It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Sea_Shell

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Everything is still ticking along here, and having finalised June's figures, we have spent £4,493 in the first 6 months of the year.   
We've also had "income" of approx £800, so in effect we've only eaten into our funds by £3,693! 

However, overall our "pots" are down £6,200 since the year end, which isn't too bad all things considered!!    A net drop of only £2,500.


As for the economic fall out of another wider lockdown, well that doesn't bear thinking about!!

Do you keep such a tight control over your spends because you are drawing down rather than having a fixed DB income?  Is it psychologically harder to spend I wonder when you can see investments/ savings going down rather than receiving a DB pension every month as we do in much the same way as a salary. As you say you are quite happy with make do and mend (we would replace the printer) but our expenditure is £9,500 approx more than yours over the same period. Almost £3300 of that is  holidays (including travel)  and  eating out at the beginning of the year and £2900 is things done to the house so that is £6200 but we are still spending £3300 more than you.  Admittedly  our personal spends come to over £1500 (£200 each per month)  of which my husband spends all of his on hobbies and I manage to save most of mine so he spent £1400 and I spent £100.  Is your husband as frugal as you? Our gifts etc have also come up to almost £700. Food has been an extortionate £2000 as there were three of us for two and a half months of lockdown and I have been shopping online rather than at Lidl. I am not worried about it as our income is more than enough to cover it and we haven't needed to drawdown on investments at all. They are up 6% since last July. 

Yes, I agree that it is different mindset than when you have a guaranteed monthly income.   Maybe once DHs DB pensions plus state are in payment things will be different.

At our age it's still quite a risk quitting so early, so we won't be throwing caution to the wind with our spending for a little while, it's still early days.

As for fixing the printer, I got a sense of accomplishment from that.  Also during our research it would appear that new replacements are hard to come by, with many out of stock ATM.

MallyGirl

A lot of random things seem to be out of stock at the moment - probably sourced from China. I was lucky that ordered a toilet tent, so we could use the camper even if the facilities weren't open, just days before they announced campsite reopening. I could sell it for a lot right now but we are actually going away for Saturday night - it is going to be weird.
BG have just been and replaced the full innards of the downstairs loo as the flush stopped working. to be fair they were pretty speedy as I only booked it a couple of days ago.

enthusiasticsaver

Sea_Shell said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Everything is still ticking along here, and having finalised June's figures, we have spent £4,493 in the first 6 months of the year.   
We've also had "income" of approx £800, so in effect we've only eaten into our funds by £3,693! 

However, overall our "pots" are down £6,200 since the year end, which isn't too bad all things considered!!    A net drop of only £2,500.


As for the economic fall out of another wider lockdown, well that doesn't bear thinking about!!

Do you keep such a tight control over your spends because you are drawing down rather than having a fixed DB income?  Is it psychologically harder to spend I wonder when you can see investments/ savings going down rather than receiving a DB pension every month as we do in much the same way as a salary. As you say you are quite happy with make do and mend (we would replace the printer) but our expenditure is £9,500 approx more than yours over the same period. Almost £3300 of that is  holidays (including travel)  and  eating out at the beginning of the year and £2900 is things done to the house so that is £6200 but we are still spending £3300 more than you.  Admittedly  our personal spends come to over £1500 (£200 each per month)  of which my husband spends all of his on hobbies and I manage to save most of mine so he spent £1400 and I spent £100.  Is your husband as frugal as you? Our gifts etc have also come up to almost £700. Food has been an extortionate £2000 as there were three of us for two and a half months of lockdown and I have been shopping online rather than at Lidl. I am not worried about it as our income is more than enough to cover it and we haven't needed to drawdown on investments at all. They are up 6% since last July. 

Yes, I agree that it is different mindset than when you have a guaranteed monthly income.   Maybe once DHs DB pensions plus state are in payment things will be different.

At our age it's still quite a risk quitting so early, so we won't be throwing caution to the wind with our spending for a little while, it's still early days.

As for fixing the printer, I got a sense of accomplishment from that.  Also during our research it would appear that new replacements are hard to come by, with many out of stock ATM.

I am glad you managed to fix the printer and yes lots of stuff out of stock at the moment due to the halt or slow down of manufacturing over the last few months. 
You retired very early (much earlier than us I think which was aged 58 for both of us) so I would think this would have an impact on your spending behaviour as you have a longer gap to fill before other pensions kick in. I think I would feel the same and be much more frugal. We are fairly relaxed about spending because we figure this is why we saved during our working life and we only have 4 and 6 years now until SP gives us an additional 17k per annum and we have not needed to draw down on investments yet as we have a surplus still every month. 

crv1963

MallyGirl said:

A lot of random things seem to be out of stock at the moment - probably sourced from China. I was lucky that ordered a toilet tent, so we could use the camper even if the facilities weren't open, just days before they announced campsite reopening. I could sell it for a lot right now but we are actually going away for Saturday night - it is going to be weird.
BG have just been and replaced the full innards of the downstairs loo as the flush stopped working. to be fair they were pretty speedy as I only booked it a couple of days ago.

Yes I agree lots of things taken for granted are unavailable or at extortionate prices- can't get Mrs CRV hair gel! Builder couldn't get plaster until this week but was offered some at £50 a bag- he rightly said that is a rip off when it normally costs him £6 a bag! We just agreed to delay- he needed 17 bags!!!!

fred246

MallyGirl said:

BG have just been and replaced the full innards of the downstairs loo as the flush stopped working. to be fair they were pretty speedy as I only booked it a couple of days ago.

I did mine recently. The parts cost was under £15. With the competition the internet has brought DIY person can get parts at trade prices. It's all labour you pay for. Someone told me they paid £70 to get a tap washer changed. I pay 10p!

Anonymous101

fred246 said:

MallyGirl said:

BG have just been and replaced the full innards of the downstairs loo as the flush stopped working. to be fair they were pretty speedy as I only booked it a couple of days ago.

I did mine recently. The parts cost was under £15. With the competition the internet has brought DIY person can get parts at trade prices. It's all labour you pay for. Someone told me they paid £70 to get a tap washer changed. I pay 10p!

That's right. Most tradesmen just go to Screwfix or B&Q anyway so what you're paying for is their time.
The obvious caveat to that though is with Gas and Electrics where there is a safety element to it and you're effectively buying their insurance. 

MallyGirl

yes - we were paying not for the washer but in fact for the knowledge of where to put it. It was actually the diaphragm, not a washer, but it was quite an involved job to replace - made more complex by a lack of a stop !!!!!! in the house. I was happy to have someone else do it - OH will tackle electrics but not water.

fred246

Toilets are a Victorian invention. They aren't really complicated. They are very common so the suppliers compete on price. Plumbers profit equals customer charge minus cost of parts. So DIY man can now access parts at same price as plumber so savings from DIY are higher than ever I think. Plumbers merchants used to rip off DIY man.

Sea_Shell

Morning Everyone

Just thought i'd pop back in and say Hi.    

We've been to visit both sets of parents, finally, as they are now off shielding.
We've been to a country park for a lovely walk, coffee and a cake.
We braved Dunelms for 2 bathmats...our old one had finally gone in a hole!!
We've trimmed the conifers in the garden.
I've sewn another couple of facemasks.

and in financial news...

We've put another £5k in the "100% equities" ISA's, having had another look at our cash float situation.    We have a fixed term bond due to mature in Sept 2021, so we're just running down our cash until that pays out, then we can re-assess, our cash float again at that time.    If in an emergency we need that cash back....we'll withdraw it from the "less volatile" 20-60% ISA, but if we've done our sums right, we shouldn't need to touch the 100% ISA for many years.

Saw yesterdays news about Club Lloyds interest.   boooo  hissss.     Lets hope TSB don't follow too hot on their heels.

swindiff

Back into work on Wednesday for the first time in 4 months. It's been like a trial retirement and I have to say I was beginning to get used to it lol.