Over 50? What’s one small money saving habit that’s made a real difference?

Smudgeismydog

My partner and I sit down with my notebook, calculator and cuppa once a month to review our finances. It doesn’t take long, but allows us to check everything is on track, and discuss any future ad hoc expenditure.

I continue to track our monthly expenditure (notepad), so we understand what is going out, and we are both clear how we will continue to fund this through each stage of our retirement.

cantbelieveit23

Maybe not one single thing, but a number under the umbrella of ensuring that all of our money is earning for us in some fashion (mostly as per MSE info), for example....
1 Decide how much of our income we can commit to savings every month and pay that into Regular Savers (1 year term):  First Direct 7%, we are also using/have recently used Halifax, Principality, Yorks BS, Natwest.  At end of term, might contribute to a major expense such as "new" car, home improvement, or straight into ISA.
2 Keep a reasonable minimum in current accounts, with the remainder in Easy Access accounts with best interest rate availale until required.
3 Use cashback debit and credit cards for all payments (cash only when absolutely necessary.)
4 Monthly "surplus" if any, into Cash ISAs (considered S&S ISA, but decided we could not plan far enough ahead, but maybe have to reconsider if tax-free limit reduced to £4k.
5 Avoid earning £1k in taxable savings interest.

All the usual money savers such as occasional bank switches, looking for the best deals on gas/electricity, insurance etc.

We haven't really considered how to reduce our expenses...our aim is to be able to do most things we want to, although we try to look for value for money.  I tend to look at the above savings as paying for a weekend away, a meal out etc.

There seems to be an assumption that people will have less DISPOSABLE income in retirement: we have found the opposite.  We have felt "better off" in stages:  children left home permanently, retirement/mortgage paid off with lump sum/running only one car, each of us receiving state pension.

We tend to look on the positive side: enjoy your money while you can, don't worry about things you cannot predict/control.  When our expenditure exceeds our income, we may have to create Plan B!

Savvy_Sue

cantbelieveit23 said:

We tend to look on the positive side: enjoy your money while you can, don't worry about things you cannot predict/control.  When our expenditure exceeds our income, we may have to create Plan B!

The trick is noticing that in good time so action can be taken!