This post elsewhere caught my eye. I'm older (61), preparing to retire and recently had three months off work following a heart attack. Retirement was planned before the cardiac event.
In that time I learnt how much I really want to retire and also given the time the real improvements one can make to lifestyle and finances.
The financial side of retirement concerns me but those three months suggest more time to shop carefully, take advantage of offers etc. means I perhaps shouldn't worry.
Some examples. I recently got a year's supply of dishwasher tablets for £12 in Poundland, branded Finish in Polish! On our local food market 28lbs of carrots £1.50, 3lbs tomatoes £3, 15 onions £1.50 makes an awful lot of carrot soup. Same with mushrooms at £2.50 for a huge box. Yesterday I got 28lbs potatoes for £5. All this food appeared not to meet supermarket specifications.
I'd be very interested to learn from others of the savings and preparations they made before and during retirement. I'm thinking principles or specific areas not shopping lists!!
@PaulSB
Yes, of course you can make savings like that and why not. You can also make savings by shopping around on utility bills, insurances etc. Ditto you can also ensure that whatever savings you have work as hard as they can for you.
I've no idea of your financial position but my best advice would be to map out your cash flow for a decade or two ahead based on likely expenditures, known income streams, savings returns etc and you may get a surprisingly optimistic forecast.
We have a beautiful & decent sized house (paid for), have a really nice lifestyle that suits us (we're outdoorsy types), eat well, can afford to drink whenever we feel like it, the house is always warm and toasty (oil/coal/logs) and run a nice new car (small) all for a relatively small amount of money.
The 'background' cost of this inc' all utilities, food/drink, council tax, insurance blah, blah, blah is £12.5k pa for the two of us.
Holidays (If we fancy them), capital expenditure such as repairs on the house or a new car and stuff like that are not included in that number.
We never set out to keep the figure that low that's just how it pans out - surprised us really. We have no requirement to keep the number low (we have plenty of savings, pensions and a few other income streams at the moment) so don't srimp and scrape to achieve it. It's easily do-able unless you are trying to get by on a State Pension and no savings I guess.
