Away From The Madding Crowd

mark55man

Love your saying of the week!!

Travelled down for a week holiday yesterday, and am now in my happy place

My simple pleasure is a brisk walk on a sunny morning by the seaside 

My next simple pleasure will be a pasty for Sunday Brunch - can you guess where I am?

bluenose1

Thanks for the weekly update @humboldt. I too loved your motivational quote.
My simple pleasures this week have been my daily woodland walks mostly in sunshine listening to birdsong. This week according to the Merlin app I  have been serenaded by chiffchaffs, wrens, chaffinches, dunnocks, robins and long tailed tits. A bonus was I also heard a woodpecker drumming but too much leaf coverage to see it.
Just sat with a M&S hot cross bun which unfortunately weren’t on offer but were voted best by Which so I thought I would treat us.
Making Nadiya chicken and rice tray bake yet again as so easy to prepare and all family all love it. Cooking is definitely not my favourite pastime. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chicken_and_rice_bake_97733

Humboldt

Morning all.

@mark55man I hope that you are enjoying your holiday and that your brunch consisted of a genuine Cornish pasty. 

@bluenose1 that's a fabulous array of birdsong to enjoy on your walk.  Thank you for sharing the link to the recipe.  A recipe that proves that cooking a tasty meal from scratch need not take too much effort.

Today's simple pleasure - admiring the spring flowers in the garden whilst drinking my cuppa.

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

You’ll never be bored when you try something new.  There’s really no limit to what you can do – Dr. Seuss.

Life update.

A few months ago, after much deliberation, my DH finally made the decision to access a work pension and to work part-time.  We were just settling into this new routine, when my employer announced their intention to close their small business.  This closure resulted in the entire team being made redundant.  I chose not to share these developments at the time because I wanted some space to become accustomed to the situation.

With little notice of my redundancy and no big pay-out, together with my DH’s reduced income, I had concerns regarding the potential financial impact this may have on us.  However, after a few months, I have come to realise that by managing our budgets in our usual manner, we are doing ok.   Whilst our savings are not being topped up as frequently, they will continue to provide us with financial security until we receive our state pensions, and within reason, we are also able to spend some of this hard-earned cash.  As I said at the start of this thread, some have more than us, and some have less.  We continue to have enough for our needs.

So here we are several weeks later, and it feels a little odd to think that I may now have fully retired at 61 years old. After much discussion with my DH, I have taken the decision to let the future unfold organically by following my intuition and my heart. If another paid role comes along that ‘calls to me,’ I may apply, but until then I will find some new ways to occupy my time, save/make a few extra pennies,  and continue to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250.  Week 2 spend for March was £47.51.  Total spend for March to date is £105.53.

Took the decision to change our life insurance, resulting in a significant saving per year.  The new insurance was put into a Trust at no additional cost to us.

We have received notification that due to our water usage decreasing last year, this year’s payments will not increase.

We treated ourselves to a stereo.  A family member kindly used their Pr!me membership to purchase it for us, resulting in a 5% discount, plus a further £50 discount via a voucher valid on stereo’s purchased before the end of March.  It will be lovely to be able to listen to our vinyl records again

This week’s main menu.

Monday – King prawn & lobster thermidor fishcake (very posh!), a small portion of oven chips and a mixed salad.  Fishcakes were reduced in price and frozen until required.

Tuesday – Peppered mackerel and potato bake (from one of my recipe scrapbooks), with roasted carrots. To fully utilise the oven, I will bake a sourdough loaf.

Wednesday – Baked fish with chorizo crust (H@iry D!eters recipe) with roasted vegetables. I will make double the amount of roast vegetable and use them for tomorrow’s recipe.  Cod was reduced in price and frozen until required.  The chorizo crust was from the freezer (used half and froze half last time I made this recipe). 

Thursday – Roast vegetables, whole-wheat couscous, feta, and minted yogurt dressing.

Friday – Pumpkin, spinach & coconut biryani (W@itrose recipe), Chicken Korma (H@iry B!kers recipe), Naan, vegetable samosas and onion bhaji’s (samosas and bhaji will be from Ald!).  I will swap the pumpkin for butternut squash.  We are hosting friends this evening.

Saturday – Eating out with friends.

Sunday – Away overnight with friends.

Healthier lifestyle.

Last week’s step count was 51,371.

Completed 5 free meditations last week.

Completed 0 free online workouts last week.

Simple pleasures.

I have repainted the bathroom this week. 

I recently attended a free genealogy workshop and have begun to research my family tree.  Our local library not only offers free access to a couple of the most popular genealogy websites for 1 hour per day, but also has a vast array of local historic records.  I am amazed at how much I have been able to discover in such a short space of time.

Met friends for a cuppa and a natter.  Always good for the soul.

Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary.

bluenose1

That’s a massive life update @Humboldt. I can imagine the redundancy has been a shock to your system, happened to me 20 years ago and it really shook me at the time, though now I look back they did me a favour.  I hope it all works out well for you.
I agonised for years over the pros and cons before finally giving up work of my own volition at 57. Was convinced I would look for a little part time job but no chance as absolutely love retirement and having no-one to answer to. Love being time rich, more cash would always be nice but I know we have enough to live on until state pension age based on our average expenditure  over last few years. 

I have started listing clothes on eBay this week to recoup some of my expenditure on Vinted due to my weight loss, if they don’t sell will try Vinted next. Only doing eBay as used to selling on there.

Your family tree research sounds interesting.
Good luck for the  future and think following your intuition is a good plan, as who knows how you will feel in future. As the saying goes  “Man Plans, and God Laughs.”

BrilliantButScary

Humboldt said:

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

You’ll never be bored when you try something new.  There’s really no limit to what you can do – Dr. Seuss.

Life update.

A few months ago, after much deliberation, my DH finally made the decision to access a work pension and to work part-time.  We were just settling into this new routine, when my employer announced their intention to close their small business.  This closure resulted in the entire team being made redundant.  I chose not to share these developments at the time because I wanted some space to become accustomed to the situation.

With little notice of my redundancy and no big pay-out, together with my DH’s reduced income, I had concerns regarding the potential financial impact this may have on us.  However, after a few months, I have come to realise that by managing our budgets in our usual manner, we are doing ok.   Whilst our savings are not being topped up as frequently, they will continue to provide us with financial security until we receive our state pensions, and within reason, we are also able to spend some of this hard-earned cash.  As I said at the start of this thread, some have more than us, and some have less.  We continue to have enough for our needs.

So here we are several weeks later, and it feels a little odd to think that I may now have fully retired at 61 years old. After much discussion with my DH, I have taken the decision to let the future unfold organically by following my intuition and my heart. If another paid role comes along that ‘calls to me,’ I may apply, but until then I will find some new ways to occupy my time, save/make a few extra pennies,  and continue to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250.  Week 2 spend for March was £47.51.  Total spend for March to date is £105.53.

Took the decision to change our life insurance, resulting in a significant saving per year.  The new insurance was put into a Trust at no additional cost to us.

We have received notification that due to our water usage decreasing last year, this year’s payments will not increase.

We treated ourselves to a stereo.  A family member kindly used their Pr!me membership to purchase it for us, resulting in a 5% discount, plus a further £50 discount via a voucher valid on stereo’s purchased before the end of March.  It will be lovely to be able to listen to our vinyl records again

This week’s main menu.

Monday – King prawn & lobster thermidor fishcake (very posh!), a small portion of oven chips and a mixed salad.  Fishcakes were reduced in price and frozen until required.

Tuesday – Peppered mackerel and potato bake (from one of my recipe scrapbooks), with roasted carrots. To fully utilise the oven, I will bake a sourdough loaf.

Wednesday – Baked fish with chorizo crust (H@iry D!eters recipe) with roasted vegetables. I will make double the amount of roast vegetable and use them for tomorrow’s recipe.  Cod was reduced in price and frozen until required.  The chorizo crust was from the freezer (used half and froze half last time I made this recipe). 

Thursday – Roast vegetables, whole-wheat couscous, feta, and minted yogurt dressing.

Friday – Pumpkin, spinach & coconut biryani (W@itrose recipe), Chicken Korma (H@iry B!kers recipe), Naan, vegetable samosas and onion bhaji’s (samosas and bhaji will be from Ald!).  I will swap the pumpkin for butternut squash.  We are hosting friends this evening.

Saturday – Eating out with friends.

Sunday – Away overnight with friends.

Healthier lifestyle.

Last week’s step count was 51,371.

Completed 5 free meditations last week.

Completed 0 free online workouts last week.

Simple pleasures.

I have repainted the bathroom this week. 

I recently attended a free genealogy workshop and have begun to research my family tree.  Our local library not only offers free access to a couple of the most popular genealogy websites for 1 hour per day, but also has a vast array of local historic records.  I am amazed at how much I have been able to discover in such a short space of time.

Met friends for a cuppa and a natter.  Always good for the soul.

Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary.

I sometimes think that things happen for a reason and that it is our response/attitude to events that make the difference. You are a resourceful person and I am sure you will continue to enjoy simple pleasures. They are the best, in my opinion.

A useful resource for your genealogy, is your local family history society:

https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/find-a-society

A lot of the popular genealogy sites often have free 14 day trials and there is also FamilySearch which is free:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states/

Do you know about Marriage Allowance?

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

It is worth doing if you fit the criteria. We have done this both ways as a couple.

uralmaid

Sorry to hear about your job @Humboldt. You are very resourceful and hopefully everything will slot into place. You will end up thinking "how did I find time to work?". That's what I found. I think you need to set up a menu planning and cookery blog. Within a few months you will go viral and end up being an "influencer" and loaded with cash. Lol.

mark55man

@Humboldt - good luck with the new leg of your journey.  I've read the pension pages and "over-50" threads a lot and the thing that strikes me is that for every post saying retirement wasn't working out for them (especially if it arose from a redundancy) there are 10 posts saying how they are loving every minute, and more than able to adjust to a lower income.  other than an EF do you need to build savings - so I will give you the Mr Micawber quote although I know that you are all over this

‘My other piece of advice, Copperfield,’ said Mr. Micawber, ‘you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”
David Copperfield (1850)

jwil

Sorry to hear about the redundancy, but it sounds like you have made the best of a tough situation.  I find it very inspirational to hear about the people on here who are living good lives on relatively low incomes as this is what I hope to do in the future.  Simple living appeals a lot!

Humboldt

Morning all.

A very big heartfelt thank you to all those who read, click the thanks button, or comment.

Like many on the forum, I choose not to share my money saving endeavours with everyone in 'real life'.  I learnt from experience that not everyone shares my views, and that it is simpler to not express my opinion. When asked how we could afford to payoff our mortgage, pay university fees, move and take on roles that paid much less, reduce our working hours, travel, etc, I simply reply "budgeting".  

Whilst I accepted that others may choose to live differently, at times it would have been nice to interact with like minded people.  It is for this reason that I feel very grateful for the kind support that is afforded to not only me, but all who choose to share on these fabulous threads across the forum, especially when faced with life's challenges. 

@bluenose1 I too look back on life's challenges and think if it wasn't for those events, I would not be where I am today. Time rich is a lovely phrase, and let's face it, time is a resource that we all don't have enough of.  Go you listing on eb@y!  For me, decorating the house has taken priority at the moment, but I very much intend to sell items at some point.  As always, your kind words are much appreciated. 

@BrilliantButScary I too have always thought that things happen for a reason.  Sometimes it becomes instantly apparent, but on other occasions it can take a long time before we appreciate the reason why.  You are so right, in that it's our response/attitude to events that make a difference. Thank you so very much for the link re: the family history society.  What a gem of a find!  Whilst Marriage Tax Allowance was on my radar, I appreciate you highlighting it. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and kind words.

@uralmaid for a while now I have been asking myself how I ever found time to fit everything in whilst managing a family/house and working full-time. Not sure that I ever want to go viral, or be loaded with cash! lol.  As always, thanks for your kind words and taking the time to comment.

@mark55man thanks for the good wishes and a fab quote.  Despite the reduction in salaries, we will do ok financially as long as we continue to manage our budgets as we have always done. We will just have to accept that our savings will not be topped up as much and as frequently, and can be used as and when required.  After all..  

Shrouds have no pockets - proverbial saying, mid 19th century. 

@jwil I was so pleased that you are finding inspiration by reading how people are living good lives on relatively low incomes.  I keep going on about how we spend years planning for retirement; predominantly our finances. However, semi/full retirement can take some getting used to for some, and is the reason why I personally feel that there is scope on the Over50's Moneysaving thread for more diaries that offer an insight into how others adapt to this new chapter in their lives without it costing lots of money.  After all, each of us will do it in our own unique way.  I can highly recommend simple living.  Thanks for your kind words.

Today's simple pleasures - the kindness of strangers.