It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

mumtoomany

We "retired" nearly nine years ago. At the ages of 53 and 55. We'd already been mortgage free since 2003, having bought and renovated a series of dilapidated houses. We now both work harder and longer hours than we ever did before. Caring for sheep and chickens, renovating the farm, growing vegetables and fruit and providing the child care for the grandchildren. We are now poor as church mice, but would not change one thing. We have time for each other and can choose what to do every day. Mumtoomany.xx

otb666

we retired last and this year me 56 hubby 57.  I completed the on line calculator form below the https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/howisinflationaffectingyourhouseholdcosts/2022-03-23
Which says for me food gone up £40 per month from last year and gas and electric £50 pm.  Petrol £10 pm
I found it quite useful.  The basics have increased by £100 per month.  The fuel bill was the highest but not too worried as fixed now until feb 2024.  Glad we do not commute anymore.  We went as was offered severance which meant we could retire early so we took that with both hands and we are no longer stressed about work which is great. Its actually the first time we have been debt free and are keeping a close eye on our budgets to ensure we stay that way.

Spendless

Well this is strange. Yesterday I bemoaned how the Co-op reductions are now too small. Today I had to go into Mr T to pick up some bits and I went to their reduction bit even though for years it's always been rubbish about 10% off anything, but thought I'd look anyway and the reductions had at least 1/2 if not 2/3 off. Anyway I snaffled away some Indian snacks that will accompany a curry, a chicken chow mein that will do for DH's pack lunch, a pack of veggie sausages, which friends will eat even if DD dislikes and 2 kievs with wild garlic that were down to £1.40 for the 2, so me and DH had them earlier with chips and beans. The rest has gone in the freezer.

I heard from DS. He was raving about an app called Too good to go and how he's paid £4 and got all these cheeses and some fudge because they were about to go past their date. I had great fun pointing out to him what a nightmare he'd been during his schooldays when he wouldn't eat anything for breakfast at 7am if it had 'gone off' at midnight. Now of course he's at the end of his studies and needing to find work and can't afford to be so picky - lol.   

Floss

Spendless, I think Tesco have a schedule for reductions and you must have hit it bang on!

wondercollie

Freedom 55 was the big retirement aim in North America back in the 80s and 90s.

My best friend managed it.   Her work pension kicked in at 55 and she was out of the door in a flash.

Husband could have retired at 55 but wound up staying on until he was 60 and had to retire.   His line of work doesn't let you stay on.

I used to joke that my retirement plan was to outlive the husband because his pension has survivor's benefits.

I'm 62 and only have worked full time for the last six years.   Before that I worked part time or casual.  Casual hours didn't pay into the hospital pension plan, so the minute I could find a part time job, I jumped on it.

I got my pension statement last week and as of the end of 2021 with 20 years nursing service (which in pension speak worked out to 11 years because of being part time) my monthly pension is $1000.   It sounds ungrateful but having worked weekends and nightshifts and dealing with some of the worst of humanity, it wasn't worth it.

My government pension is a mystery because of my years at home, our government won't do the calculations until I request my pension.

I honestly don't plan on leaving anytime soon.   My pension is roughly 1/3 of what I currently take home.   I'm fed up, burnt out is the phrase nursing bandies about.   I'm tired, I'm fed up of unreasonable people be it patients, their families, and the doctors.  

And to top it off my supermarket raised the price of croissants this week.   They went from 79 cents to 89.

End of rant

nannygladys

On the retirement theme, I retired 8+ years ago and to be honest I couldn't wait, well that was until I actually got to the date and I couldn't do it!!! Goodness knows why as it was what I'd been hankering for!! Anyway I carried on for a few months but became very unhappy at the amount of tax I was paying on my salary plus state pension so eventually stopped work. But then I seemed to go down hill, I'd worked nearly all my life (time off having children) and I couldn't cope not having a routine I suppose, it took me quite a time to readjust but I'm OK now. Now I have time for the dgc, I have an allotment, the garden is kept tidy and I started a few new hobbies, some I still do and others I don't as they weren't for me. 
I look back to normal now and can't believe how I 'low' I felt about it all!!!

Cheesephetamine

Brambling said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Average monthly rent is over £1k, how do people on the national minimum wage manage?!

In many cases they don't! Average rent prices here for three bedroom house is £1550 making it impossible to save to buy and social housing as scarce as hen's teeth.  TBH I've heard trying to buy here is almost impossible too with EA only arranging open houses and some asking for sealed bids within two hours of viewing and then giving you one chance to increase your bid even if you are the highest bidder

I've worked from home since March 2020 additional household bills aren't covered by what I'm saving on petrol it's just as well I have a supply of thick woolies!  Unfortunately as a single person household some bills are always going to be the same as multiple households.

I live in a decent sized two bedroom semidetached house In the south/east, 45 mins away from the city by train, with a HUGE garden and pay £850 for rent. Where are those prices at??? London??? 

Spendless

Floss said:

Spendless, I think Tesco have a schedule for reductions and you must have hit it bang on!

Well that's the bit I don't understand because I've shopped in this Tesco (about 5 min drive away - it's my nearest of the big name supermarkets)for a couple of decades and even at nightime the reductions are poor. 
I only checked there because there was an item not on the shelves I wanted and wondered if one was amongst the clearance stuff. 
This was at lunch time, even accepting it was Sunday so earlier closing time. 
I mean I'm happy to have got these bargains, I'm just wondering why after all these years they're suddenly discounting by a lot. 

euronorris

One thing this pandemic has taught me is that routine is very important to me. When everyone else was thrust into home working, and having kids at home, my employer at the time was very understanding and said we could work different hours if we needed to etc. But I chose to stick to my standard working hours. I think it helped to keep a line between work and home, and also helped to maintain some normality for all of us, especially DD. I do appreciate that I was lucky enough to have husband at home anyway though, who could majority of her care whilst I worked. I probably would've needed to adjust hours otherwise.

But my point was, I think that even in retirement, I will need to create myself some sort of new routine.

OrkneyStar

Floss said:

Spendless, I think Tesco have a schedule for reductions and you must have hit it bang on!

I think most stores have some sort of schedule by which they are supposed to reduce things, though there might be some deviation from that in certain circumstances. I worked in the Coop for a brief while, and we were supposed to reduce perishable things at certain points in the day, with them eventually becoming really cheap at night (from memory there were either 3 or 4 reduction times, but the first reductions were never that great!). We also reduced non-perishable items, such as cans etc, once they were getting closer to their use by date. The best reduction prices are generally at night, but sometimes the items have gone by then, as the afternoon reductions can be significant too.