Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

honeybee1234

Makingabobor2 said:

Interesting posts. Love reading all your thoughts.

Same. It's fascinating reading about people's mindsets around money and their plans, and really found your two posts above quite interesting @foxgloves. I think your retirement image of a lovely bungalow and walks along the beach together is a wonderful plan and your posts explaining how you're getting there are quite inspiring! 

Sun_Addict

It’s a great idea to live in the moment whilst keeping your eye on the prize. When Mr SA was well our plan was to buy a home somewhere hot and sunny to retire to. We had started looking into it then unfortunately life threw us a massive unexpected curve ball. Not sure what plan B is 😆

PennysIntoPounds

Hurrah for feeding a hedgehog and preventing waste 😊
So pleased to hear that Project Surbiton by the Coast sounds very doable 

foxgloves

Thanks for your comments. Yes, it is well worth getting our thoughts for the future in order & ensuring they match up with financials & practicalities of the present.

@Blackcats - I can see how that loss of a young colleague would spark a rethink re early retirement. It's 65 for my work pension (& Mr F's) - Local Authority - but could take mine now with a reduction. As we do OK on current income, I have left it in situe, with the intention of requesting the figures a couple of years early.

Didn't get round to posting yesterday. Intended to do so after Mr F had finished BBQ-ing but then we decluttered some gin.
Garden tasks today. Shocked to realise it's time for my mid-month budget check-in tomorrow or Tues. Where IS the time going?!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Afternooners,
Well, today's budget-friendly activity has all been of a simple, old-style nature. Unexciting, but we all know that the little things add up.
*Stripped the bed & made the most of the hot weather for speedy line-drying of bedlinen & my favourite summer tablecloth.
*Mr F weeded the kale & lettuce beds & strengthened the mesh cover supports over these, while I took the opportunity to.....
*Re-plant all the gaps in the lettuce bed with my 2nd sowing of plug plants to provide us with salad leaves for several more weeks.
*All veg & containers watered by Mr F. He finds this a v zen activity.....headphones on, just strolling around the garden watering where needed.
*A very nice relaxed Sunday lunch provided courtesy of last night's BBQ. The coals were still hot after we'd eaten, so Mr F cooked some chicken for today's lunch. I used leftover smoky BBQ'd aubergines & courgettes as the basis for a bowl of couscous, which along with a green salad from the garden, provided a tasty meal. Enough left to box up for tomorrow's work packed lunch too. Using the still hot coals to cook something for the next day has become a regular thing now. It began when we had some uncooked chicken thighs left & everyone wss full up. I suggested making use of the residual heat rather than paying to heat up the oven the next day & as we both love leftovers, this has worked well ever since.
*Today's pickings: Courgettes, spring onions, lettuce, coriander, french beans.
As I sit here on our courtyard 'chatting' to you, I can hear the swift chicks bibbling away to each other in their nestbox. As poo is now being lobbed out of the 3rd swift box, we can assume that all 3 of them are now occupied. 
Oh, & a minor kitchen garden mystery. The growing tip on one of our Guatemalan Blue squashes has been chomped off. It is unlikely to be a problem, as the plant is kicking out other leader shoots, but I do find it odd. It has been cleanly removed by something with teeth & there's no sign of it so it's been eaten. We did have 2 or 3 nights of badger visitation last year but they usually cause quite a bit more visible damage than this. My current theory is that our resident hedgehog spotted a slug on the growing tip (softest leaves) & chomped the whole thing down. Shall monitor for further happenings.
Right, there have been mumblings that I've been writing crossword answers in before the Beloved has had a chance to look, lol, so I am going to read a couple of chapters of my book before a bath & hairwash pamper.
I am aiming for a productive week ahead so shall hopefully rise raring to go tomorrow.
Peace,
F x

Suffolk_lass

Loved the chat about bungalows near the coast and the state of readiness. In respect of your occupational pension, I really feel you need to look at the inflation (indexation) and do some sums based on "what if the inflation rate is x, or y in the month that determines the indexation for your already-earned occupational pension. When I was working, I blindly planned to take mine at a given point, but a number of very savvy former shift workers (who were still working) planned carefully and took theirs between 18 months and 30 months early, calculating that they were benefitting from that many months of income they do not currently have, versus the amount it might or might not increase by over the intervening 1 or 2 uplifts.

In your case of not working, you don't have the complication of adding your current earnings into account - think about the prospect of saving every month's occupational pension between your golden point when you take it earlier than 65, and Mr foxgloves' retirement and adding close to 100% of that net income to your savings. The modest lump sum to which you refer, will have grown in the meantime and would be increased significantly by your (albeit actuarially reduced) income that you don't currently enjoy.

Our courgettes are coming now, albeit my impatience means I am picking them smaller than my hand length (about 17cm) because I can't wait!

themadvix

I’m glad to hear it’s not just my courgettes that are behind with things SL - they are coming, but a couple more days yet. Think it might be because I’ve only got one plant this year - apparently it can slow pollination… but two plants just results in too many courgettes!

Suffolk_lass

Is there any such thing? I had 34 frozen bags of courgettes for soup, ragu sauce and casseroles last year. Down to the last 4 now themadvix said:

I’m glad to hear it’s not just my courgettes that are behind with things SL - they are coming, but a couple more days yet. Think it might be because I’ve only got one plant this year - apparently it can slow pollination… but two plants just results in too many courgettes!

EssexHebridean

Wholeheartedly agree with the approach of remembering to live whilst also saving for other things and future plans - it's the way we did things with the previous mortgage, and are now doing the same with this one.

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - Thanks for your input. Yes, I do see what you mean & I intend to put this as an agenda item for our January 2026 Money Summit Meeting. Then it will be actioned in that I will have a deeper delve into the figures. We can live comfortably on Mr F's earnings as long as we are sensible & continue to budget.....& having spent many years on the opposite approach, this isn't something we'd want to jettison!

@themadvix - One courgette plant? ONE?? I can hear its lonely green sobs from here!

@EssexHebridean - Yes, it's the way forward for us. Unless ERNIE decides to be very generous, we are not currently in a position to up sticks & head for pastures new. While general planning & continued decluttering are good, I don't want to get into an unhelpful sort of 'hanging around waiting' mindset. We have a nice home & decent life on the whole & I want to enjoy it while we are here.
F