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

savingmore

Tx for this update.  Our groceries are same and we eat well.  The one expense I can’t match is your bills.  With council tax, electricity/gas, water rates, building &content ins. Ours is around £430 then internet and tv licence, net flix on top comes to £480.  How do you do bills for 321 if you don’t mind me asking, or are some of those in your household expenses?  We have big standard 3 bed semi. 

Nebulous2

We don't keep an accurate track, but groceries for 3 certainly over £600 per month.  Ground coffee and muesli for breakfast, varied lunch, but often med style salad with oily fish, cheese, olives and salad dressing. Main meal in the evening, generally made from scratch, with a lot of veg. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips etc. We also buy a lot of fruit. Bananas, oranges, grapes, lemons almost always in stock.

Portion control is completely out of control. We used to use 800g of mince for one meal, such as chilli, or spag bol, but we've cut it to 500 with more veg. Buy some food from farmers markets, but generally lidl or aldi, with top-ups in between at a small Tesco. Despite having very well-stocked cupboards we have very little waste. Minimal to no fizzy drinks, very limited crisps. Alcohol limited to weekends, generally craft beer. 

SouthCoastBoy

Our food bill for 4 is around 400 to 450 a month. Our biggest issue is council tax as we live in one of the most expensive areas in the country wrt council tax and we have no control over it besides moving.

Sea_Shell

savingmore said:

Tx for this update.  Our groceries are same and we eat well.  The one expense I can’t match is your bills.  With council tax, electricity/gas, water rates, building &content ins. Ours is around £430 then internet and tv licence, net flix on top comes to £480.  How do you do bills for 321 if you don’t mind me asking, or are some of those in your household expenses?  We have big standard 3 bed semi. 

Over the last year the split of the £3862 is...
Water - £278 (metered)
CT - £2115 (Band D)
Gas/Elec - £1032  (with credit balance refunded, but includes* Gov rebates of 3 x 67 for Jan, Feb, March, and we were on a "cheap" fix last winter)
TV lic - £159
BB - £278 (standard, not fibre)

4 bed Detached - Midlands
Home insurance in with Household exp.
TV subs under Hol/Entertainment


* edited to show that this INCLUDES £201 of Gov rebates, not excludes.    As our DD was based on this credit being added.   We paid £1462 in DD payments, and then requested £430 of our credit to be refunded, leaving actual cost to us of £1032.

Sea_Shell

Headline figure is in...

£618,500

I'll flesh that out later.

Last year we ended with £571,350

Albermarle

Sea_Shell said:

Headline figure is in...

£618,500

I'll flesh that out later.

Last year we ended with £571,350

However with average inflation in 2023 of about 10% you ( and me ) are only really back where we started in real terms.
Still could be worse and the last few weeks in the equity and bond markets have proved quite a fillip.

Sea_Shell

Some flesh on the bones for you to pick over...

(Figures in brackets as at end December 2022)


£14,917 (£12,400) – Easy Access Cash 
£11,740  (£10,030) – Loanpad P2P ISA (60 day notice)
£61,583  (£22,808) – Various fixes, maturing at regular intervals. Ave rate 5.6%
£104,470 (£32,840) – DH's Drawdown pension pot (being drawn at £1150 pm) Includes some cash within total.
£215,347  (£197,500) – S&S ISAs
£210,450 (£295,640) – Untouched DC pension pots (mine, basically)

Total - £618,500


During the year, DH moved one of his DC pensions into his DD pot, and took the cash free lump sum, which is what's bolstered the fixed cash.  Most cash in my name as a non-earner.  So no worries [for a few years] about tax on interest.

Overall our asset allocation is now sitting at ~21% cash, 57% Equities and the rest in "other" (bonds and stuff within funds)

Sea_Shell

Our 2024 "resolution" is to try and increase our Holiday and Entertainment spend to become the largest % category.

Currently at 21%, with bills being 24% 

I'll bookmark this page to return to this time next year!!!   

FIREDreamer

Sea_Shell said:

Some flesh on the bones for you to pick over...

(Figures in brackets as at end December 2022)


£14,917 (£12,400) – Easy Access Cash 
£11,740  (£10,030) – Loanpad P2P ISA (60 day notice)
£61,583  (£22,808) – Various fixes, maturing at regular intervals. Ave rate 5.6%
£104,470 (£32,840) – DH's Drawdown pension pot (being drawn at £1150 pm) Includes some cash within total.
£215,347  (£197,500) – S&S ISAs
£210,450 (£295,640) – Untouched DC pension pots (mine, basically)

Total - £618,500


During the year, DH moved one of his DC pensions into his DD pot, and took the cash free lump sum, which is what's bolstered the fixed cash.  Most cash in my name as a non-earner.  So no worries [for a few years] about tax on interest.

Overall our asset allocation is now sitting at ~21% cash, 57% Equities and the rest in "other" (bonds and stuff within funds)

Have you worked out your rate of return over the year?

My pension made 4% pa but 68% of it was transferred to buy an annuity in October.

My ISA made 4% as well, added £20k in April, nothing withdrawn.

Totally different investments made the same returns. Global ETFs in SIPP, various investment trusts in my ISA.

No bonds ever, thank goodness!

FIREDreamer

Sea_Shell said:

savingmore said:

Tx for this update.  Our groceries are same and we eat well.  The one expense I can’t match is your bills.  With council tax, electricity/gas, water rates, building &content ins. Ours is around £430 then internet and tv licence, net flix on top comes to £480.  How do you do bills for 321 if you don’t mind me asking, or are some of those in your household expenses?  We have big standard 3 bed semi. 

Over the last year the split of the £3862 is...
Water - £278 (metered)
CT - £2115 (Band D)
Gas/Elec - £1032  (with credit balance refunded, but excludes Gov rebates of 3 x 67 for Jan, Feb, March, and we were on a "cheap" fix last winter)
TV lic - £159
BB - £278 (standard, not fibre)

4 bed Detached - Midlands
Home insurance in with Household exp.
TV subs under Hol/Entertainment

West Midlands? I always thought you were in the South West by the sea due to low outgoings and your user name. You couldn’t live further from the sea if you tried. 😂😂😂