How much to live on

otb666

i have the money in my bank now so feel properly retired now.  I am taking baby steps havent set up any to dos for myself.  Will do though.  I was feeling a bit sad about colleagues I had lost to covid and the fact that theres a lot of people I havent seen for the past 22 months and now never will.  Very strange to look back on all of this.  Feel so grateful i made it over finishing line So grateful 

runningromani

Hi @drummersdale, hope you are doing ok. After hearing nothing for 3 weeks I had a feeling all was not right, I won’t say which Dept I work for but the central HR hadn’t passed my request to MyCSP. As soon as I chased they did it but no apology. Have had confirmation that I will receive figures first week of Mar. I’ll let you know outcome 👍🙂 My Dept also tried to move me to a project working to HO in London for my last few weeks. I refused but it caused some upset, honestly don’t know why they thought I’d like “an opportunity “ with 10 weeks to go. 

drummersdale

Hi @runningromani yes all good here thanks - you’re so close I bet you can smell it - to be honest I’m applying for partial retirement so mine might be a little different but what struck me was how basic the form was - there was nothing on it to say how much lump sum you wanted to take, if you wanted to commute any etc - perhaps that’s what you get into once you get your first quote back from MyCSP. And as for a few weeks in London, perhaps they were hoping it might change your mind to stay!

Dragon_Lily

runningromani said:

Hi @Dragon_Lily, sounds like it is going well for you, that’s great 🙂 I’m running down the clock, work seem to be extracting their final pound of flesh and am so busy, no chance to wind down a bit and it’s proving very stressful, so any lingering doubts I had about going have been removed. We will make it work and if I have to do the odd bit of temp work so be it, I couldn’t be more miserable (work wise) than I am now. Roll on Easter.

Sorry to hear your work is feeling stressful.  I felt my last couple of months was stressful as I had to do a lot of handover prep.  I was glad when it was Christmas and I officially left.  I enjoyed my job but was ready to go and I've not had a moments regret, quite the opposite.  I'm so glad I was able to retire early.   It's taken a few weeks to de-stress and I did a lot of sleeping in late  .  The weeks will roll by fast to Easter - good luck

otb666

bills 687(includes 100 for new boiler for next 2 years) food 335 spending 350, first month figures
water 31
gas elect 205 fixed 2 years
sky (including bb)129.88 fixed 2 years kinda
boiler service+insurance  4.33
102 new boiler
20.16 mobile
10.81 prescription subs
152 CT
13.37 tv


Planned 600 bills 600 food and 600 spending

I am not gonna bother sending moonpig cards as havent seen people over 2 years and dont get any back
we have started using veg and butchers alternative weeks rather than supermarket
Our son lives with us so budget for 3 people rather than 2 but wont be forever as saving for house

in april gonna do the marriage tax transfer as my money is 409pm hubby 1500pm currently paying 90 tax
also thinking of opening a https://www.hl.co.uk/help/sipp,-drawdown-and-annuity/sipp/contributions/can-i-invest-in-a-pension-if-i-dont-have-earnings?clickid=VTIzoAyGYxyIRFMTIAS19RttUkGRDi1U2yJ5zQ0&iradid=82616&theSource=AFSKI&utm_campaign=AFSKI_IMPR1&ir=1
to benefit from 720 per year for us both 
Also thinking about stopping/cutting down smoking

GunJack

otb666 said:

Also thinking about stopping/cutting down smoking

that will be a big saving - I switched to vaping 10 yrs ago and have saved literally thousands over what roll-ups were costing me. When I finally got Mrs.G-J to switch, the saving was even bigger as she only smoked ready-mades. You'll also feel better, physically and mentally

To give you an idea, I stopped 10 yes ago, Mrs.G-J stopped 7 yrs ago, and we've saved (without escalating the costs of fags to current prices) a combined £32,000

Silvertabby

I've never smoked but have always believed that smokers have - literally - money to burn.

Farway

GunJack said:

otb666 said:

Also thinking about stopping/cutting down smoking

that will be a big saving - I switched to vaping 10 yrs ago and have saved literally thousands over what roll-ups were costing me. When I finally got Mrs.G-J to switch, the saving was even bigger as she only smoked ready-mades. You'll also feel better, physically and mentally

To give you an idea, I stopped 10 yes ago, Mrs.G-J stopped 7 yrs ago, and we've saved (without escalating the costs of fags to current prices) a combined £32,000

Glad to hear this, and puts on very smug face because I stopped when fags went to 4/3d a packet, no idea how much I saved but a goodly sum no doubt

I did start putting the fag saved money in a tin but that stopped once I realised I had cracked the habit. I went cold turkey, no such thing as vaps or patches then

moving_forward

So how is the cost of living crisis affecting everyone's "how much to live on" figures? I'm glad we are just in the thinking about retirement stage and have a while to plan. It's blooming hard balancing the budget as it is with two full salaries.

blue.peter

moving_forward said:

So how is the cost of living crisis affecting everyone's "how much to live on" figures?

Adversely

I see that I spent about £10 more on food and £75 more on energy over the last month than I did in the equivalent month last year. That's definitely not fun, but I'm fortunate in that my income is still sufficient to absorb it. Takeaway meals seem to have gone up about 10% or so since last year, but that's not a big deal for me - I only haveone a month.

On the other hand, my car insurance was actually about £25 less this year than last.