📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Escape to the country & living off savings

17879818384215

Comments

  • Thanks dia 😊 Being under the tax threshold I just have to remember not to gift aid any charity donations. 

    Had a nice meal out last night. Beef madras, rice, garlic Nan & popadoms & pint of lemonade for DF and I had steak and kidney suet pudding with chips & peas & pint of strawberry and lime cider. Total £20.16. DF paid & drove. ☺️

    Sunny morning here today ☀️ but rain forecast for this afternoon. I am going with niece and baby to hospital to look after him while she has a blood test & xray. Will walk down the village to my friends house later this afternoon for cuppa & cake. 



    0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
    House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
    House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗

    Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).

    Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1

    Living off savings diary
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p1
  • Hope you did get to have your pottering afternoon & nice tea out with DF , I liked the sound of it so i intend to do same today including the weeding bit while it's sunny ..cold tho !! x
  • Thanks thriftylynny we must have cross posted above 😊

    Hope you get to enjoy yourself today and time in your garden. 😁
    0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
    House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
    House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗

    Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).

    Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1

    Living off savings diary
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p1
  • SuzeQStan
    SuzeQStan Posts: 1,717 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Homepage Hero Photogenic
    Very good point you raise about gift aid - I keep a card in my purse with my donor reference number on there and receive quite serious letters about the gift aid they claim on my donations.  

    So that’s Something else to add to my retirement ticklist as I won’t be paying tax when I retire until my workplace pension comes in. Much like yourself I’ll be living off savings / investments and OH will be in receipt of his pension straight away. He’s five years older than me. 

    Over the years I’ve observed family members coming up against the wrong end of HMRC and LA through the fault of not realising they shouldn’t have claimed for something or they should have paid for something and didn’t - and it’s a minefield! I want to avoid making any similar mistakes.  

    My poor MiL never dealt w finances as FiL handled everything - even handing over the housekeeping etc) and when FiL sadly passed away some years ago she didn’t know where to begin. And she got some bad advice and quite innocently claimed for something that she later learned she had too much savings to claim. And had a bill of thousands to pay some years later when it came to light. She was mortified.

    Along a similar vein I’ve also been reading about people falling foul of the carers allowance  - people who only got something like 75p more than they should have per week and as a result now have to pay back the FULL AMOUNT they received. One poor chap was forced to sell his house to pay it back, become homeless unwell through stress of it all  and is now presumably costing his LA a fair amount to house him etc. 

    It’s enough to keep you awake at night!! Sorry for such a long post x
    Lancashire
    PV 5.04kWp SW facing
    Solar Battery 6.5 kWh 
    🐙 Intelligent Go

    Mortgage freedom January 2024 - paid off 7 years early by making overpayments where we could.

  • I know what you mean SQS, there are some awful stories of what has happened to people who have mistakenly claimed something. 

    The only thing I claim is the single person council tax discount. 

    Yesterday afternoon I dropped DF clothes and 2 boxes of ornaments/ nicknacks from my move into the charity shop. Lady was very grateful for the mens clothes as they don’t get many donated. Not sure if men wear their clothes to rags then bin them, or just have less than women so tend to hang onto what they have. 

    Anyway, 2 more boxes of stuff gone. Just a couple left to sort out. 

    Sunny this morning & hopefully warming up over the weekend. Off to my sisters later for the weekend. 

    0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
    House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
    House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗

    Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).

    Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1

    Living off savings diary
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p1
  • MovingForwards
    MovingForwards Posts: 17,150 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    Men tend to have less than women and when they're replaced they don't tend to think about donating the old items.

    Meal out at the pub was a good selection. You and DF have got so much closer since your move, even though the strong bond was always there.

    Hope you've taken it easy in the garden and have a great trip ☺️
    Mortgage started 2020, aiming to clear 31/12/2029.
  • Doris17
    Doris17 Posts: 925 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Hope you had a lovely weekend with your sister.

    "Make Everyday Count"



  • Thanks MF and Doris 😊

    Had a lovely weekend with my sister. Sunny but chilly. We went to Whitby and had fish and chips for lunch, bread and butter & pot of tea £11.95 x2 which I paid for. Walked round the shops & chazzers and I got a top £2 and 2 books, follow on from the book DS & gf bought me for Xmas, £2 each. Then we had a cream tea £6 x 2 which sister paid for. 

    Came home in rain today with £15 cash left from entertainment fund. House was 13.5 degrees so the heating has been on & will probably be on again this week as it’s supposed to be a cold week 🥶
    0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
    House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
    House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗

    Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).

    Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1

    Living off savings diary
    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p1
  • ~FlowerPot~
    ~FlowerPot~ Posts: 1,621 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    sounds like you had a lovelt weekend. I do love a cream tea!
    ♥️ ♥️ ♥️
    🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
    Decluttering 2025 So far 403 / 2025
    Decluttering 2024🏅🏅🥇🏅🏅🏅⭐⭐⭐🌸 DS2🏅🏅DD🏅🥇🌸
    25 in 25 So far 1 /25

    ⭐My rambling savings Diary ~⭐
  • Doris17
    Doris17 Posts: 925 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Fish and chip and cream tea my kind of weekend. :)

    "Make Everyday Count"



Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.8K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.3K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.1K Life & Family
  • 257.8K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.