Cutting down on your monthly expenses post-retirement
Collaborative Post
Once you’ve retired, you want to be able to enjoy life, and not worry about money. Even with all of your post-retirement financial plans, it’s natural to still worry about your financial security. One of the ways you can keep your finances easier to manage is to cut down your monthly expenses, helping your money to stretch further. You may even find you have some money left over for rainy day savings or to treat the grandchildren.
Here are some of the cuts you can make to reduce your monthly expenses.
Swap your car for a cheaper one
Cars can be a significant expense and could be your most expensive outgoing if you no longer have a mortgage or rent to worry about. Swapping your car for a cheaper model is a great way to cut down on your monthly bills.
Swapping to a cheaper car doesn’t have to mean settling for a car you don’t really want. There are some great used Audi cars and others that might have better finance deals than you’re paying for now. It’s worth exploring your options to see if you could land yourself a better deal.
Plan your food better to save on your food shopping
How much do you spend on food each week? If it’s more than you’re comfortable spending, then you may need to look at ways to cut it down. Planning your meals in advance is a fantastic way to make sure you only buy what you need, and will help you reduce your food waste too.
Batch cooking meals can be a good way to get more value out of your food shopping and means you’ll be able to freeze meals for those days when you’re short of time or aren’t up to cooking. There are lots of tasty batch cook recipes you can try that will help you get a little more organised with your food planning.
Reassess your memberships and subscriptions
Take a look through your memberships and subscriptions – you might find that there are some you can get rid of or change. Your gym membership could actually get reduced once you reach pension age, so that’s something to look at – or you could just do home workouts instead! You could also cut out the things you no longer use or need, helping you save a lot of money throughout the year.
Try to reduce your energy bills
There are different ways you can cut down on your energy bills, even with prices rising as they are. Switching suppliers can help you reduce your monthly payments, and using smart home devices such as smart heating and lighting could also help you cut down. There is a lot of useful energy advice for older people that can stop you from paying more than you need to.
With some simple cuts to your monthly spending, you can get more from your money to spend it on the things you really want. There are a lot of other effective ways of making your money go further, that can help you ease the pressure on your post-retirement finances and help you enjoy a happy and comfortable retirement.
Photo by Diana Parkhouse on Unsplash
