How much to live on

DairyQueen

Albermarle said:

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. 

Three years ago DIY Kitchens supplied our entire kitchen, 'scullery' and utility. This included all appliance fronts plus pantry doors, carousel units, 2 x bin units (total of six bins), oak worktops, etc. Two guys delivered and we had a huge pile of this and that in the house awaiting the kitchen fitters. It was only a few weeks later (when fitted) that we discovered that there wasn't a single mis-delivery or item damaged.

Really, REALLY impressed. Cost of all our units, etc. for large kitchen and utility then = £10,500 plus VAT.

Organgrinder

Well back in March I think I mentioned some deals via Topcashback, one of which was Shepherd's Friendly. 

I signed up and invested £30 a month starting in the new tax year. Total invested so far £120. Today the cashback paid out - £150. Pretty good rate of return!

I must say so far I've been very impressed. Since April I've claimed £273 on things I would spend on anyway, and have another £392 pending.

It's very little effort (just open the website then click thru to your chosen retailer/finance company/utility providers and then buy as normal.

I'll have over £600 extra for basically buying things I buy anyway. Next is my car insurance renewal!

Shimrod

Organgrinder said:

Well back in March I think I mentioned some deals via Topcashback, one of which was Shepherd's Friendly. 

I signed up and invested £30 a month starting in the new tax year. Total invested so far £120. Today the cashback paid out - £150. Pretty good rate of return!

I must say so far I've been very impressed. Since April I've claimed £273 on things I would spend on anyway, and have another £392 pending.

It's very little effort (just open the website then click thru to your chosen retailer/finance company/utility providers and then buy as normal.

I'll have over £600 extra for basically buying things I buy anyway. Next is my car insurance renewal!

It was much better when you could get cashback for switching house and car insurance - easy money every year. You can still get a bit back from the aggregators (confused.com etc), but it's nowhere near what it used to be.

I find topcashback to be best now when booking hotels - at times there can be 10% cashback from Expedia, and quite a few of the hotel chains are on there if you prefer to book direct.

louby40

TopCashback is brilliant. I have a pop up browser on my laptop that reminds me that certain retailers have a Topcashback offer which is useful.

I use my Topcashback back money to exchange into Amazon vouchers and I then buy kindle books with it. I read over 50 books a year and now I'm not working I expect that number to go up. It's free books.

Im also a member of the Borrowbox scheme which are ebooks and audio books from our local library, but they aren't always great and you have to wait months and months for them to be free. I've got Bob Mortimers autobiography waiting - it says it will be available in April 2026. Happy to wait for that but it can be very frustrating if it it's a book you're eager to read. 

20122013

@  louby40   Borrowbox scheme, do you switch between different library accounts ? as they may have different books on offer?

Bravepants

louby40 said:

TopCashback is brilliant. I have a pop up browser on my laptop that reminds me that certain retailers have a Topcashback offer which is useful.

I use my Topcashback back money to exchange into Amazon vouchers and I then buy kindle books with it. I read over 50 books a year and now I'm not working I expect that number to go up. It's free books.

Im also a member of the Borrowbox scheme which are ebooks and audio books from our local library, but they aren't always great and you have to wait months and months for them to be free. I've got Bob Mortimers autobiography waiting - it says it will be available in April 2026. Happy to wait for that but it can be very frustrating if it it's a book you're eager to read. 

There should be a seperate "Library" app, with which you can access your own local physical library account to see your loans and request holds. This is separate to Borrowbox. My partner uses Borrowbox, my Kobo has Overdrive for borrowing eBooks through, but it's very limited. The Library app is more useful though.  

Albermarle

TopCashback is brilliant. I have a pop up browser on my laptop that reminds me that certain retailers have a Topcashback offer which is useful

Sounds useful. I have so many different companies that have discount links to shops, holidays, restaurants etc . I can not remember hardly any of them.
Halifax offer 'Cashback Extras' with 58 partners
First Direct have just started with something similar
My franchised car dealer/garage has a Savings club with something similar
I have a RewardsFor Racing account. You get points for booking racecourse tickets via them, but also they have nearly 3000 partners you can get points by buying things from them.
There is probably more, I have forgotten about.

Then I buy something from Argos or whoever and forget about all these offers, and just buy it direct.....

Organgrinder

Albermarle said:

Then I buy something from Argos or whoever and forget about all these offers, and just buy it direct.....

That happens to me far too often!

The Halifax/Lloyds rewards especially where I forget to even look let alone forget to activate the reward.

Though I'm happy with what I've earned this year. Added another £400 cashback yesterday too. So over £1000 this year.

Come retirement it all adds up.

I must visit the pensions section too. What to do with my small pension pot. I'm considering a fixed term guaranteed annuity. Why? No risk at all. Guaranteed amount over a set term. Will deliver more than the value of the pot. Downside. May lose out in comparison to drawdown.

Albermarle

Organgrinder said:

Albermarle said:

Then I buy something from Argos or whoever and forget about all these offers, and just buy it direct.....

That happens to me far too often!

The Halifax/Lloyds rewards especially where I forget to even look let alone forget to activate the reward.

Though I'm happy with what I've earned this year. Added another £400 cashback yesterday too. So over £1000 this year.

Come retirement it all adds up.

I must visit the pensions section too. What to do with my small pension pot. I'm considering a fixed term guaranteed annuity. Why? No risk at all. Guaranteed amount over a set term. Will deliver more than the value of the pot. Downside. May lose out in comparison to drawdown.

This is a topical subject on that forum as annuity rates are still quite good.

louby40

Also discovered JamDoughnut where you buy a gift card for top retailers and you get money back. So Tesco is 3% at the moment. It's only small amounts but if you're buying something from that retailer anyway it soon mounts up.

Costa are at 7.5%, JD sports 8.1% are a couple more examples. Once you reach £10 you can cash out.