What did you cut back on when you retired?

[Cocojazz]

I'm 60 and few years off retirement - DH is 4 years younger than me. We have a 16 year old son so I'd like to get him through the next few years of education before I finish work.

I have a good job with a decent pension but obviously it needs to see me through my retirement years.

So what I'd like to ask is, for those of you that have retired, what things did you have to cut back on to have the money to live on? I still want to be able to go to the gym as it will be important to keep myself healthy but I assume treats like pedicures and nice clothes etc. will have to be knocked on the head?

Thanks.

@Amboseli

@SeatonCarew thanks, the temps look just right. 18° in December! As you say the light makes a big difference to mood. And it's great you can travel easily from there. If we could live in Europe I'd choose Spain.

I do hope that there will start to be some relaxation of the brexit rules and we can all travel and live and work again like we used to without so many restrictions. It's obvious to most now that we've shot ourselves in the foot and I think we'll end up with BRINO soon.

SeatonCarew, thanks. We wished we had done it years ago,yes I did have to commute 100 miles for a few years, but you don't know what's round the corner. Our youngest DD lived 10 miles from the hospital where I worked nights,so when DH lost his job, I just went to hers to sleep (try to😂) we didn't move far,Surrey to east Sussex, but were able to afford a small but detached bungalow,with 200 ft Garden in a village,but with all essential big stores within 5 miles. The plan was left over money to be the pension pot, but unfortunately, because of the state of houses of neighbours each side,we had to make a massive drop to sell. They used to call me "Mrs Goodlife"at work. Same DD moved last year, just 5 miles away.

Ohhh, just seen this thread!

Retired early (mid-late 50's) and we are spending more in retirement (enjoying life) than when working.
Work didn't really cost anything other than a bus fare each day (£6) so there wasn't any saving to be made there.
Like others here I had been paying more into my works pension which meant I was taking home a lot less than I could have been (50%) so my pension income is actually very similar to what I have been bringing home for years. Add to the fact OH has taken a PT job we are now better off!

Just picking up on the theatre tickets comment. Many theatres now offer their day seats via the TodayTix app. They do rush tickets on sale at 10am for around £25. The National Theatre does cheap rush tickets that go on sale on Fridays ar 1pm for the following week. And there are seat filling websites where the tickets are essentially free but you pay an admin fee - for shows where the producers want to get more last minute bums on seats. I go to the theatre 2-3 times a month, and it is possible to keep the cost down with some planning . It helps to be in London so you can go to the theatre that evening if you secure a ticket at 10am that morning.

Have you tried getting any through Today Tix though? It's virtually impossible for popular shows. Cabaret release 40 tickets a week and getting tickets for the National lately has been virtually impossible. It used to be that you went to the box office and queued up. Now you're in an online queue with thousands of other people. It's like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets.
Some places still take bookings in person, like Jerusalem last summer which was £15 for front row seats (thank you Mr Rylance) but it's increasingly rare. The seat filling site is a bit rubbish, I think. We've had a couple of concert tickets but that's about it.

I'm not at retirement yet and don't have a private pension my kids are adults and moved on so going back to work soon I'm also downsizing to a cheaper home to free up money as for retirement I hope to have saved a reasonable amount to sustain a okay life I'm doing courses to invest in my self now to better a pay packet ad for treats I already live a simple life as such no sky no netflix no expensive trips to the get nails done etc I don't buy many new clothes I use vinted mainly no expensive contract phone we have a takeaway once a week yes could stop that but we like it overall i intend to invest to be able to holiday now and again

not working costs money,, hobbies, clubs, coffee out National Trust membership and all the other memberships going , holidays, start saving now if you don’t want to spend all day watching tv.

Coco, really good to plan and think about it, I'd probably say there are 5 main things, some of have been mentioned by OPs too

• Go for gold on your pension payments, loads of benefits: a) immediate tax saving b) if you have kids, can knock your income down enough to get child benefit, but c) you are going to be offered a "tax free" lump sum shortly of 25% of your pension pot very soon, most will let you take your pension, and therefore lump sum from 55 yrs old d) some employers pay more into your pension if you pay more (although there are caps on this and it is rarer) and e) you get used to living on a smaller amount month by month as you go towards retirement
• Do not forget that you will (more than likely) get state pension also (I realise some schemes had an opt out on this). You can get a quote from the government website to say exactly what this will be. It's a while off, but it takes two minutes to get your quote, and it will probably give you some comfort that you will have more money coming in from aged 67
• Pay any debts off, you would be "pissing in the wind" trying to be tax efficient around your pension if you have high interest rate loans, but if a mortgage is all you have, you need to think about when to pay it off, and this is a finer balanced calculation.
• You will get a few benefits from simply not working. No commute, no lunches, no drinks after work, no clothes, cheaper travel, less "panic buying" caused by lack of time, can manage on one car - absolutely depends on your habits though. Most travel more once retired (albeit can shop around), some also spend more on bills.
• Children, cost should be decreasing, but they never do is my experience !

Hope this helps xxx PS, one thing I would say is don't leave it until too late, it is easy to cling to working life far beyond what you will ever realistically need in your lifetime with murmurs of "well I am used to working", "the money comes in" and many other "just in cases". Unless you absolutely love your job and would do it for free, go earlier rather than later, and don't look back.

You have less expenses when you retire. I used to spend a lot on a work wardrobe, work shoes and fuel for the car as I had a 20 mile drive in and 20 mile drive back daily. Less car bills such as fewer tires needed, less servicing of the car. I often bought lunch whilst at work and coffees. I also put a lot into pension and ISA's in the last 3 years of working and I early retired at 56. I'm no longer paying lots into pension. I still eat lunch out but now in a restaurant once or twice a week. I go out to the cinema, occasionally to theatres, dinner out or just a drink at the pub now and then. I still go on holidays. I'm basically spending the money I would have saved.

I've got a holiday home in France but we only visit occasionally. I let my DC, sisters, nephews and nieces and friends use it. DH does not retire until next year. After that we will go a bit more often. It's not cheaper over in France though.

Coming back to this.

We have now had our annual review with our FA, he was boggled that we had set up savings accounts on top of the big ones, DH saves £150 a month with NatWest and I am saving £300 with FD, without getting into the bigger figures we don’t need to save this and he recommended that we stop when they mature and leave the cash we were saving in the day to current account and then if there is anything left monthly move it to a slush fund.

We have found the inherent drive to save very hard to let go of. 🙄

My (our) inheritance is well invested as is ten years of pension savings in DH’s name, on top of the FS and state.

Sorry, a bit of a ramble, this is prompted by the fact that we had an expensive July and August and whilst we didn’t go overdrawn it did not make for comfortable viewing, had we had the £450 that we are saving kind of unnecessarily available I the watcher of all thing’s financial would not have even noticed.

Hope that makes sense.

The only thing we cut out was having a cleaner. The last week she worked we went out for breakfast to get out of her way, which felt very decadent. We do the housework on Thursday mornings now, 50/50 so it only takes a couple of hours. Overall we spend less now but do more things, not sure how as neither of us had long commutes or shopping temptations near work.

I know it’s an old thread but this may be helpful.

I have been retired for a few years, biggest saving was getting rid of my car. DH works at home quite often so we share one and I can also borrow my DS sometimes as he still lives with us.

Whilst I await DH retirement date, he is younger than me which may be very soon or at most a year I have done two things. I have volunteered quite a bit which has been very enjoyable. In a charity shop so I now get a discount and also working as a cook in a soup kitchen. We eat lunch with the clients at the kitchen and have a chat with them as it’s not just about food poverty it’s about loneliness as well.

I also joined U3A which in my area is £20 per year and the classes are £3 each. I do a dancing class, tai chi and have tried a few other classes but have stuck with these two.

I belong to a walking group and go out with them occasionally. No membership fee.

As much as I needed a good rest as I was burnt out so did hardly a thing for a while I am enjoying having some structure back. The voluntary work is just 1.5 days per week which is very different to a FT job with a horrific commute and sector that was struggling but is now in complete crisis.

We expect when he retires to spend a lot over two years or so as we have massive travel plans.