With our current saving at £794,I must mention outlet shops. This is a fantastic way of keeping yourself(or more likely, your partner/wife) well-dressed on a small budget. One of the most well-known is probably Bicester Village near Oxford-- huge, rambling shopping centre where all sorts of designer and well-known labels are half price or less- you do extra well if you are a size 10 or less so I am told --mind you, I then go and buy some reconditioned B and O sound system and Bang go our savings! Another less well-known place is Peruvian Connections in Henley, also an outlet shop. Since their clothes do not alter radically from one year to the next, it is possible to pick up absolute bargains and no one will know,say,£60 was paid for a £140 skirt because it was in last year's colours(if that matters to you--!!) The clothes are absolutely beautiful in a classic sort of way- perfect to mix with a little something from Primart, I'm told. Money saved there easily £150, total so far £944!

Well, I take it all back after seeing photos of that snowy-haired tight permed oap (see blog5) standing up against council tax. You suddenly realize what it is going to be like-- got a statement of a pension maturing shortly- last year it was worth over £3,000, this year it is down to £2,800 - and all those city people are spending their bonuses out of our savings -- am beginning to feel a bit like a grumpy old man-- reality is starting to bite as we realize our forthcoming pensions will never ever keep pace with inflation/council tax/electricity/phonebills/- name one useful thing that has come down in price and stayed down-- this blog is not about being depressed about retiring but i really do back these older people standing up for their beliefs - we may well end up doing the same --it is just that they are only 10 years older than us and yet look 20 years our seniors-- but that is probably just my wishful thinking! Ah well, back to thinking how to retire gracefully---

Life suddenly drops down a notch as we stay in Cornwall for a few days. The sirens are replaced by seagulls- the traffic hum by the waves . Here you actually feel and smell and see the seasons- in London it is quite weird at times--living where we do in London,we don't see any trees to speak of, or any wild life- the best things are the sunsets over the river in summer! We say hello to almost everybody in the village and slot into place- maybe it is because many people down here are finding alternative life styles, developing new ways of living -nobody sees the need to rush around-- maybe we should do the same --BUT-- we love London, always have, always shall, so it would be a difficult choice to make -- The air just smells so good here, the light is so clear, it doesn't feel wrong just to sit and read a book, or go for a cliff walk , the days go by so quickly --how can we do so little here compared with London, and still not have enough time in each day?!

Is there a day when suddenly we acquire waterproof jackets, extra-width comfortabel slip-ons, and Liz finds her hair sports a tight white perm? We turn up to see a National Trust House or the Dulwich Art Gallery on a week day, and we seem to be surrounded by senior people eating their proper old-fashioned sandwiches very slowly, accompanied by a flask of tea- no ciabattas or lattes here for sure. We  constantly appear to be the youngest people there by far---where are all the new retirees? Why do we always seem to be in the minority? Admittedly it is better at the Tate, and we did see a very very elderly lady in a most wonderful pair of vivid peacock blue velvet trousers- nearly stopped her to ask where she had aquired them--.
 No wonder one of our friends refuses to use his bus-pass on the grounds he doesnt want anyone to think he is over 60--- we pointed out that his pass is exactly like an oyster card so he doesn't need to let anyone see it--  he can't really be so rich he doesn't need the free travel which we shall also be enjoying  in a few months time.  That will be a real saving of more than £250 a year, bringing our total so far to £794!

1 Time to get magimix mended( it has been broken for 2 years)
2 Time to shop for fresh food every day.
3 Time to stretch out in the February sun and relish it.
4 Time to iron (unfortunately, says Liz).
5 Time to peel mushrooms and grapes ( 70s literary allusion---)
6 Time to read The God Delusion, (and then perhaps A Brief history--)
7 Time to replace the lightbulb in the side light (broken for 6 months)
8 Time to visit parents and actually enjoy their company instead of always needing to    rush back home.
9 Time to start learning conversational Chinese--- maybe not--
10 Time to make marmalade (see blog 2)
11 Time to walk in London parks during the week when they are blissfully empty
12 Time to mull over money-saving web sites like confused.com which yesterday saved us over £100 on our current car insurance,so total ammount saved so far stands at atleast £544 (now including oyster card savings from blog1's trip to Hamstead Heath)  : not bad for 4 days!!

Walking back from picking up aubergines from Pimlico market to make Moussaka for supper, I dropped into the library. Hushed silence, just the crackling of newspapers, the rumble of the photocopier every so often, the click of people exploring computers on-line , gentle murmers -there are such a wealth of things on offer there. Many people think you just  borrow books (and when you do, it is amazing what you find inside them-- old shopping lists with bizarre ingredients, a love letter, a 10 year old holiday poscard) -- but you can also hire dvds, and cds very cheaply. Using the library at least negates a small part of the enormous rates we pay. (Though I'm not adding that into my saving tally). Of course you can also read a multitude of newspapers and magazines. Now I'm not suggesting one stops getting the Times or whatever everyday  (mainly for the extra fiendish soduko which will keep one's retiring brain active!) BUT  I noticed that, not actually on display, but in a drawer behind the librarians desk, they keep
 Hello, as well as other very erudite publications SO here is my RetiringGracefully tip today for stretching money . Liz could still order her Vogue but, were she to only read Good Housekeeping and Hello in the library, and were i to read my Mac magazines, Good Food, etc there  we could probably save in excess of £400 a year ---

So, total saved so far, including marmalade-£440 AFTER TAX!

Last Thursday I made 7 or 8 jars of marmalade.I use a Delia Smith basic recipe which seems to be relatively fool-proof, although i do scrape a bit of extra pith in.I chop the oranges very carefully by hand as I don't personally like chunky stuff. The test for setting is not very reliable (cold plate and see if the jelly sets) but the more you make, the more instinctive it is, knowing when to take it off the boil. Anyway it bubbled away and the flat was filled with the most wonderful smell of oranges - (Liz says the only smell that comes vaguely near it is L'Occitaine's tangerine room fragrance,sorry about the ad!) We had bought the oranges from Pimlico market, beautiful shiny Seville ones, £1.50 for over a kilo. So, with the sugar, the whole cost of 8 pots of marmalade was about £2.20. So we made some more the next day---Liz says it is the best marmalade ever - so we have spent £4.80 and probably saved over £40 for our years supply of fantastic stuff-Result! Next stop, strawberry jam for our teatime sponge--- more of that later!!And the joy of looking at these jars, neatly labelled,filled with amber jelly and fine shreds of orange, topped with wax disc, is life-enhancing on a dull February day!

Well, this is all going to be very exciting! We are embracing a whole new world with gusto. Our best day last week was catching the number 24 bus from Pimlico all the way to Hampstead Heath. Sitting on top at the front of the bus, watching London roll by-- the sky was clear blue, the trees bare. Before walking, we had a delicious cappucino in a little cafe by the entrance to the Heath. What a remarkable place H.H is- very very beautiful, like being in the middle of the country, lots of people walking their dogs,(yet not ONE said good morning- strange because in Cornwall you are regarded as strange if you DON'T say good day)- these seemed strangely superior North London beings--. 2 hours later came off the heath, a 24 bus was waiting, jumped on and up to the front at the top for our journey home-- a wonderful day out that cost a mere £4 with our oyster cards (not including the coffees!)