself wanting to declutter once again as we enter the autumn. Maybe this is a kind of end of season thing. In my home office I have a set of shelves which I fitted to the walls. It seemed like a good idea at the time as it gave me space to store all my books. But over time it has become a place to put all kinds of stuff and I have decided to go through it all. I am part way through but it is amazing how much stuff we have accumulated. One example is electrical cables, chargers and all kinds of bits and pieces, old boxes and paraphernalia of old mobile phones, digital cameas etc etc. Looking at all this stuff has really convinced me, I am not buying anything any more. Most of these things were the must have (for me) item of the time, and most had a transitory use followed by years of sitting on the shelf gathering dust. What a waste of resources and now a problem of recycling and disposal. Decluttering really is a cure for acquiring more stuff. Once again, I have a garage half full of things for disposal and recycling. Powering up some old digital cameras has revealed some long lost pictures and videos which OH and I have enjoyed watching. Some nice video of MIL who is sadly now suffering from dementia so it has been lovely to find these videos of her.

 

savingholmes

Nice win on the videos.

I agree decluttering is a great cure for over spending as it is very confronting

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

We have passed a milestone of sorts this week. The total DC fund has passed £300K ie is now worth £300,250. I can’t put this down to the stock market doing well since it isn’t but to the boring ongoing process of saving each month. This number isn’t really significant in and of itself although I think we are getting closer to the goal. I quite like simple maths as I can cope with that. I am using some basic assumptions. So one assumption is that a couple needs approx. £34K for a reasonable retirement, got that number from a recent report. From my age 67 we will be receiving more than this from other DB pensions and the state pension. Therefore, the DC pot needs to fund the gap from whatever age I decide to stop working and 67. So for a working assumption of stopping at 58, I would need a minimum fund of 9 x £34 = £306K. I know its more complicated than this, but its not far off. So really what this means is that the decision to stop working is no longer a numbers issue but rather a question of what do we want to do. This chimes with some of the advice I have read/ watched on youtube, where people who have retired say that in the run up to retirement they spent all their time thinking about the numbers. Whereas once they had retired they wished they had spent more time thinking about what they were going to do and filling their time in a way that was rewarding to them. Some people refer to this as ‘know what you are retiring to’ versus what are you trying to escape from. I know that I’m not quite ready to walk away just yet, but I can tell that the day is not that far away. Perhaps I wont give up working all together or maybe there will be a period where I don’t work but go back to something later, or maybe volunteering.

Meanwhile at my in-laws my MIL now needs round the clock care at home. FIL is doing an incredible job but he needs carers who are visiting every day. This is now costing him a lot of money (£1000 per week) which he has to pay since you can’t get any help until your savings drop below a certain level. So do we all need to set aside money for this purpose also? And if so how much? I read that from October 2023 there will be a cap on care costs of £83,000. The same article says that that the average (mean) care cost for people aged 65 and over will be around £45,000; and that around 1 in 7 people aged 65 and over will face care costs exceeding £100,000. Food for thought.

savingholmes

I agree on needing to know what you are retiring to. Well done on reaching that milestone. It's a huge achievement.

Is that care cost limit per person or per couple? It is a scary amount. 

South_coast

On the cost of care, I think it depends on what your eventual plan for your assets is. For me personally, my thinking is that by the point I start needing full-time care (whether at home or in a home) I'm probably done with wanting to spend the money on other things, so if it all gets used up/home gets sold then that's just what has to happen. But I don't have any children, so I've never really had any plans on leaving anything for the next generation.

I think if you start trying to plan for every eventuality you'll end up sucked into One More Year Syndrome, which could be just as dangerous as not making any plans at all. What if in your final year of work you learn you've only got a few months left to live? All the planning rather than living would seem like a bit of a joke then. That said, I have a vague notion that in the US they offer insurance for big-ticket medical expenses like care. Maybe seeing whether that could be an option here might be a middle ground?