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

michaels

enthusiasticsaver said:

Happy New Year @Sea_Shell.  I popped on to see your usual end of  year  round up and wasn't disappointed.  Puts us to shame but our circumstances are different.  We have helped out our children, our pensions are mainly DB and DH gets his state pension next year so older than you.  

After living very comfortably for the last 5 years since our early retirement just on savings and DB pensions we have bitten the bullet and started monthly withdrawals on our S and S ISAs and SIPPs from investments. We figured our state pensions will increase our income by £20k within the next 3 years so might as well draw on the portfolio until then. The extra income will help  our DD1 with her house move and private health costs for one of our DGDs and a family holiday.  If we could not afford it we would not do it but it makes sense to help out if we can. 

I am running a 10 year old car which has low mileage but is not ULEZ compliant so I may have to change that as I drive up to London and Bristol  quite a lot to visit family and help out mum.  Is anyone else driving older cars worried about that? 

Surprisingly (to me) our 2005 volvo is ulez compliant, it does drink petrol though so lucky we barely use it.

coyrls

As I live in the London ULEZ, my major post-retirement expense has been replacing a non-ULEZ compliant 6 year old diesel car.

ggmf

My diesel is 8 years old and meets the ULEZ emissions standards and hence I do not need to pay a daily ULEZ charge.

Somebody

coyrls said:

As I live in the London ULEZ, my major post-retirement expense has been replacing a non-ULEZ compliant 6 year old diesel car.

A mate also lives in the London ULEZ.  He got rid of the car and just hire zipcar by the hour if needed.  He is 60 though so also gets free travel on public transport.

geoffers4

Sea_Shell said:

Well to answer our "cutbacks" question.  Here's again our spends from 2022, and where we COULD cut back;
Bills £4306.18   Not a lot we can do about these, and we estimate that these will rise to £5,000 in 2023, so plu ~£700
Holidays/Entertainment  £2343.29     As a category this could be slashed to almost nil.
Car Expenses £770.09    We only have the one, so not much to cut back here.
Groceries £2651.78    Includes alcohol and "fancy" foods, so we could cut about £10 a week off - so ~£500 pa
Household £5534.31    Included large capital expenditure, so should usually be around £1000
Health/Beauty £849.36     Includes weekly swimming and fancy toiletries, so could cut about ~£300 here
Clothes/Shoes £160.45     Hardly needs cutting back!!
Fuel £532.01     Would drop dramatically if no holidays (subject to pump prices), so say £200 saving
Gifts/Cards £510.52     Could be cut to nil.  
Bank/ISA Fees £704.75     We are looking at cutting this to almost nothing by switching.
Phones/Calls £107.56     Included a newer phone, so will leave as is.
2022 was therefore £18470.3.    Making all the above changes could slash that to ....£10,170

Hi @Sea_Shell (and resisting the urge to talk about cars...) - interesting to compare your 2022 figures to ours, we did;
Bills £5251  (Elec/gas the big increase obvs - can't see much we could cut back further, before we move/down-size.)
Holidays/Ents £5940 (inc 2 month early retirement treat. We could happily cut back to nil if the local Cumbria weather would just improve!)
Car expenses £1039  (could reduce to 1 car and save £200 insurance/MOT)
Work-related £250    (inc work parking, leaving gifts etc. All now ended)
Groceries £1764    (not including alcohol, which in the thought experiment could be nil)
Household £364  (but large capital items/work being paid this month. Your number more realistic)  
Clothes/shoes £90   (like yours, nowt to cut back here!)
Petrol  £2000   (inc work commutes which are now ended - OH works from home. Family live miles away though)
Gifts  £500   (could be nil for your thought experiment. In reality I expect we'll enjoy treating family members a bit more)
Phones  £130
Animals & children £227  (elderly dog could give us a cheap year or a v.expensive one)
Hobbies, alcohol'n'stuff   £1158  (could cut to nil as plenty of free hobbies)
Wife health/beauty, hobbies 'n'stuff   £3500  (without checking will say this could be 500 at a push)
Health £77 (I've just hit free-prescriptions-age though! So hopefully nil for a bit)
2022 was therefore £22270. The above cut-backs could slash that to ...£12,284  (petrol the big difference to yours).

As a newly-retired it's tricky to estimate what 2023 will cost us on things like petrol and trips/holidays. Let's see.

coyrls

ggmf said:

My diesel is 8 years old and meets the ULEZ emissions standards and hence I do not need to pay a daily ULEZ charge.

To clarify, mine was a 2014 diesel, so 6 years old just before the ULEZ was brought in, about the newest a diesel car could be without meeting the ULEZ requirements.  I replaced it in 2020.

Lifematters

Groceries £1764    (not including alcohol, which in the thought experiment could be nil)

I wish I could get our grocery bill that low.  We are spending £4k pa on groceries, although that does include alcohol we don’t drink much.

Albermarle

Lifematters said:

Groceries £1764    (not including alcohol, which in the thought experiment could be nil)

I wish I could get our grocery bill that low.  We are spending £4k pa on groceries, although that does include alcohol we don’t drink much.

We can all 'argue'/compare different spending on different things, but the one thing I am always surprised about is some peoples very low annual grocery spend.  . Probably with a bit more effort we could reduce ours a but, but can not see it ever getting down to even £4K ( 3 adults, alcohol not included )

chile_paul2

Albermarle said:

Lifematters said:

Groceries £1764    (not including alcohol, which in the thought experiment could be nil)

I wish I could get our grocery bill that low.  We are spending £4k pa on groceries, although that does include alcohol we don’t drink much.

We can all 'argue'/compare different spending on different things, but the one thing I am always surprised about is some peoples very low annual grocery spend.  . Probably with a bit more effort we could reduce ours a but, but can not see it ever getting down to even £4K ( 3 adults, alcohol not included )

Likewise - I had been feeling quite pleased that despite the increase in the cost of living this year we had managed to reduce our grocery spend (including alcohol) for a family of 2 adults and 2 growing (but not yet teenage) children from just over £10,200 to £9,600.

Sea_Shell

chile_paul2 said:

Albermarle said:

Lifematters said:

Groceries £1764    (not including alcohol, which in the thought experiment could be nil)

I wish I could get our grocery bill that low.  We are spending £4k pa on groceries, although that does include alcohol we don’t drink much.

We can all 'argue'/compare different spending on different things, but the one thing I am always surprised about is some peoples very low annual grocery spend.  . Probably with a bit more effort we could reduce ours a but, but can not see it ever getting down to even £4K ( 3 adults, alcohol not included )

Likewise - I had been feeling quite pleased that despite the increase in the cost of living this year we had managed to reduce our grocery spend (including alcohol) for a family of 2 adults and 2 growing (but not yet teenage) children from just over £10,200 to £9,600.

Where do you shop, Fortnum and Mason!!  😉🤣