Important update! We have recently reviewed and updated our Forum Rules and FAQs. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with the latest version.
It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!
1.4K replies
193.5K views
Quick links
Essential Money | Who & Where are you? | Work & Benefits | Household and travel | Shopping & Freebies | About MSE | The MoneySavers Arms | Covid-19 & Coronavirus Support
Replies
I don't understand how you can be 'conservative' when (using your 30K figure) you would be spending £2,500 a month, every month.
On what?
Everyday bills (food, electricity, insurance, cars etc) are probably around £800 - £1500 a month depending on house size and family size etc.
So where does the other £1,000 go every month?
I really cannot work out what you must be buying, or paying for things.
When you say 'conservative car' what sort of make and model do you have in mind?
And for 'conservative' holidays again what price range?
I know most people do not want to give too much personal info away so generic examples only if you want.
************************************
Sorry for slightly hijacking Sea Shell's thread. I am interested in the thread as her circumstances, living costs and FIRE fund are / will be very similar to ours.
Same here! Well, more me than my partner.:)
Maybe it's something to do with reaching a point in life where we no longer have anything to prove. We've all been through the ups and downs of life, some of them quite dramatic, some of them quite tragic and we've become humbled by life and realised than peace, self-development, learning and clarity of mind is much more important to us than collecting stuff to keep up with the Jones's.
I sometimes hanker after starting again and having a "boxing up party" like The Minimalists, and then only getting out what we need and use.
One thing having less stuff gives me is space to breathe, less time looking after things, and housework becomes easier too.
Be brave enough to invest against the herd!
It's great that you can get by on £18k a year, but I don't know how you manage it.
I can, easily. As an example. Seashell posted the breakdown of the yearly budget and one of the things I noticed was that the fixed costs of Council Tax, electricity, gas, water, Sky and Broadband was £280 a month. That figure is roughly my Council tax alone. As it’s a bigger house it requires more electricity and more gas – though water and Broadband would be the same. And Sky, though I don’t have that. Maintenance costs are also more.
The groceries spend was £48 a week – presumably for two. That’s not a lot, though it is at Aldi. Personally I tried Aldi but it was awful – the meat and fish are especially poor and the fruit and veg are just average and the choice is appalling, however I do get that they offer value for money. I do prefer the quality of a decent butcher and fishmonger and I like to support local shops as well as going to the supermarket, rather than just concentrating on saving every penny. But the flip side is that they are expensive.
Whilst we don’t use a gym, a lot of the other costs are similar – though we do more miles. (I do fail to see how two people can only spend £40 of cash in a year. Charity donations, parking, the odd newspaper etc require more than that over the year, however everyone is different!!).
People might have more expensive cars, holidays, so it’s easy to see why people might want more. £12-13k per year to live on, I would think, is at the very low end of the spectrum (though this is a Moneysaving site!) And it obviously suits the OP. By that rationale, spending twice that might suit other people.
I'm planning on £3000 a month retirement income. Who’s to say that’s any more wrong than £1000 a month as above?
I suppose its all relative. As it is we're still hitting a pretty high savings rate, well over 50%, but could of course cut back further to really speed up our FI process.
I'm happy to discuss this more away from this thread if you'd like to contact me via PM or something but to keep it on topic and relevant here I'll give high level run through of where I'd see our £30k retirement budget going.
As you say £2,500 per month
House (Energy, Water, Council tax, Sky TV) - £450
Household maintenance saving - £250
Food (£35 each pw, plus one meal out pm) - £300
Pet (Vets, Pet plan etc) - £50
Mobile phones - £50
Holidays / weekends away / days out (annual allowance of £5k) - £300
Cars (Allowance for maintenance, Tax, MOT, Insurance Etc) £200 x 2 = £400
Petrol - £250
Personal spends (Birthday presents, socialising etc) - £150
Hobbies - £300
Of course we could cut back (obviously on hobbies and personal spends) but I think this gives a fairly comfortable retirement without going over the top.
No idea who says it was wrong as it was not me.
I have made no comment on what is right, or wrong.
People are entitled to spend what they like. I just cannot work out what they are finding to spend it on.
Thanks for the info
I hate shopping so could not work at all what people are buying with so much every month.
On my spend spreadsheet I also have a column for Cash withdrawn. That is less than it used to be when I was working, but we still need to withdraw cash a few times a month so it counts as part of our monthly spend.
Definately. Unless the item in question has a usefull purpose it now goes. Rather than things , oh and me exchange "experiences". Simple life now. With majority of money now going on theatre, gigs, travel etc.
My DH does start to make comments about not standing still for too long when I get in a declutter mood!
Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.