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

MallyGirl

shinytop said:
Since this is an MSE site it's worth pointing out that dual fuel deals are rarely the cheapest.  I fixed electricity last month at 16.5p for a year but I don't know if that is available now.  BTW that's a lot of energy use if you've got gas... 

I think gas will come down again but maybe the days of ultra cheap 3p per kWh prices are over. 

It is a lot. High ceilings, detached house, sash windows, hundreds of meters of uninsulated copper pipes under floors, no cavities in walls to fill. Wet underfloor heating in orangery, electric UFH in bathrooms and my home office. 2 people working from home with lots of IT kit on. Electric doesn't vary so much throughout the year - £200 in Jan down to £100 in July. Gas is very temperature dependent - £200 in Jan down to £17 in July

Sea_Shell

Picked up our new glasses today.

New prescriptions are always so odd until you get used to them!! (Where are my feet?)

Feeling a little bit seasick🤮

MallyGirl

Sea_Shell said:

Picked up our new glasses today.

New prescriptions are always so odd until you get used to them!! (Where are my feet?)

Feeling a little bit seasick🤮

My contact lens has been discontinued and the new version gave me vertigo. So far I have still managed to get the old one online but eventually that will cease. That might be the trigger to get that eye fixed. Very weird as it should be the same but just a slight change (improvement) to the fit/comfort.

enthusiasticsaver

If the new glasses are bifocal my DH had awful trouble adjusting to them as he could not see his feet.  He ended up by swapping back to separate long distance and close work glasses.  Luckily I only need them for watching TV and driving so don't need numerous different pairs. I suggested he give it a while before giving up on the bifocals but I think he felt constantly nauseous too. The optician was great though and did not charge extra. 

Sea_Shell

enthusiasticsaver said:

If the new glasses are bifocal my DH had awful trouble adjusting to them as he could not see his feet.  He ended up by swapping back to separate long distance and close work glasses.  Luckily I only need them for watching TV and driving so don't need numerous different pairs. I suggested he give it a while before giving up on the bifocals but I think he felt constantly nauseous too. The optician was great though and did not charge extra. 

These are my second pair or varifocals, but yes the reading part is stronger, so more variation top to bottom (my distance prescription hadn't changed much).

I'm sure (hope) I'll get used to them.  My first pair were the same when I first got them too.

BarbaraG2000

On the energy bill issue, I am hoping against hope that the EPC for our new (build) house is even remotely right, because if it is, we should be using about half the gas we did in the previous place.  Seeing how hard we’ve had to try in the past few weeks to keep the temperature down to anything like a bearable level, I don’t think the heating is going to need to be on very much to keep us comfortable in the winter.

Another bonus is that we seem to be using marginally less electricity in this house than the previous one, despite switching from gas to electric cooking. I’m putting this down to the white goods being newer and therefore more efficient.

westv

Might be an "interesting" 7 days in the energy sector

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58610561

Sea_Shell

For anyone interested, this is the graph on our various spreadsheets that we shall be keeping the keenest eye on.

It is basically a rolling 6 month average of our total retirement pot value, over time.    So if it starts to flatline, that's no bad thing (as spends would be equalling growth), and even if it starts to drop, that's still not too bad, as long as it doesn't start to fall too low!!    



There has been no "new" money to add to the pot since July 2019.   This line will drop, just a matter of when! 
A 20% drop would take us back to our original starting point of c.£500,000

Audaxer

Sea_Shell said:

For anyone interested, this is the graph on our various spreadsheets that we shall be keeping the keenest eye on.

It is basically a rolling 6 month average of our total retirement pot value, over time.    So if it starts to flatline, that's no bad thing (as spends would be equalling growth), and even if it starts to drop, that's still not too bad, as long as it doesn't start to fall too low!!    



There has been no "new" money to add to the pot since July 2019.   This line will drop, just a matter of when! 
A 20% drop would take us back to our original starting point of c.£500,000

I think that shows you will be definitely okay, no matter what happens. Even a 3% withdrawal rate of the lower figure of £500k amounts to £15k, which will more than cover your current annual spend. So even after a market crash, I don't think there is any danger of your withdrawal rate not being safe. Well done.

michaels

Sea_Shell said:

For anyone interested, this is the graph on our various spreadsheets that we shall be keeping the keenest eye on.

It is basically a rolling 6 month average of our total retirement pot value, over time.    So if it starts to flatline, that's no bad thing (as spends would be equalling growth), and even if it starts to drop, that's still not too bad, as long as it doesn't start to fall too low!!    



There has been no "new" money to add to the pot since July 2019.   This line will drop, just a matter of when! 
A 20% drop would take us back to our original starting point of c.£500,000

Sadly while it looks great I suspect many 'failing' withdrawal portfolios looked great for the first few years.  You  also need to present it it real inflation adjusted) terms for it to be meaningful.   I'm not saying any info is worse than no info but just that seeing a line go in the right direction for 5 (or even 10+) years doesn't actually mean that the overall outcome will be a success.