How much to live on

Albermarle

Especially as the price of pretty bog standard wine in the supermarket has gone from £5/£5.50 a couple of years ago to £7/£7.50.
I know you can still but at sub £5 in Aldi etc but it does not taste so good.

Organgrinder

I must confess I usually use my tesco clubcard extra when they do the 25% off thing. So an £8 bottle ends up at £5.40. Laithwaites was originally £10 a bottle, so the effective £3.50 was very welcome.

On a different note in 4 months I've had a 3.5% return on premium bonds which has been very welcome. 

Of course having written that I'll probably not win again for a while!

[Deleted User]

As I’m teetotal I do not budget anything for alcoholic drinks at all. Interesting to see how much some of  you budget for alcohol during the course of the year.
My only extra expense is mineral water which I drink owing to the hardness of the water in my parts, mainly for medical reasons. However the cost is only about £2 to £3 a week maximum.  lol!

Albermarle

On a different note in 4 months I've had a 3.5% return on premium bonds which has been very welcome. 
Of course having written that I'll probably not win again for a while!

3.5% is still a little bit below the average return, so in fact you should statistically be winning more in the coming months, not less.
Don't quote me on that though !

Organgrinder

I think you'll find a 3.5% return in 4 months is higher than average. 4% or so is average for a whole year.

Were i to continue this rate of return over 12 months, I'd be getting over 10%!

Albermarle

Organgrinder said:

I think you'll find a 3.5% return in 4 months is higher than average. 4% or so is average for a whole year.

Were i to continue this rate of return over 12 months, I'd be getting over 10%!

OK I had assumed you meant that you had made 3.5% pro rata over 4 months .
So for example if you had £10K of bonds, you had won just over £100, which if it continued over 12 months would mean a return of 3.5%.
However you actually mean that with £10K of bonds ( for example), you have already won £350 in 4 months , so you have done well ! ( so far....) 

Humdinger1

So, my DH is thinking about fully retiring in 12 to 18 months.  I think it was on this thread that someone stated income bands for different levels of retirement.   Could someone please repaste as nearly 200 pages is a lot to scan? Thanks very much and for the realistic tone on here; it's possible to live comfortably with some options without having millions.  Onwards and upwards Humdinger 

jwil

Humdinger1 said:

So, my DH is thinking about fully retiring in 12 to 18 months.  I think it was on this thread that someone stated income bands for different levels of retirement.   Could someone please repaste as nearly 200 pages is a lot to scan? Thanks very much and for the realistic tone on here; it's possible to live comfortably with some options without having millions.  Onwards and upwards Humdinger 

What you need:	Individual	Couple
Minimum	£12,800	£19,900
Moderate	£23,300	£34,000
Comfortable	£37,300	£54,500

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/15/uk-pensions-how-much-retire-cost-of-living-inflation-income

Tastiger

These PLSA figures always make me feel uncomfortable as the moderate couple is more after tax than I made when earning. I think the best bet is to do your own figures as we all spend differently. Here are the figures from Which? magazine that are a little different 
https://www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/planning-your-retirement/how-much-will-you-need-to-retire-aNmlv7V7sVe9

[Deleted User]

As always the amount required will depend on your priorities and desired lifestyle.  Not all areas of expenditure apply to all people.

I have been looking at the ‘Which’ comfortable amount for a single person. For example, as a single person, I do not spend anything on alcohol or tobacco products whatsoever. My insurances for a year are far less than suggested in total. In my case about £800 maximum for the year. I assume housing costs means council tax and maintenance. Other areas seem quite high too. I certainly don’t give over a £1000 a year to charities, but help in other ways through clothing and book donations and buying from charity shops.

I probably  spend more on travel if you include at least one foreign holiday a year and several U.K. trips.

I also spend more on clothes but less overall on gifts to friends and families. 

I’m sure all of us on here could list myriad differences in our spending habits.  

In any case my budgeting spreadsheet is organised in a different way to the headings suggested and it works for me.

One thing I would say is, if you are planning retirement base your decision on YOUR needs and requirements not some figure given online or by other individuals whose approach and lifestyle will not be the same as yours.

For example, lots of people ask on threads in another section of the forum ask this question often, ‘Can I afford to retire?’ Surely you can only answer that question yourself!