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

Sea_Shell

Merry Christmas to readers of my thread. Here's hoping 2020 heralds the start of a prosperous and healthy decade for us all!!

A quiet one for us today. Will have some Fizzy, go for a walk, have our Dinner, then loaf on the sofa.

atush

Merry Christmas to you too, jusst got the turkey ready for the oven later now i have tyo make breakfast for 5

justme111

Make them a pot of porridge

atush

I made soft scrambed eggs, bacon and some croissants

Sea_Shell

The scores on the doors are in…

In 2019 we spent the grand sum of …..£11,087 !! Including £400 for a new washing machine! We haven’t tried to do this, it’s just what it is.

Saying that, we had planned to go on 2 additional UK trips, but due to the weather we didn’t end up going. One was June when I was still working and had a specific week booked off work, and it rained all week, and the other was going to be October, but again it was wet. Even so, that would have added only £1000 - £1500 to the total.

So basing on a “budgeted” spend of £15,000, we’ve got £4k carry over, so can spend £19,000 in 2020. At least now with no work commitments, if the forecast is good, we shall just book and go!!

If we have a bad spring, we may well fly south to see the sun, in May maybe.

The breakdown for the 2019 spends looks like this…

Bills (DD) £3651
Holidays £1272 (3 UK short breaks plus days out)
Car (1) £397
Groceries £2586
Household £1050 (includes the WM)
Health/Beauty/Fitness £878
Clothes £163
Fuel £432
Gifts £180
Fees/ISA £317
Phone £158

The overall picture of our finances is looking very healthy at the moment as it would appear 2019 has been a good year.

Our total pot is now at c. £560k, which is made up of…

DC Pension pots £323,705
S&S ISAs £138,075
Locked Cash £79,780
Instant Cash £20,777

At the end of 2018, it was down at £480k, due to the end of year dip, so the year on year figures are skewed a lot by that. The previous high was £509k in August 2018.

So there we have it…Happy New Year and here’s to 2020!!

Brilley

..£11k total spend for a years living is pretty amazing IMHO...I have not completed our EOY, but it looks like we have over earned and under spent giving us a net gain of about £4k over the year. (This is our 3rd full year since retiring and first time we have had a gain on the year. I do a bit of casual part time work, and MOH started taking their pension this year). We have budgeted to spend £30k+ but struggle to get anywhere near that....must try harder to spend..

Karmacat

Congratulations, Sea Shell! I'm very behind on budgetting and checking, but submitting accounts during the next month is going to give me *some* knowledge, so I shall see what I shall see

JoeEngland

Well done Sea Shell. A yearly spend of under 15k with such a big pot of savings and pensions sounds like you're very financially secure.

Btw, how much council tax do you pay?

Sea_Shell

JoeEngland wrote: »

Well done Sea Shell. A yearly spend of under 15k with such a big pot of savings and pensions sounds like you're very financially secure.

Btw, how much council tax do you pay?

Council tax is currently £1810.

michaels

Sea_Shell wrote: »

The scores on the doors are in…

In 2019 we spent the grand sum of …..£11,087 !! Including £400 for a new washing machine! We haven’t tried to do this, it’s just what it is.

Saying that, we had planned to go on 2 additional UK trips, but due to the weather we didn’t end up going. One was June when I was still working and had a specific week booked off work, and it rained all week, and the other was going to be October, but again it was wet. Even so, that would have added only £1000 - £1500 to the total.

So basing on a “budgeted” spend of £15,000, we’ve got £4k carry over, so can spend £19,000 in 2020. At least now with no work commitments, if the forecast is good, we shall just book and go!!

If we have a bad spring, we may well fly south to see the sun, in May maybe.

The breakdown for the 2019 spends looks like this…

Bills (DD) £3651
Holidays £1272 (3 UK short breaks plus days out)
Car (1) £397
Groceries £2586
Household £1050 (includes the WM)
Health/Beauty/Fitness £878
Clothes £163
Fuel £432
Gifts £180
Fees/ISA £317
Phone £158

The overall picture of our finances is looking very healthy at the moment as it would appear 2019 has been a good year.

Our total pot is now at c. £560k, which is made up of…

DC Pension pots £323,705
S&S ISAs £138,075
Locked Cash £79,780
Instant Cash £20,777

At the end of 2018, it was down at £480k, due to the end of year dip, so the year on year figures are skewed a lot by that. The previous high was £509k in August 2018.

So there we have it…Happy New Year and here’s to 2020!!

Looks good. Out of interest how do you budget for car and other intermittent capital spends. We budget for depreciation each year even though it isn't actual spend.