How much to live on

Organgrinder

Such a lot of variation in energy costs. Ours at about £130 month seems ok. Of course it always seems such a waste to heat the house up before 6am, turn it off, then have it do it all again at 5pm. I say seems cos in reality it is cheaper than leaving it on all day. At retirement however this may be different due to possibly the later start time.

Agreed about standing charges too. A relative is in the forces and had a 6 month stint overseas and was furious about the £20 month they were paying for nothing!

On another front, have now got a whopping £130 of clubcard vouchers thanks to clubcard challenges and the easyJet offer. I was surprised they paid out so soon. So will be converting to easyJet vouchers (£260) to help pay for this summer's break.

helensbiggestfan

Well good news this morning.   Solicitor coughed up the refund.  I thought I was owed around £400.  Turned out to be £1160.  Wahoo.  💃. 

LL_USS

For the heating in the winter, we can programme the use in our wireless Honeywell thermostat, for e.g. weekday starting the heat from 6:30 to 8:30 when we tend to go to work/ school, then off, then automatically starting again about an hour before people are all back home till just before bed time.... In the winter I leave this automatic mode on all the time for the boiler to follow. After cold days, I choose manual turning on and off again as we need.

Organgrinder

We have smart valves on every radiator bar the towel rails in the bathrooms. So in the morning we only heat the bedroom and the kitchen and downstairs loo. In the evenings only the lounge/diner and kitchen until about 1 hour before bedtime when the bedroom radiator turns on.

It's really handy to be honest, especially when on holiday (nice to be able to turn it all off if you forget) or if you're on the way home from somewhere and you can just say "ok Google, turn the heating on" whilst driving.

The valves are unfortunately hideously priced but thankfully eBay/Facebook saw me pick them up for about £30 each 

helensbiggestfan

 Well if they do decide to dim the sun to help meet net zero I guess we will be paying even higher energy bills.......

Meanwhile.........Quote for today. (Lighthearted but with a grain of truth)

Money may not be everything but it comes a close second to oxygen.  

Nebulous2

As I said above I intend to attempt to live on my income this year, while adding £4800 (£6000 gross) to my pension. This will be a practice run for giving up my part-time job. The first month is now up.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my live cash accounts, bank accounts, regular savers, deducting any credit card debt, which I complete on the 1st of the month. The difference in the total shows if I'm up or down since last month. I've spent £700 more than my income this month, but that includes a hefty annual bill - vehicle insurance - a big payment towards our next holiday and some credit card fees for stoozing. I'm quite happy with that, I expected it to be more. 

I've got 3 new credit cards in the last 2 months, two BT cards, that I've turned into cash. Chase is giving me 4.8% for 6 months, so I'm ahead on that. The third is a purchase card, so I'll put much of my expenditure on that, leaving more money to gain interest. Now the fees are paid on the credit cards the interest each month will supplement my income. 

I've just seen the Co-op is offering £175 for switching a bank account, that's one of the few I haven't done, so I'll give that a go. 

I've also just discovered I have more allowances I can claim against my tax for work expenses. I was claiming a uniform allowance, but wasn't aware I could claim more than that, so I've asked to backdate it for the last 3 years. 

I don't intend cluttering up the thread with this every month, but thought I'd give an update to show I'm still on it.... 

 

Organgrinder

Nebulous2 said:

I keep a spreadsheet of all my live cash accounts, bank accounts, regular savers, deducting any credit card debt, which I complete on the 1st of the month. The difference in the total shows if I'm up or down since last month. I've spent £700 more than my income this month, but that includes a hefty annual bill - vehicle insurance - a big payment towards our next holiday and some credit card fees for stoozing. I'm quite happy with that, I expected it to be more. 

I've got 3 new credit cards in the last 2 months, two BT cards, that I've turned into cash. Chase is giving me 4.8% for 6 months, so I'm ahead on that. The third is a purchase card, so I'll put much of my expenditure on that, leaving more money to gain interest. Now the fees are paid on the credit cards the interest each month will supplement my income. 

Gosh this sounds so much like me! I have a couple of deals ending in September and another in January. These total some £23k. In addition I have two more ending this time next year. Only £4k on them currently but they should go up to about £15k before they finish.

I've done another big refresh of everything as our mortgage deal ends in January and I want to make sure I know which ISAs need to be cashed in etc.

All looking good and still very much on track for retirement in just over two years.

I finally got round to getting new glasses. My left eye has deteriorated somewhat. But £184 for two pairs of high index Variofocals, Nike and Converse frames, eye test and eye scan was very good value. I was going to go for the cheaper frames (Lambretta!!!) but they were too narrow.

Next week we're off to a wedding which is in the middle of nowhere. So no choice really but to stay at the venue. Place looks nice though and we've made it into a longer stay too.

Been quite a busy month overall as have also booked next year's snowboard holiday.

Happy days.

Suzycoll

Nebulous2 said:

As I said above I intend to attempt to live on my income this year, while adding £4800 (£6000 gross) to my pension. This will be a practice run for giving up my part-time job. The first month is now up.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my live cash accounts, bank accounts, regular savers, deducting any credit card debt, which I complete on the 1st of the month. The difference in the total shows if I'm up or down since last month. I've spent £700 more than my income this month, but that includes a hefty annual bill - vehicle insurance - a big payment towards our next holiday and some credit card fees for stoozing. I'm quite happy with that, I expected it to be more. 

I've got 3 new credit cards in the last 2 months, two BT cards, that I've turned into cash. Chase is giving me 4.8% for 6 months, so I'm ahead on that. The third is a purchase card, so I'll put much of my expenditure on that, leaving more money to gain interest. Now the fees are paid on the credit cards the interest each month will supplement my income. 

I've just seen the Co-op is offering £175 for switching a bank account, that's one of the few I haven't done, so I'll give that a go. 

I've also just discovered I have more allowances I can claim against my tax for work expenses. I was claiming a uniform allowance, but wasn't aware I could claim more than that, so I've asked to backdate it for the last 3 years. 

I don't intend cluttering up the thread with this every month, but thought I'd give an update to show I'm still on it.... 

 

Jeez wizz Nebolous2

Well done 

I am exhausted just reading this I & am wondering how you mange to work on top of all this 'homework'?  🤔

Humboldt

Nebulous2 said:

As I said above I intend to attempt to live on my income this year, while adding £4800 (£6000 gross) to my pension. This will be a practice run for giving up my part-time job. The first month is now up.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my live cash accounts, bank accounts, regular savers, deducting any credit card debt, which I complete on the 1st of the month. The difference in the total shows if I'm up or down since last month. I've spent £700 more than my income this month, but that includes a hefty annual bill - vehicle insurance - a big payment towards our next holiday and some credit card fees for stoozing. I'm quite happy with that, I expected it to be more. 

I've got 3 new credit cards in the last 2 months, two BT cards, that I've turned into cash. Chase is giving me 4.8% for 6 months, so I'm ahead on that. The third is a purchase card, so I'll put much of my expenditure on that, leaving more money to gain interest. Now the fees are paid on the credit cards the interest each month will supplement my income. 

I've just seen the Co-op is offering £175 for switching a bank account, that's one of the few I haven't done, so I'll give that a go. 

I've also just discovered I have more allowances I can claim against my tax for work expenses. I was claiming a uniform allowance, but wasn't aware I could claim more than that, so I've asked to backdate it for the last 3 years. 

I don't intend cluttering up the thread with this every month, but thought I'd give an update to show I'm still on it.... 

 

Hi @Nebulous2 when working towards our goals, DH and I always said that they were never a dream, always a plan.  It looks like you have a definite plan.  I certainly do not think that you would be cluttering up this thread each month by providing an update.  Personally I think that it would inspire and inform others who maybe thinking of doing something similar.  I wish you every success. 

Tastiger

Finally retiring this summer - no mortgage, no debt, pensions/ISAs/cash all in place, plus an emergency fund. Just doing final checks. Monthly normal spend is covered. I just wondered how everyone works out how much to put aside for the irregular occurances such as car/house insurance, medical/dental. We put £100 a month aside for Christmas. We only have the one car. So if I said an extra £2-3k a year for the irregular, would that seem reasonable? Just want to be sure the necessaries are in place, so that anything extra can go on fun/holidays/meals out etc.
Thank you for your thoughts. Not long to go now.