How much to live on

[Deleted User]

duncanthedog, hopefully fred246 was trying to be be amusing rather than sarcastic.

I think you do extremely well to live on £3600 a year. Are you able to break those figures down at all. 

My share of the monthly bills plus food and fuel for the car come to about £7200 a year. I co-own my house with another relative who also pays towards the bills.  This amount does not include money put by for annual expenses such as car maintenance, car insurance , house insurances, Christmas, dentist  and clothing etc.  I do not think I am extravagant, but not particularly frugal.

I am happy to give a more detailed breakdown if others would find it useful.

Take care.

RetSol

[Deleted User] said:

duncanthedog, hopefully fred246 was trying to be be amusing rather than sarcastic.

I think you do extremely well to live on £3600 a year. Are you able to break those figures down at all. 

My share of the monthly bills plus food and fuel for the car come to about £7200 a year. I co-own my house with another relative who also pays towards the bills.  This amount does not include money put by for annual expenses such as car maintenance, car insurance , house insurances, Christmas, dentist  and clothing etc.  I do not think I am extravagant, but not particularly frugal.

I am happy to give a more detailed breakdown if others would find it useful.

Take care.

Hi @[Deleted User] and @duncanthedog As a newly (semi-) retired person, I am finding this thread somewhat inspirational.  If you were willing to share details of your expenditure, I would be interested.  I think that I do pretty well at keeping the lid on mine but there may be some room for improvement. 

blue.peter

I find the idea of living on £3,600/year pretty amazing. I couldn't do it. My council tax + energy + telecoms + water come to about £4,300/year (and that's with a 25% discount on the council tax). Then I've got food, clothing, car maintenance, insurance (motor and home) and entertainment (mostly e-books, but also music and films) on top. And whisky. Mustn't forget a few bottles of decent whisky.

[Deleted User]

As requested here is more detail about my income and expenditure in retirement.

Currently, my guaranteed pension income at age 62 is about £19250 a year. This is all index linked. In addition, I should earn (in normal times) about £1200 a year from examination invigilation.  

I currently have a casual contract with my former school until March 2021 working up to 2 days a week. Up until December this employment brought in an additional £650 a month after tax. However, I am currently working from home with greatly reduced hours. Most of this money I try to save. The contract may be extended from March, but even without it I can manage very well on my current pension income.

 I also make about £400 a year from Surveys and loyalty cards. This money goes towards Christmas presents and the festive food shop!

I am fortunate to be able to share bills with another relative. My share is just over £600 a month. I pay more than half as I have more income. This amount covers council tax, all food, household goods, fuel for both cars, utility bills, British Gas Homeserve and charitable donations. This Household account usually runs at a small surplus.

I set aside a further £350 a month into savings to cover the larger annual bills such as car insurance, car tax, car service, buildings and contents insurance, routine house maintenance, dentist, and various annual subscriptions.

I contribute £100 monthly to a low-risk S&S ISA which is growing steadily.

I budget about £250 a month for personal spends which covers such things as meals out, days out etc… I do not always spend this amount. (Especially now!)

I also send £100 a month to a back-up current account with another bank. I also use this account for Christmas and Birthday presents as well as personal clothing.

I have savings and investments of a few tens of thousands. Not loads I must stress! They are distributed between Premium Bonds, the S&S ISA, a Cash ISA, a regular saver, and a restricted access saver. I also have one instant access account that contains £1000 as an immediate emergency fund.

I have put together a budget and spending plans on an excel spreadsheet for the next four years until I collect my state pension at 66. In addition to regular bills and spends I have set aside an amount for travel and house upgrades. This money will mainly come from savings. I can adjust these as necessary

When my state pension becomes payable, (£9100 p.a. at current figures) I will have more disposable income! As I was contracted out most for of my career, I will need a total of 47 years NI contributions to get the full ‘new’ state pension minus a few pence. I am currently on Year 44! I will pay these contributions from savings if my casual contract work should end this year.

Hopefully the above may help others when planning retirement income and expenditure.

[Deleted User]

I must add that I am not particularly frugal. I have not retired to scrimp and scape. I enjoy decent food and like the house to be warm in winter! However, I do not smoke or drink alcohol.

The casual contract and invigilation work is my choice not necessity.I probably work no more than 90 to 100 days a year.

RetSol

[Deleted User] said:

As requested here is more detail about my income and expenditure in retirement.

Currently, my guaranteed pension income at age 62 is about £19250 a year. This is all index linked. In addition, I should earn (in normal times) about £1200 a year from examination invigilation.  

I currently have a casual contract with my former school until March 2021 working up to 2 days a week. Up until December this employment brought in an additional £650 a month after tax. However, I am currently working from home with greatly reduced hours. Most of this money I try to save. The contract may be extended from March, but even without it I can manage very well on my current pension income.

 I also make about £400 a year from Surveys and loyalty cards. This money goes towards Christmas presents and the festive food shop!

I am fortunate to be able to share bills with another relative. My share is just over £600 a month. I pay more than half as I have more income. This amount covers council tax, all food, household goods, fuel for both cars, utility bills, British Gas Homeserve and charitable donations. This Household account usually runs at a small surplus.

I set aside a further £350 a month into savings to cover the larger annual bills such as car insurance, car tax, car service, buildings and contents insurance, routine house maintenance, dentist, and various annual subscriptions.

I contribute £100 monthly to a low-risk S&S ISA which is growing steadily.

I budget about £250 a month for personal spends which covers such things as meals out, days out etc… I do not always spend this amount. (Especially now!)

I also send £100 a month to a back-up current account with another bank. I also use this account for Christmas and Birthday presents as well as personal clothing.

I have savings and investments of a few tens of thousands. Not loads I must stress! They are distributed between Premium Bonds, the S&S ISA, a Cash ISA, a regular saver, and a restricted access saver. I also have one instant access account that contains £1000 as an immediate emergency fund.

I have put together a budget and spending plans on an excel spreadsheet for the next four years until I collect my state pension at 66. In addition to regular bills and spends I have set aside an amount for travel and house upgrades. This money will mainly come from savings. I can adjust these as necessary

When my state pension becomes payable, (£9100 p.a. at current figures) I will have more disposable income! As I was contracted out most for of my career, I will need a total of 47 years NI contributions to get the full ‘new’ state pension minus a few pence. I am currently on Year 44! I will pay these contributions from savings if my casual contract work should end this year.

Hopefully the above may help others when planning retirement income and expenditure.

Thank you, @[Deleted User].  You are impressively well-organised!  My occupational pension income is similar to yours but I have longer to wait until SPA.  I took my pension early.  I am new to semi - retirement and am feeling my way.  It is difficult to tell at present but my hunch (informed by a spreadsheet or two) is that my pension income will suffice as I have a small amount of investment income and savings which I can dip into for exceptional items. I also propose to earn some additional money from self-employment idc but those plans are on hold for the time being.  Once I get to SPA, I will have more than enough, I feel. 

203846930

Here are my numbers for this year, they are of course subject to price increases but I do have wiggle room on my food budget, I am going to be reviewing my drawdown on my birthday in October, I do that every 2 years, there is a good chance that I will increase by up to £50/month depending on what increases I am hit with.

Rates – 860

TV Licence – 160

Phone/Broadband – 348

Gas/Electric – 420

Car ins/fuel – 250

Home ins – 100

Cash for food - 1440

I should add that any repairs and servicing for the car comes out of a seperate car fund.

[Deleted User]

Your council tax seems to be good value, mine is £2000 a year. Likewise your gas and electricity, mine is £1500 a year. What type of property do you have? Mine is a 4 bedroom detached house with 3 reception rooms and 2 bathrooms plus conservatory. This could explain the differences.

[Deleted User]

My landline/broadband/mobile/BT TV cost about £800 or so a year. Maybe considered expensive by some, but I'm happy with it.

Likewise my relative and myself probably spend about £4000 plus a year on food, but this includes Christmas and family get togethers which are regular.

203846930

Mid terraced 2 bedroom with an A rating for rates.
I don't do any of that christmas schtick, no mobile costs to speak of and I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a meat product, always go for the yellow sticker. Power costs have dropped the last couple of years with shopping around.

As I said earlier, I worked at getting my costs down so that I could stop working as early as possible, I probably could have stopped sooner if I had not spent so much on holidays while I was working but i knew at that time that I would probably not manage any more so I made sure that they were memorable, the last one was 3 weeks in Hawaii.