How much to live on

Organgrinder

Amazing pic!

Caravans and camper vans just don't appeal to me. Neither does camping though I have done it a few times.

Today though I've revisited my Octopus account which I'd switched to variable DD. By doing so I've used the credit I'd built up and not paid out £312 in direct debits for a net return of £250.

So i decided to check my direct debit should I wish to go back to paying monthly. Exactly the same! 

Floss

Albermarle said:

I always assumed it was mainly a cost saving measure, but when I was working I was surprised to meet some senior management/highly paid people who spent most of their holidays caravanning, so very much out of preference than need.

Two of my close friends & their husbands both own (very nice!) touring caravans, one hslf of 1 couple is FD of an international company, the other couple has EMEA Sales Director of another international company. Both couples have dogs so it makes sense to them to be able to take their pet on holiday with them. Both couples still do traditional flight holidays too, but the van takes precedence.

Savvy_Sue

I camped in my youth, and we did it a few times with the boys when very young, but I just struggled with not sleeping (there are NO sound barriers on a campsite). Then there's the weather ... and the biggest problem was sunshine! The weekend my legs burned quite badly in the time it took me to put sunscreen on all the boys is a low point, and yes, I should have kept either them or my legs in the tent until we were done, but I was not expecting to burn so quickly, just after breakfast, IN THE UK!!! 

Another memorable weekend, away with several families from church, it was blowing a gale. We'd put DS3 to bed, but he was NOT happy because the tent kept flattening itself above him. Then a parent and child turned up late and realised they'd forgotten sleeping bags. "Oh we'll be fine with just a picnic blanket", they said. "No, no, I insist, have mine and DS3's, we'll go and find a B&B!" And fortunately we did, because the B&B had not quite got round to bringing their 'vacancies' sign in. Next morning, ALL the caravan awnings were down, ALL the old-fashioned frame tents were down, and the only undamaged tents in our group were dome tents. 

Then there was the weekend, again with families from church, on a private site, with a river on two sides. Which we had to evacuate early one morning. One family were there with a rather fancy trailer tent: I went to help them pack up, and found the groundsheet floating on 4" of water - they were in the car park rather than with the rest of us. I think that was their first ever camping trip. 

Anyway, I decided that I probably shouldn't camp again. Now, when we go to a Festival, we book the nearest Premier Inn. Or we did once book a static caravan, but I didn't like the bed taking up all of one end, so one of us would have to climb over the other to get to the loo in the night. 

barnstar2077

We went camping for the first time last year, we took everything with us on public transport.  Clothes in rucksacks and everything else in a large bag on wheels, it was all surprisingly easy and painless. 

We went to two different sites and loved it, met loads of great people.  The money we saved by camping we spent on eating out while we were away.

We are going to Devon for a week in June.  Can't wait. 

Albermarle

barnstar2077 said:

We went camping for the first time last year, we took everything with us on public transport.  Clothes in runsacks and everything else in a large bag on wheels, it was all surprisingly easy and painless. 

We went to two different sites and loved it, met loads of great people.  The money we saved by camping we spent on eating out while we were away.

We are going to Devon for a week in June.  Can't wait. 

I am guessing the weather was quite kind for you and not like this ?

Bravepants

Albermarle said:

barnstar2077 said:

We went camping for the first time last year, we took everything with us on public transport.  Clothes in runsacks and everything else in a large bag on wheels, it was all surprisingly easy and painless. 

We went to two different sites and loved it, met loads of great people.  The money we saved by camping we spent on eating out while we were away.

We are going to Devon for a week in June.  Can't wait. 

I am guessing the weather was quite kind for you and not like this ?

To be fair though, that IS a photo of the sea scouts' annual jamboree and BBQ.

barnstar2077

Bravepants said:

Albermarle said:

barnstar2077 said:

We went camping for the first time last year, we took everything with us on public transport.  Clothes in runsacks and everything else in a large bag on wheels, it was all surprisingly easy and painless. 

We went to two different sites and loved it, met loads of great people.  The money we saved by camping we spent on eating out while we were away.

We are going to Devon for a week in June.  Can't wait. 

I am guessing the weather was quite kind for you and not like this ?

To be fair though, that IS a photo of the sea scouts' annual jamboree and BBQ.

lol!  Are you sure that isn't the yearly submariners camp out! :  )

louby40

As suggested by many of you on here, I began keeping a detailed record of what I've been spending  over the last 12 months.

I bought a notebook and divided it into different categories and began to note all of my spending down each week, going through my bank statements .

Last night I added it all up and it came to a grand total of £16,124. That figure does not include any foreign travel but does include weekends away. It doesn't include mortgage payments either. 

It's basically bills and personal spending.

I probably missed the odd thing off and I got very confused sometimes with certain categories but I'm so glad I did it. I must admit I have tended to buy (within reason) what I want.  

More recently  however, i have begun to think more carefully about what I'm buying.

I'm now 55 and have had some health issues which have made me take stock a bit and I've realised that I want to retire from teaching in the next 2-3 years.

I am  in the middle of a house sale (downsizing ) so I know that my spending once i move will go down as i will pay less council tax and gas/electricity. Plus I will be mortgage free.

Im going to carry on monitoring and recording what I spend to see if I can get it under £16k for 2024-25.

BooJewels

Well done @louby40 - that sounds like it's been a mammoth task.  I would guess that some of the value to you will be in making notes and thinking about it and being more conscious of where and how you spend - so you can move forwards being that bit more enlightened. 

It would be interesting to continue to keep the same sort of records once that you've moved house to see how your new life compares.  I did similar after I lost my husband - largely with things like energy use - I was curious to see what difference it made - or if there would actually be any.

As for retiring - I lost a long term friend yesterday - very rapidly and unexpectedly - I'm still reeling from the shock and disbelief.  She took early retirement in her late 50s and her husband soon followed and I'm very glad that they at least had a few short years of enjoying that freedom together - thankfully, they really filled their time well.  She hasn't even reached SP age yet, so she could have still been working and not had that enjoyable time together.  So these things make us all take stock of our situations.

Organgrinder

So the weekend has started with the offer of another exam marking contract......two for June/July and 3,600 or so questions to mark over 6 weeks for approx £2,200.

It's something I intend carrying on with once fully retired. It's just a couple of times a year for in total about ten weeks work for about 2 hours a day. The pay isn't brilliant but I usually enjoy it and once fully retired will help pay for our holidays/help not have to drawdown on the pension.

Does anyone else do anything similar?