As a retired person could you live on £10,000 a year.?

[allamberedover]

To cover bills but not housing costs.

No not really but we like holidays, meals and days out, run two cars and have an expensive country club subscription. I expect we could if we had to but it would be a massive lifestyle change.

Our bills alone are £700 a month with council tax, utilities, and mobiles/internet and dental insurance etc.

I can get through that very easily! Going to the theatre, dinner, travel, food and bills.

10k probably not even enough now 😞

Most of it already gone to these...
Council tax £300
Water £100
Gas and Electric £240
Broadband £80

I think it would be worrying, what happens when something big breaks. Mind you I can't ever see me giving up work because I can't afford it. I will be dying with my boots on as the saying goes. Live in south east, big bills, loads of expenditure etc etc

As others have said, I couldn't afford to stay in my current home on that income as council tax and utility bills would eat up a lot of it, and I need a car. But if I had to live on that amount I wouldn't stay in a big house in the countryside with no access to public transport so if I moved to somewhere different I probably could manage, though I definitely wouldn't enjoy it.

But what if a kitchen appliance breaks? Or you need a new boiler? Or the roof leaks? Or a couple of teeth need crowns or other expensive treatment?

I didn't account for council tax as I thought that was part of housing costs.

Not a chance, my horses cost about that

Tax allowance is 12.5k before taxation kicks in. No income tax. But council tax cerainly.

Well, it was good enough for Mr Darcy…

I do exactly the same, it saves a fortune. DH and I also cut each other's hair and very rarely eat out. I guess we are quite frugal, although we eat well and have a decent food budget.

We spend about £2200 a month between us on all bills/insurance etc, food, things for house/garden, running and maintaining 2 cars, basic holidays.

We also have one DS still at home and the other in uni holidays, but think our 2 state pensions should cover those same living costs when we finally retire and it's just the 2 of us.

Our savings will be for anything else we want or need such as larger purchases, home improvements or the occasional more extravagant holiday.

£230 a week... Sounds impossible.

Hmm, have you been in a Wetherspoons outside of big cities lately? They are definitely not full of students.

Why do you assume pensioners should be happy with a quick coffee in a cold church hall? Why are you talking about “every Friday”? Students have plenty to fill their time, studying being one of them, planning for their whole life ahead another.

Pensioners have every single waking moment to fill, they don’t just start itching to get out on a Friday. It’s lonely, it’s isolating. And you declaring they can do just fine on £50 a week including all appointments, socials, self care and extras and then that they shouldn’t even prioritise a £10 a month Netflix subscription is ridiculous.

So you want them to sit at home, no extra channels because “frugal innit” and 19 year olds can so they should too. Give me a break

The minimum income guarantee if you're over pension age and paying for care is £228 pw - or £175 if in a couple. So £11k/£9k. It's not enough.

Well yeah I could ! But it would be shit

I’d rather have way more money to travel and have a life outside my home - hobbies, theatre, concerts, lunches out etc

Do you live alone or with a partner or husband?

Sorry if it's all ready been asked I am feeling a little lazy tonight.

We can certainly live on two state pensions as house is paid off, if you don’t have any other income you get pension credit as well (I have a small private pension so won’t get that)

And yet many people on this thread have said yes they could or yes they do. I’ll repeat - I agree it’s a frugal lifestyle, but it doesn’t have to be an isolated or depressing one. I gave you some examples of cheap ways to maintain social interaction. You cut your cloth - library rather than Amazon, use the bus rather than an expensive car, rambling rather than a gym membership. Someone may well choose Netflix (though my grandparents were perfectly content with three channels and a phonebox, so let’s be realistic, a tv subscription isn’t exactly essential.)

(And I said students usually go to spoons, I didn’t say all spoons customers were students so not sure what point you were making there.)

No. And if we/ I moved, to somewhere cheaper, then we would lose our community and friends in one fell swoop. It's harder to make friends who will be prepared to help, know where is safe, good doctors etc

I expect I'll have frozen to death by then anyway. Or been guilt tripped into feeling I'm a burden on the tax payer and arrange to leave this mortal coil earlier than I expected.

Buses hardly run on Sundays. Where am I going to go on a bus with no money? Keep warm and use the free WiFi I suppose.

Those bills are very high per month.

XP's mum seems to live a full and satisfying life on pension credits. She has a tiny but comfy HA bungalow with a little garden and a nice view, and is friends with some of her neighbours. She has a little car, but also takes the bus for free a lot (she took herself off to a local folk festival on the bus recently, with lots of free music in the streets), goes to exercise classes, is active in the church you can see from her window which has a really close knit community, goes to the local pub regularly (has a small appetite so has just a sandwich and a glass of wine). I wouldn't say no to leading a life like hers in my early 90s!

I think if I didn't have a car or housing costs I could afford it

Surely you have a massive house that you could sell!

Loads of students (and even worse, women on maternity leave!!!) have to live in less than this and they have housing costs etc to pay for that you’d hopefully think, in retirement, most people wouldn’t have to pay.

I do think the state pension should be higher but I think statutory maternity pay should be higher first. At least older people have had the benefit of not being crippled by housing costs.

Interesting thread, seen it done before but always worth looking at again. I've just worked out I'll be on around £14k after tax post retirement, so I would be at the "minimum" standard. Also makes me realise that I need my savings - I've got about £50k so that will have to cover everything that might go wrong or be needed from around 68/70 till the inevitable (I often see women in their 70s working on the till in Waitrose and make a mental note to buy somewhere near a Waitrose for free coffee and post retirement employment ops!)

I'm likely to have leasehold charges though - even if you have paid off your mortgage, if you are in a flat, you still have charges and many elderly people are expected to live in small flats to save money - and then they have to pay services charges!

Do we know why OP is asking though? What's your point here @allamberedover?