Frugaleers -Marching March-wards Making Money Matter

[Wolfcub]

New fred ready for March

Veg box coming today but it gets paid automatically on Sundays, need to see what’s in it and meal plan - planning to try and combine it with stuff in freezer and avoid a big shop.
I am so tired - slept past both my alarms. Going to go for a very chilly pre lessons walk, then buckle in for a morning in front of the screen.
I have a French lesson at 1215 (I am the pupil in this one!) and I’m so nervous.

Appraisal went well. Apparently I need to work on my personality. Ha!

The boss explained what he meant here though and it wasn’t as brutal as it sounded! (He’s lucky we get on well and can say shit like that to each other...!)

That is good news Em

Wolf that is a hard decision. I have in my head I will retire at 65... that gives me a 1/3 of my final salary, but I also have 4 other smaller pensions plus state pension. The total will be approx what I am on now (touch wood).

I have managed to ignore the budget even though it is on the radio.

unescorted and wolf no

we'll have to suck up the travel costs. A big item so we're towing as well. We'll just be glad if the scamming beggar turns up to meet us with the refund. We don't actually have an address. 🤦

So do you think you'll work another 5yrs wolf? I gave up on the pension thing years ago. I did start one but it wasn't compatible with surviving on my wages so I'll only have the state pension. It's partly why I want to get back into being frugal as a habit. Maybe you could retire and take the half-value pension then work part time to top it up? Although I suppose then you'd be working part time forever.

Good luck with the French lessons Gen

He's a cheeky one em, I'm sure your personality is just fine. I detest staff appraisals.

Sorry I didn't know an extra line snuck in up the top there, makes my No look very rude!

I’ve got a pension from my old career pre kids. The last statement showed me I’ll be getting the grand total of £180 per year from that!

But we’ve got other investments and now Dh is in paid employment he’s paying into the company scheme which looks pretty good.

This is not good frugalling of me but my head is totally in the sand about my pension. I have a teacher pension but I just ignore all emails etc about it and hope it will all be ok. I'm embarrassed admitting that, I should really find out about it.

Snuggly I'm the same! I really need to look into it in more detail. I have no idea when I will be able to retire but I do know that I will be on my knees if I have to continue nursing until I'm 68.

Went to Aldi today for first time in a while with dm. She thoroughly enjoyed being able to pick her own shopping instead of me doing it online for her. It was a nice change for me too, however I spent £49 that I didn't really plan on spending.

Well I'm pleased to say the chancer turned up with the refund, along with some nonsense story about having two of the items and using the wrong photos. Whatever, we're only down the cost of the diesel so it could have been a lot worse.

curls I'm in a similar situation. A pension so small it's not enough to be worth counting on. I guess something is better than nothing though.

Snuggly my relative has a teacher pension of £2k pcm so hopefully you'll be ok.

Born maybe change to something else nearer the time, if you have to keep working until 68. I can't imagine rushing around as a nurse at that age.

The best financial advice I was ever given was pay as much into a pension as early as possible. Even in the depths of debt I have paid into my pension. if I had only clocked onto frugallity too...

Amber I am pleased he turned up. I was not holding out for you.

Gen how did your French lesson get on? I am so bad at languages but would love to be able to speak French.

unescorted it was really great! I love the teacher, she was so supportive. I have nine more classes with her booked in a block, and I’ll definitely be re-booking, she’s so nice.

Pleased you got refunded Amber!

£2000 per month?? That's considerably more than I am actually paid per month (although admittedly am part time). Maybe I need to go back to full time and start looking for a promotion!

I don’t think my pension will be £2k per month Ahaha! If I get the full pension from TPS it will be £1200 max I think. That’s the teacher pension scheme. But my godfather retired 4 years ago from a school and got a lump sum of £96k plus £2,300 a month pension. I think the changes they made in 2007 were quite extensive.

the advice i was given, and the advice i give is that you should be paying between 10 and 15% of your salary into a pension annually.

i just about do this. although didnt last year because we've been moved from prior year tax to current year and im not sure how paying into pension will affect it yet. so am going to wait a bit and then sort it out.

i have a separate savings account specifically for my pension

@ememem84

mrs fear if you like quiche and onions try jamie Oliver’s onion tart tatin. It is to die for.

Also Nadia Hussain’s cheese and pickle pies. Yummmm

We have stuff here called black butter which is appley and cinamony and yum. Dh mixes it with onions to go on burgers. Man it’s good.

Oh thank you Em l will have a look at them

Em glad the Appraisal went well , the black butter sounds delicious
It was really foggy here this morning too Unescorted & Life it's much warmer in the day though , Spring is coming!
Amber what a pita!
Born l took Dd2 shopping , it was only 30 though l got off lightly
Gen glad you enjoyed your lesson, l loved French in school
Wolf hope you are feeling better now
Pensions incurr tax and N.I , if you retire early and l wonder if the more you have, the more you want tbh. We thought we would need a lot more than we do , so does something happens to you when you retire l wonder. We don't seem to buy the same amount of stuff because we don't need/want it . l don't know tbh but l have noticed this house has never looked so shabby and l couldn't give a monkeys

Aw Mrs that's a fab retirement attitude to have and I think I get it... a bit like when I recently re-jigged my hours at work, less money overall but the extra time means I'm not trying to 'fix' my busy life with spending. I'll hopefully be so chilled in retirement I won't give a monkeys either! (Although I understand pensions so little that I recently rang an old employer demanding to know where all my years of contributions were and they had to patiently explain to me 'no, really Madden, that is seriously how low a pension you'll be getting despite your monthly cash sacrifice' 😂. I'm back on TPS too now after many years LGPS so my contributions have gone up from 5% to 7% but that's about as much as I know. Maybe we need a new thread 'frugaleers try to find sense of their future finances'?!!

NSD today 🙌

Ahhh Madden l just think the more you have then it will only be used to pay for your nursing home when you are old & decrepit
Mum has money and her house and honestly she has to pay for everything , Bobbo hasn't got any money coming in except his OAP and is on pension credit and doesn't have to pay anything! He doesn't pay for his TV license , his council tax, dentist & Tooth care, Specs, he has a BT basic package , hospital transport & help with his fuel bill. l know it must be a worry but he is doing ok

Pilates done. Yay.

That's very true Mrs it's nice to have some money when you're older but if you need any care you end up having to spend it. This would be ok if you were then guaranteed a higher standard of care but unless you are really well off it tends to just be the same.

My mymsays she needs less money now she's retired because she always has time to do things like cooking, shopping around for things, repairing clothes etc and never comes home feeling knackered and orders a takeaway! Also less.petrol, clothes and so on needed as not working.

Thank god it's Thursday. Feels to have been a long week.

Checked out my state pension entitlement yesterday then worked out what I'd have to save to make up the gap from 60-68 when it will be paid. Eye watering frankly. I am lucky that I have a very good pension so I probably shouldn't be worrying but, like Unescorted, having wished I'd got a grip on frugality earlier I have no real savings and there's still exdh to pay off and ds to put through uni. so the time I have left until 60 doesn't seem a lot of time to amass savings to last the rest of my life.

@Wolfcub I am retiring within the next year but my DH is six years younger and his state retirement age is 67. We are planning for him to go at 60 and are saving to make up the difference. I save any increase in wages/tax reductions/etc (however small) as we are managing on what we have. Over the last 6 years this has made a real difference. Also (I'm in the teachers pension scheme) don't forget you will have a lump sum as well as your pension so that may help

Granny thank you. Unfortunately my pension scheme does not include a lump sum thanks to changes to pension rules. I can buy a lump sum but that will mean my annual pension is actuarially reduced

Oh I'm sorry to hear that - I am still on the old scheme therefore based on my final salary and Lump sum of 3 x annual pension. However, my pension isn't great as I retrained in my 40's and my pensions prior to that are very small. My DH has a small pension from the 80's but after redundancy he was a HGV driver and more recently retrained as a boatbuilder - neither known for pensions until the recent legislation.

I have spreadsheets tracking what I will need, what we will have and will we have enough to travel in our motorhome. It's such a balance and I have already lost a number of friends and relatives either pre retirement or just after so we are wary of waiting to travel until he retires in 8 years as I will be 73 by then