Have you got to this stage of life ?

I have a friend who is so frugal it's painful to watch. She never buys anything for herself. She only shops at 4pm when the yellow ticketed items arrive. The happiness she gets when buying food that is about to go out of date is immeasurable. She will happily eat out of date food. Waste isn't a concept she knows of. All well be good and she's happy but I find it exhausting. She always trying to barter people down.

We're lucky enough to have enough to live happily on and spend, bit in a reckless fashion, but enough to have extras

It’s taken me a few weeks get a cleaner here, mainly guilt that I should be doing it, but after hip palaver I can’t yet and partly the cost- echoes of my mother.
She came yesterday, should have done it sooner.

My irish mam used to say "there's no hitch on a hearse"

I’ve always been ‘a spender’. It’s in my nature to splurge.
Shame really as I have champagne tastes and lager money but 🤷‍♀️

If I’ve 10p in my pocket I have to spend it has pretty much always been my mantra.

I love buying presents as ‘thank you’s’ for my friends and I’m generous with family but do so discreetly. I never tell friends what I treat my family to. As Himself used to say “it’s not about blowing our own trumpets but it definitely is about giving them some dignity as they have friends too and so it’s better to be discreet.”

We are that post war generation, a time when people had to be careful and creative with their resources.
We weren't tempted by advertising pressure as much as the current generation.
My parents and grandparents were all very practical people who could turn their hands to anything.
A lot of this has rubbed off on me. (And I am Scottish born.)
If I can make something, I am delighted to do that, rather than buy it, so that tipped the balance recently for me when I was considering the purchase of a high end sewing machine.
On the one hand it was expensive; I wondered if it was too extravagant; was it worth it given how old I am, ; was I worth it!
On the other hand I thought of all the hours of fun I would have upgrading to a more reliable machine, and that I might live another twenty years, and then, quite frankly I just thought Sod it! And my frugality was banished.
I have had it about 6 months and have not regreted it for one minute .
I think we have probably all worked hard enough over the years to have earned a little treat now and again.
No one can know what tomorrow will bring, so we might as well enjoy today while we can.

How right you are Fallingstar!

I have a friend who to me, is dripping in money. She and her DH both inherited property located in capital city rom parents. Yet, you'd think they didn't tuppence. I get so annoyed listening to her conversations on how much everything costs, they only go to small air bnbs for their holidays, driving everywhere. Would never go abroad, flights too expensive and they'd have to buy meals whereas staying in UK they can take a lot of food with them. I asked if she'd like to go to a show, all up for it until I showed her the cost of tickets. Some folk will have pockets in their shroud, me if I think I'd like something and can afford it, I go for it. As my mum used to say, "you're a long time dead, enjoy youself now".

I have been careful with my money all my life as we had a hard upbringing, never hungry or homeless but things were tight!
My parents left me some money as they had their own properties eventually and I worked hard to get an occupational pension !
Now I am still careful, refuse to be ripped off but if I want to go away I do! But I still save every month! It is ingrained into me!

It’s tricky to gauge how much to spend from the pension pot as non of us know exactly how long it needs to last for

Marzipan22

I've lived on the breadline for years and managed by not having a car or holidays or treats, but it's been fine because living in Cornwall is a daily joy in so many ways anyway. The beaches are free. However, a strange turn of events means I now have some extra funds so I can afford to take trains to places, go to the cinema and buy decent shoes and M&S salmon. 😂

Oh, marzipan what was the turn of events?

grandMattie

I had, a rather substantial sum of money for holidays, meals out etc.
A couple of years ago, I idiotically handed it all over to spammers. The financial ombudsman decided it was all my fault, the bank behaved impeccably…
So now, I’m managing on my pension with enough not to struggle, but I feel rather like a student, watching (almost) every penny. It can be very tiresome.
What will happen when I need a care home, goodness knows?

Really? That is awful grandmatti. It could happen to any one of us as these scammers are so clever with this AI. Its truly frightening 😩

SpinDriftCoastal

I make sure I am comfortable i.e. clothes that fit, shoes that I can walk in, a bed I can lie on, and a chair I can sit it. Taps. toilets, showers, etc that work. Those are my priorities.

Absolutely 👍🏻

I spend too. Coffee out today, saw a lipstick I liked and just ordered it online. I treat my family as well.
I realise some people are not in my position though.

No I am not, nor will I ever be.

Totally agree DeeAitch56. I've been retired 10 years and have mostly spent my savings on what I want. However, they are now dwindling and I am having to tighten my belt. I would like a newer car but can't afford it. I can no longer afford foreign holidays so haven't renewed my passport. Rarely buy new clothes or shoes. It particularly irks me that I now have to pay tax on my small income. I'm just over the limit for claiming pension credit and all the associated benefits and I'm worse off than I would have been if I hadn't had a small workplace pension!

Snowball I no longer go abroad for holidays but I have renewed my passport. I use it for identification purposes. I no longer drive and didn't renew my driving licence when I was 75.

Sorry, I intended to type * Snowball* not Snowball.

I see it's happened again. It must be predictive text changing what I type.

Marzipan22

I've lived on the breadline for years and managed by not having a car or holidays or treats, but it's been fine because living in Cornwall is a daily joy in so many ways anyway. The beaches are free. However, a strange turn of events means I now have some extra funds so I can afford to take trains to places, go to the cinema and buy decent shoes and M&S salmon. 😂

Good! Sounds brilliant

I’m sure the question of whether to spend more or continue saving is something that everyone of a certain age agonises over, and as we don’t know what the future holds it’s an impossible question to answer.

Will we need care at some point? What is certain is that if care is needed, even a substantial amount of savings or even an investment property or two would disappear very quickly.
Care homes charge at least £1,500 a week, £72,000 a year.
If we both need that level of care, it’s an eye watering amount.

Of course not everyone needs care in old age, but no matter how relatively fit and healthy we are for our age, who knows what’s round the corner, and wouldn’t everyone want to be in a financial position to choose a home or care package to suit them ?

As against that of course is the argument that life is for living and retirement is the perfect time to put ourselves first and spend on anything that brings us joy regardless of the cost.

I live quite frugally as my boiler, car and roof are all on borrowed time and they are far more important than holidays, clothes or eating out.

Like JodieB - I too would like to know , what was the strange turn of events Marzipan - I’m just nosey

We’ve got more years behind us than we have in front. Enjoy your money what are you waiting for.

My DH recently suffered a fall (not terribly serious in the grand scheme of things,) but it took away his confidence in climbing the stairs and soon after even in walking. Two months on and he is still struggling, though improving very very slightly. As a result we have carers 4 times a daily to do whatever he needs. Initially it was to get him out of bed and toilet him, but now they concentrate on getting him to walk around the house with his rollator. Because we are self-funding the visits cos £40 a time x 4 a day so over £1,100 a week, i.e. not far off £60k a year. We certainly don't have that sort of spare money coming in, so it will eat into our savings almost as much as full time in a residential home. Six months ago there was no indication of this being our lot in life and we don't have many years' worth of savings to last very long.

Until this happened we imagined we had plenty of dosh to support us both for some years in care homes but we were clearly very wrong.

So unless you have capital of at least a million, you are probably wasting your time thinking you will be okay in your dotage. And of course we are too late to give money to our DDs as it will be regarded as "deprivation of assets" - and I have seen some of the council-run care homes and wouldn't put a dog in them.

I've seen fst worse in privately run homes, for all their pretty rooms and and matching beďding.