October has been a very eventful month financially, in comparison to a normal month. This is mainly because I turned 60, finally received two small pension lump sums and small monthly pension payments are now just around the corner. (Hopefully, from November onwards) This means that I will no longer be using savings to live on, on a month to month basis and I will also have a little more income than I've had for the past year.
I'm looking forward to this new phase of life and it does mean that there will be a little more money available for the odd day out, exhibition ticket, theatre trip, sewing course, etc. As a consequence, I've decided to create another sinking fund that I pay into each month for just this kind of occasion and to pay for new glasses or dental treatment. I'll still be putting money aside each month towards birthday/Xmas gifts to ensure that I have the money I need at the time I need it, but a separate fund will be useful to draw from, just to enjoy my life and the time I have available to me a little more.
It's been a very frugal year in many respects and I've had to keep tight control of my finances. It's not been that difficult, but there have been things I've wanted to do, that I just really didn't have the money for, so I'm hoping that this fund and having my free travel card, will make it easier to do those things and will also stop me frittering away income every month on unimportant or unnecessary things.
I'm not really looking to increase my savings too much going forward, but I will be depositing a little bit here and there where I can afford it, just to give me a bit more security for the future. I doubt that this will be much, as there isn't really much scope for it these days, but I may rearrange some of my existing savings to facilitate more income going forward. The reason for this being that my bank has reduced the interest on my ISA savings by 1%, which does make a bit of a difference. As a consequence, I will probably be transferring some of my savings elsewhere, where I can possibly get a better return.
At some point in the future, I will also need to think about starting to spend my savings, as the whole point of accruing them was to help support me in retirement. However, going from saving to spending feels like a difficult thing to do, so I'm not sure when I'll feel completely ready to do this.
With regard to the monthly budget, October has been a slightly more expensive month than normal, for a few reasons. My allotment fees were due costing £35, I paid £36 for my new travel card and spent probably over £20 on postage and Post Office services to send off some documentation for my pension, which is nearly £100 of extra expenditure. In spite of this, I've managed to keep within my means this month. I've spent a bit on gifts for Xmas, but this has come out of my Xmas sinking fund and there's only a couple of areas where I've gone slightly over budget this month.
Going into November, I'm not entirely sure what my income will be. This will depend on whether both pensions start to be paid to me and how much I am taxed on them. If they do both get paid, I should have a little more income, if not, I may have a little less. However, there aren't any large expenses on the horizon.
I will be focussing any spending in November on buying Xmas presents, to try to get them all bought by the end of the month if I can, before it gets busy in the shops. I'm just waiting on lists from OH and LB, so I make sure to buy them exactly what they need or want. I've also got the odd inexpensive day out planned too, which I'll blog about when the time comes.
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