M
Moll Flanders
Guest
I've managed to knock about £10 off my grocery budget this week by cutting down on alcohol. I have started exercising every day so I thought that I might be undoing the good work by drinking too much!
I've managed to knock about £10 off my grocery budget this week by cutting down on alcohol. I have started exercising every day so I thought that I might be undoing the good work by drinking too much!
I will just put this here for a laugh.Why are families earning £50,000 broke at the end of the month? | Daily Mail Online I have been reading about this article all over the place over the last week.
My main takeaway from that article is that kids are expensive
(Obviously, I already knew that, but it's frustrating as hell that even people on the average UK income can't afford the average number of children without running into financial problems)
Hmm, I had a far more judgemental attitude when I first read the article.
ETA - Most of them could make a lot of savings if they wanted to. Isn't that ridiculously high for the first family, per month?
UTILITY BILLS (including gas, electric, home phone, mobile phones, broadband, insurance and council tax): £1,180
I'm pretty good with the groceries. It's the eating out, traveling, concert going, book buying and clothes shopping that do me in, hehe.Groceries are my biggest expense and I really suck at shopping for deals. [emoji31]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm pretty good with the groceries. It's the eating out, traveling, concert going, book buying and clothes shopping that do me in, hehe.
Great thread, folks. I need to budget more than I do and I'm looking at that You Need a Budget site. If any of you use it, I'd love to know your opinion. Basically we'd like to save more - a lot more - than we currently do for retirement. It's funny, neither one of us are big spenders on little stuff, but we eat out A LOT and our annual vacation when Kelly goes to camp is usually quite nice. (And Kelly's camp is expensive - $3000/yr).
Still, retirement is a worry. I have't worked in 20 years (other than to sell a painting here and there), so it's all been on hubster to get us there. We got a 30 year mortgage on the house we bought 3 years ago, but we're scheduled to pay it off in 9 years when DH is 65 and he wants to stop working the kind of job he has now, which is in software sales. He travels a lot and it gets old.
Neither one of us is likely to inherit anything substantial.
So yeah, I'll be interested to see what this discussion brings.
I haven't used YNAB myself, but I have heard really good things about it. I went old school and just started writing down every expense with pen and paper at first and then tried to reduce what I could.
This thread is actually a helpful reminder to me as my grocery budget has crept up over the past year. We were saving up to move house and when we didn't our savings rate dropped.
These are some good early retirement blogs and I regularly read a few of them. The Best Early Retirement Blogs They obviously focus on ER but the advice can apply to retirement generally.
It was actually a thread on this forum that gave me the idea about retiring early. I had it in my mind as something to focus on one day and then my husband got cancer and I started taking it very seriously. The rule for the number you need is 4% or 25 x your expenses.
US - Meet Mr. Money Mustache, who retired at 30. | Vegetarian and Vegan Forums @ Veggie Views
Well, pretty much says a lot about me, doesn't it! I hardly ever eat out, I don't travel or go to concerts, I don't read...so my hobby is eating! Lololol
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have a cousin in the US who retired when she was only 53. However, she received a huge amount of money from her firms stocks and also had 2 inheritances. I don't know whether she is now entitled to a state pension as I don't know how the US system works. However, she has no financial problems and is studying to have another career in a different field.
There is a social security system in the US. I don't really know the ins and outs of it.
I think it seems easier to retire early in the US (compared to the UK) as there are more vehicles for investment there. I have ended up reading a lot about the US system as most people on the retirement forums are American. There is the big issue of the cost of health care there though, of course.
I will put MMM here again as there is so much helpful info on there for people in the US.
Frequently Asked Questions
When I applied for my pension over here, I was told that I would have to wait until I was 65 to be able to claim the UK pension. I have previously worked in the UK but am not sure what kind of sum(if possible) I would obtain.
I'm not sure what happens when people work abroad for some of their life, but you can now check your UK state pension forecast online. Check your State Pension - GOV.UK