How much to live on

Murphybear

Organgrinder said:

Plasticman said:

oceandreamer said:

Thankyou for all your replies.  It does seem that it is sensible to 'get your house in order' before you retire.  I am going to think hard about what is achievable while I am still at work, both in terms of cost and more importantly, time.  I don't really want to retire to a massive to-do list but have to be realistic about what I can manage to do while still working quite long hours.  At least if I have a plan I can take baby steps towards getting it done.  
@Alnat1 you touch on something else which I feel is very important, and that is that money isn't the only (or even probably the most important) consideration. Looking after you future health is absolutely priority number one and has to be a part of any retirement plan.  I am hoping that there will be more time to exercise, cook from scratch, shop etc which will directly improve my health and fitness. 

I'm hoping to retire at 55 so I'm (hopefully) not going to get a new kitchen that'll last for the rest of my days. My current plan is to replace both the kitchen and main bathroom after retirement and then we'll probably have to fund another round at some point unless we decide to move.

Having had our bathrooms and kitchen done when I was about 55, I want to make sure I have sufficient funds available for another refurb. Hence my desire to have a pot of about £100k in addition to my pensions and short term savings.

It sounds a lot of money - but in reality it only takes something like a new roof, windows and so on and that pot isn't as big as it sounds.

We’ve been thinking about a new kitchen recently.  After trawling around the usual suspects plus some local firms we were horrified at how expensive even a basic kitchen is.  All the firms were quoting at least £5k to fit it, irrelevant of the size.  Not bad for a few days work.  We saw a beautiful kitchen in Wickes and asked how much it would be for the exact layout. It would have taken up about a third of our big kitchen.   £15k plus fitting 😹😹😹 which included their current 50% offer.  Wickes is one of the cheaper firms.  These figures may not sound a lot to some of you but as pensioners (73/77 in a few weeks) we don’t want to spend this sort of money that we probably won’t get the best out of. 

According to Which the fitting should cost about 20% of the total.  I don’t think most kitchen suppliers read Which.  

Fortunately there’s lots of lovely articles online about titivating your kitchen without spending a fortune 

Organgrinder

Murphybear said:

Organgrinder said:

Plasticman said:

oceandreamer said:

Thankyou for all your replies.  It does seem that it is sensible to 'get your house in order' before you retire.  I am going to think hard about what is achievable while I am still at work, both in terms of cost and more importantly, time.  I don't really want to retire to a massive to-do list but have to be realistic about what I can manage to do while still working quite long hours.  At least if I have a plan I can take baby steps towards getting it done.  
@Alnat1 you touch on something else which I feel is very important, and that is that money isn't the only (or even probably the most important) consideration. Looking after you future health is absolutely priority number one and has to be a part of any retirement plan.  I am hoping that there will be more time to exercise, cook from scratch, shop etc which will directly improve my health and fitness. 

I'm hoping to retire at 55 so I'm (hopefully) not going to get a new kitchen that'll last for the rest of my days. My current plan is to replace both the kitchen and main bathroom after retirement and then we'll probably have to fund another round at some point unless we decide to move.

Having had our bathrooms and kitchen done when I was about 55, I want to make sure I have sufficient funds available for another refurb. Hence my desire to have a pot of about £100k in addition to my pensions and short term savings.

It sounds a lot of money - but in reality it only takes something like a new roof, windows and so on and that pot isn't as big as it sounds.

We’ve been thinking about a new kitchen recently.  After trawling around the usual suspects plus some local firms we were horrified at how expensive even a basic kitchen is.  All the firms were quoting at least £5k to fit it, irrelevant of the size.  Not bad for a few days work.  We saw a beautiful kitchen in Wickes and asked how much it would be for the exact layout. It would have taken up about a third of our big kitchen.   £15k plus fitting 😹😹😹 which included their current 50% offer.  Wickes is one of the cheaper firms.  These figures may not sound a lot to some of you but as pensioners (73/77 in a few weeks) we don’t want to spend this sort of money that we probably won’t get the best out of. 

According to Which the fitting should cost about 20% of the total.  I don’t think most kitchen suppliers read Which.  

Fortunately there’s lots of lovely articles online about titivating your kitchen without spending a fortune 

We wanted a plain white kitchen. 4 years ago we had quotes from Wren, Howdens etc and even then the fitting was ridiculous. £4,000 for a dry fit. We also needed a gas pipe sealing off, we needed electrics moving etc.

In the end we bought everything flat pack from B&Q (the exact same kitchen they supply fitted), we got worktops from IKEA, and integrated fridge freezer, dishwasher, oven and microwave online, induction hob and extractor from B&Q as well and then paid a tradesman £2000 for 7 days work to fit it. Total cost Inc flooring, splashbacks, lighting. £6,000.

Organgrinder

This week has been quite eventful on the cashback front. 

Payouts from mobile phone, energy switching, and house insurance have brought in £130. 

I've switched energy suppliers (again) - which with cashback saves another £100. Took literally 5 minutes work.

I still have over £500 cashback awaiting confirmation with Topcashback too.

Barclays are currently offering me an 18 month interest free balance transfer which will come in handy and Chase are offering an 18 month interest free purchase card too. So more snoozing to do.

Three fixed term savings accounts are ending too. One ISA, one government bond and one savings account. All these are earmarked for paying off the mortgage in January so currently looking for a short term easy access account for that.

Murphybear

helensbiggestfan said:

I watched an episode of Pop the Balloon recently.  It's a dating show from the US. I know, I know utter trash but I was tired and just wanted to chill out to some mindless tv.  

Talk about car crash tv, it's awful, nearly as bad as Jeremy Kyle lol.  I got sucked in and watched it just because it was so appalling. I couldn't believe just how awful it was (although at 74 nothing much surprises me these days). The contestants are for the most part pretty vile. Shallow, cruel and nasty.  None of them are really looking for love but more to be on the tv. 

Anyway one guy decided to ask the female contestants who were hoping to win a date with him a maths question which required BODMAS and which they had to do in their heads, no paper.  

 I don't know what he was trying to prove but his attitude towards the women was dreadful.  When challenged as to his motivation, his excuse was he wasn't bothered whether or not they got the answer right but whether they would attempt it.  

It was so inappropriate, most of the contestants were thrown off balance by such an off the wall question and so didnt attempt to answer, because they felt embarrassed and wrong footed, One lady gave it a shot and gave the wrong answer. His response was unbelievably patronising. 

Utter moron.....needless to say they all turned the tables on him, popped their balloons and sent him packing.  He went away with his tail between his legs, no date. Serves him right.  🤣. 

Talk about bread and circuses......

I understand all about the attitude to women.  Someone started discussing in front of me a few years ago how women are hopeless at things like computing.   

I thought, shall I tell him.  I did computing as part of my Physics and Astronomy degree 😹 at the University of London.   A few years later I needed some extra cash so got a job teaching computing at evening classes.  No, I didn’t say anything, I just felt smug.   

Bravepants

We were quoted over £14000 for a replacement kitchen in our galley kitchen (it's tiny) by Wren, £5k of that was fitting. They were trying to tempt us with £150 off an oven! :-) We have a branch of Howdens opening up in our town soon, we might try them for a quote as some of our friends have suggested them. 

In the meantime, and as an experiment,  I have replaced two of the cupboard doors to see if that makes a difference, as ours are delaminating. People only see the doors or drawer fronts afterall.  I got two plain white high gloss standard kitchen cupboard doors from hotdoors.co.uk. They are pre-drilled for standard hinges, although you have to drill the screw holes, and also fit your own handles, but I bought a measuring template for £10 to help do that. I reused the hinges and the handles that were fitted to my old doors. The cupboard looks much better for it. I may continue with the "upgrade" after we see what Howdens say!  

Murphybear

louby40 said:

So yesterday I retired.This is my kitchen table. There were many tears shed. My leavers assembly was truly wonderful 

Put the cards somewhere safe, like in the attic.  Then in a few years time you’ll find them and blissfully reminisce. 

My father was a good teacher.  When he sadly died we decided to clear out the attic and found many cards from grateful students and parents.  He used to arrange school trips to places like Switzerland and there was a whole box full of cards saying how much the children enjoyed these trips.  I know they were wonderful, when I was 11 I was given the chance of either going with them or having a “big” Christmas present.  Not difficult to guess what I chose.   I had 6 of these trips.  

Good teachers are worth their weight in gold.  Better make that platinum 😀

Bravepants

Murphybear said:

helensbiggestfan said:

I watched an episode of Pop the Balloon recently.  It's a dating show from the US. I know, I know utter trash but I was tired and just wanted to chill out to some mindless tv.  

Talk about car crash tv, it's awful, nearly as bad as Jeremy Kyle lol.  I got sucked in and watched it just because it was so appalling. I couldn't believe just how awful it was (although at 74 nothing much surprises me these days). The contestants are for the most part pretty vile. Shallow, cruel and nasty.  None of them are really looking for love but more to be on the tv. 

Anyway one guy decided to ask the female contestants who were hoping to win a date with him a maths question which required BODMAS and which they had to do in their heads, no paper.  

 I don't know what he was trying to prove but his attitude towards the women was dreadful.  When challenged as to his motivation, his excuse was he wasn't bothered whether or not they got the answer right but whether they would attempt it.  

It was so inappropriate, most of the contestants were thrown off balance by such an off the wall question and so didnt attempt to answer, because they felt embarrassed and wrong footed, One lady gave it a shot and gave the wrong answer. His response was unbelievably patronising. 

Utter moron.....needless to say they all turned the tables on him, popped their balloons and sent him packing.  He went away with his tail between his legs, no date. Serves him right.  🤣. 

Talk about bread and circuses......

I understand all about the attitude to women.  Someone started discussing in front of me a few years ago how women are hopeless at things like computing.   

I thought, shall I tell him.  I did computing as part of my Physics and Astronomy degree 😹 at the University of London.   A few years later I needed some extra cash so got a job teaching computing at evening classes.  No, I didn’t say anything, I just felt smug.   

As part of one of my part-time jobs I attended a seminar in London a couple of weeks ago. One of the speakers was a young lady who was CEO of her own startup making ring laser accelerometers for the navigation industry. She was by far the most impressive speaker there amongst us old codgers. 

Albermarle

Murphybear said:

Organgrinder said:

Plasticman said:

oceandreamer said:

Thankyou for all your replies.  It does seem that it is sensible to 'get your house in order' before you retire.  I am going to think hard about what is achievable while I am still at work, both in terms of cost and more importantly, time.  I don't really want to retire to a massive to-do list but have to be realistic about what I can manage to do while still working quite long hours.  At least if I have a plan I can take baby steps towards getting it done.  
@Alnat1 you touch on something else which I feel is very important, and that is that money isn't the only (or even probably the most important) consideration. Looking after you future health is absolutely priority number one and has to be a part of any retirement plan.  I am hoping that there will be more time to exercise, cook from scratch, shop etc which will directly improve my health and fitness. 

I'm hoping to retire at 55 so I'm (hopefully) not going to get a new kitchen that'll last for the rest of my days. My current plan is to replace both the kitchen and main bathroom after retirement and then we'll probably have to fund another round at some point unless we decide to move.

Having had our bathrooms and kitchen done when I was about 55, I want to make sure I have sufficient funds available for another refurb. Hence my desire to have a pot of about £100k in addition to my pensions and short term savings.

It sounds a lot of money - but in reality it only takes something like a new roof, windows and so on and that pot isn't as big as it sounds.

We’ve been thinking about a new kitchen recently.  After trawling around the usual suspects plus some local firms we were horrified at how expensive even a basic kitchen is.  All the firms were quoting at least £5k to fit it, irrelevant of the size.  Not bad for a few days work.  We saw a beautiful kitchen in Wickes and asked how much it would be for the exact layout. It would have taken up about a third of our big kitchen.   £15k plus fitting 😹😹😹 which included their current 50% offer.  Wickes is one of the cheaper firms.  These figures may not sound a lot to some of you but as pensioners (73/77 in a few weeks) we don’t want to spend this sort of money that we probably won’t get the best out of. 

According to Which the fitting should cost about 20% of the total.  I don’t think most kitchen suppliers read Which.  

Fortunately there’s lots of lovely articles online about titivating your kitchen without spending a fortune 

On the MSE DIY forum, this company gets regular positive comments.
DIY Kitchens | Discount Kitchens, Doors & Cheap Kitchen Units

However I think you have to arrange a fitter yourself. One advantage seems to be that the units are delivered already built. 

louby40

Thank you everyone for your very kind comments . We are back from our holiday to Italy which was lovely. Now to get back into some sort of routine with exercise and food.

I have another week of holiday then I start my training for my new job. 

MayDogsandCoffee

I have finished my house  and moving this year to what is likely to be last home.  I went back to the same bathroom company and said 'same again', I will be doing the same with the kitchen so paying out again but no stress at all.  Neither company had 'snagging issues' both rooms still look brand new (according to my estate agent), that is priceless to me.   The first time I changed a bathroom the guy was such a cowboy and took 3 weeks to fit a simple screwfix bathroom into the same space.  I do know of several people taking one of the cheaper green bird logo to court for poor standards.