"Retired and living on £11k a year – this is how I spend my money"

[bluedonkey]

Ideally coupled with the mindless frittering away of time.

The aim should be to pass time pleasurably without feeling guilty about not doing very much.

Since retiring a couple of years ago I find that 'guilt' is my biggest issue. After 20 minutes sitting and reading a book etc I finding that I start fidgeting and feel I should be up and about and actually doing things. Is there any known cure for this ?

How about trying voluntary work?

[James]

Ideally coupled with the mindless frittering away of time.

The aim should be to pass time pleasurably without feeling guilty about not doing very much.

Since retiring a couple of years ago I find that 'guilt' is my biggest issue. After 20 minutes sitting and reading a book etc I finding that I start fidgeting and feel I should be up and about and actually doing things. Is there any known cure for this ?

Have a lie down and wait until the feeling passes.

[Spet0789]

Surely that revelation can't sneak by without explanation. Throwing popcorn, eating noisily, snoring or something worse perhaps

They refused to let me take my motorbike helmet into the cinema, arguing that it would be a "health and safety risk" and a "trip hazard". This was at a 1.30pm showing of the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film on a Tuesday afternoon where I was the fifth ticket sold in a cinema with at least 400 seats and it was almost 1.30pm. Two of the tickets had been sold to women who had extremely large handbags (larger than my helmet).

They were quite happy to let me buy a ticket and my usual hot dog and large drink (at the time I averaged about 40 visits to the cinema a year (the joys of retirement)). But having done so some jobsworth refused to let me in and also refused to give me a refund for my ticket, arguing that I should have read their T&Cs.

I found out a few days later that some cinemas had recently decided that motorcyclists were a "health and safety risk" (as if we're all members of "Sons of Anarchy"). Friends said that my ban would vanish within a year because of the rapid turnover of staff at the cinema, but as a point of principle I refuse to go there (I now go to a cinema in another town about 10 miles away).

Sounds like you very reasonably took your custom elsewhere! Not a ban. Totally ridiculous they didn’t try to find some accommodation, especially as from the sound of it you could have put the helmet on a seat of its own!

Not to provoke an off topic discussion, but as someone who rides (powered and under my own steam) and drives, a lot of problems would be solved if more people swapped two wheels for four. Cars kill. Bikes very rarely do. So almost any accommodation or incentivisation to encourage people into two wheels is good in my book.

[Charlottesquare]

No idea how he survives on that. My Council tax is circa £3,000 (appreciate he gets single person discount) my TV/Internet is circa £1,500, house insurance £600, Heat & Light now £3,000, gas checks/boiler etc maint £600. If I add costs re repairs (roof repair next month £960) and food/dishwasher tablets etc I would really be toiling and if cars added then £11k far too light.

I thought the two of us could live on £25,000 per year (12,500 each so no tax) but that would be no frills, few if any holidays, no Christmas gifts to grown up kids etc, and I decided we should be nearer £50k gross to not be nervous when the car needed replaced or we wanted to visit son in USA.

Maybe I am a spendthrift.

[Lootman]

No idea how he survives on that. My Council tax is circa £3,000 (appreciate he gets single person discount) my TV/Internet is circa £1,500, house insurance £600, Heat & Light now £3,000, gas checks/boiler etc maint £600. If I add costs re repairs (roof repair next month £960) and food/dishwasher tablets etc I would really be toiling and if cars added then £11k far too light.

I thought the two of us could live on £25,000 per year (12,500 each so no tax) but that would be no frills, few if any holidays, no Christmas gifts to grown up kids etc, and I decided we should be nearer £50k gross to not be nervous when the car needed replaced or we wanted to visit son in USA.

Maybe I am a spendthrift.

Yes, a grand a week for a couple sounds about right. More if you have a mortgage or rent, of course. Food, booze and household supplies probably runs us about £1,000 a month.

London/Devon.

[y0rkiebar]

No idea how he survives on that. My Council tax is circa £3,000 (appreciate he gets single person discount) my TV/Internet is circa £1,500, house insurance £600, Heat & Light now £3,000, gas checks/boiler etc maint £600. If I add costs re repairs (roof repair next month £960) and food/dishwasher tablets etc I would really be toiling and if cars added then £11k far too light.

I thought the two of us could live on £25,000 per year (12,500 each so no tax) but that would be no frills, few if any holidays, no Christmas gifts to grown up kids etc, and I decided we should be nearer £50k gross to not be nervous when the car needed replaced or we wanted to visit son in USA.

Maybe I am a spendthrift.

Your numbers are pretty high.
£1500 for TV/internet for example. 70mbps fibre broadband + freeview TV is £300 / year for me.
Boiler maintenance, just paid £85 for an annual boiler service, is £600 some kind of service contract ?

[Redmires]

Since retiring a couple of years ago I find that 'guilt' is my biggest issue. After 20 minutes sitting and reading a book etc I finding that I start fidgeting and feel I should be up and about and actually doing things. Is there any known cure for this ?

How about trying voluntary work?

I do a couple of days a week at an Upcycle charity (one volunteering and one paid), 2 days per month for Woodland Trust, 2 days a month at a repair cafe and a bit of gardening at the local library. Perhaps I'm not retired after all
No complaints though, I love my life (and wife).

[Redmires]

Not to provoke an off topic discussion, but as someone who rides (powered and under my own steam) and drives, a lot of problems would be solved if more people swapped two wheels for four. Cars kill. Bikes very rarely do. So almost any accommodation or incentivisation to encourage people into two wheels is good in my book.

As a fellow biker, cyclist and driver, do you not mean 'four wheels for two' ?

[UncleEbenezer]

Not to provoke an off topic discussion,

Erm ...

but as someone who rides (powered and under my own steam) and drives, a lot of problems would be solved if more people swapped two wheels for four. Cars kill. Bikes very rarely do. So almost any accommodation or incentivisation to encourage people into two wheels is good in my book.

My suggestion: demonstrated experience in traffic on two wheels should be a precondition for getting a driving licence for four. Just so drivers have some awareness of issues faced by those smaller than themselves.

Just as you need to be qualified to drive a car before you can train for HGV or PSV.

[Lootman]

My suggestion: demonstrated experience in traffic on two wheels should be a precondition for getting a driving licence for four. Just so drivers have some awareness of issues faced by those smaller than themselves.

Funnily enough I have often noticed that the most mindless criticism of drivers tends to come from cyclists who do not drive.

Funny that.

[UncleEbenezer]

My suggestion: demonstrated experience in traffic on two wheels should be a precondition for getting a driving licence for four. Just so drivers have some awareness of issues faced by those smaller than themselves.

Funnily enough I have often noticed that the most mindless criticism of drivers tends to come from cyclists who do not drive.

Funny that.

What, from children and students? I can't bring to mind an adult cyclist who isn't also at least occasionally a driver. It's the converse who tend to be mindless.

[csearle]

Moderator Message:
The subject is Retired and living on £11k a year – this is how I spend my money. Please could we stick with that lest we get even further off-topic. Thanks. - Chris

[GoSeigen]

The Graun trying to persuade readers that English students live on 50p per week after paying their rent.

"University students in England ‘have 50p a week to live on after rent’"

My son was refused a maintenance student loan because his UK-born citizen parents have a foreign address. So I guess he lives and pays his rent on 0p. That's quite a trick!


GS

[CliffEdge]

Internet £120 a year. TV - whatever the BBC licence is now, don't look, DD around £180 pa?
Library membership - free. Sea view - free.

[didds]

Impressive but presumably possible only because he appears to have no housing costs, not even council tax.

How is he avoiding council tax given he owns his own house etc ? Thats not a dig, I dont see how he manages that? (or I missed it in the article!)

[didds]

My suggestion: demonstrated experience in traffic on two wheels should be a precondition for getting a driving licence for four. Just so drivers have some awareness of issues faced by those smaller than themselves.

Funnily enough I have often noticed that the most mindless criticism of drivers tends to come from cyclists who do not drive.

Funny that.

and that the most mindless criticism of cyclists tends to come from drivers who do not cycle.

anyway, back to living on 11K a year.

Im somewhat impressed that that is feasible. But (and i appreciate this is all down to individual choices anyway) cat treats and Lidl pizzas when your budget is low?

[didds]

Internet £120 a year. TV - whatever the BBC licence is now, don't look, DD around £180 pa?
Library membership - free. Sea view - free.

being fair I would suggest "internet" is almost a necessity in this day and age - see other discussions about the disnefranchisement from banking and energy etc if one doesn't have web access.

TV licence personally I wold agree is a total luxury

[didds]

Now if you'd said you'd self identified as a motorcyclist and that a crash helmet was an essential part of that self identification you could have had the bastard for infringing on your right to self identify.

"Doctor's orders. It's for my medical condition. Your management won't be wanting to get slapped with a Disability Discrimination lawsuit."

whoever invented this rule at that cinema hasn't really thought it through.

In effect they have now lost the trade of anybody that only owns a m/cycle and has no public transport available. That may be a small demographic in reality, but nonetheless it is still lost trade

I would really be interested in whether the same helmet rule applies to cyclists and cycle helmets.

[ lets not start a drivers versus cyclists diatribe now.... ]

[UncleEbenezer]

Funnily enough I have often noticed that the most mindless criticism of drivers tends to come from cyclists who do not drive.

Funny that.

and that the most mindless criticism of cyclists tends to come from drivers who do not cycle.

anyway, back to living on 11K a year.

Im somewhat impressed that that is feasible. But (and i appreciate this is all down to individual choices anyway) cat treats and Lidl pizzas when your budget is low?

My spending excluding exceptional things[1] is in the ballpark of half that. Including eating quite well, meals and drinks out, etc. If I had to tighten the belt (as I have several times in my life) it could be much less than that.

£11k would be tight if you had rent to pay.

[1] Like house repairs. Or holidays, once I get around to having my first since lockdown.

[Tedx]

My mother lived quite happily on her state pension and I know of many others that do.

She had ate well (although not very much!), heated her 1 bed flat, had her Freeview, went to her bingo twice a week (local club bingo not the national/chain bingo), where she had a social drink or 2 with her mates (again, club prices), bought 2 newspapers a day for her crosswords. She didn't have a car (everything was bought local - butchers, bakers, paper shop, local Co-op etc), if she need to go anywhere we would take her....but she did have a free buspass if needed. She was entitled to free prescriptions, eye tests etc. No rent to pay, but she did pay council tax.

She was happy with her lot.