The Retirement Thread

[numbnuts]

Went into town and tried some shoes on.
The Brasher Country Classics were very nice - £120 in Millets.
https://www.millets.co.uk/15958046/brasher-men-s-country-classic-walking-shoe-15958046
Got back home and went onto the Millets eBay store. Same shoes - £90 with free P&P.
View attachment 588201
I ordered a pair.
No wonder that High St shops are struggling, when they are being shafted by their head offices online.

£90 on a pair of shoes....................now I know I'm poor

 

[oldwheels]

Turned out a nice sunny day despite the bad start so went out for a trike run. Cut it short tho' as too much traffic to be comfortable. Did not even go as far as the bad corner so only 3.5 miles. Strong headwind on the way out so got a bit of a workout as I start off uphill anyway and with a strong SW wind it increases the apparent gradient.
The resident male hen harrier was scouting around on a low bit of ground just below the end of the lochs.
I have seen one here in previous years so perhaps the same ones nesting in the same area.
Sitting up the garden in the sunshine the blackbirds defending territory get quite amusing sometimes. An interloper is seen off so far and that seems ok until it picks up something from the ground. "That is my grub so sod off or else" is the reaction.

 

[classic33]

£90 on a pair of shoes....................now I know I'm poor

Daren't try Blacks, the parent company, having been in their local shop last week. Clearance sale for Blacks, 1/3 off, but £50+ for a waterproof top is ridiculous.

 

[Mo1959]

£90 on a pair of shoes....................now I know I'm poor

Nearly all my running shoes cost at least that.

Another walk done. Another fly over of one of these funny helicopters which I believe are called Boeing Ospreys. Couple went over earlier too. A military exercise I understand.

 

[Paulus]

£90 on a pair of shoes....................now I know I'm poor

For a decent pair of shoes that's quite good. My leather walking boots cost over £200.

 

[numbnuts]

Nearly all my running shoes cost at least that.

For a decent pair of shoes that's quite good. My leather walking boots cost over £200.

I'm just glad I got good skin on me soles of my feet

 

[Tenkaykev]

£90 on a pair of shoes....................now I know I'm poor

Terry Pratchett nailed it :

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

For a decent pair of shoes that's quite good. My leather walking boots cost over £200.

I've never paid that much for a pair of shoes, I wouldn't pay that much for a pair of shoes.

 

[oldwheels]

Nearly all my running shoes cost at least that.

Another walk done. Another fly over of one of these funny helicopters which I believe are called Boeing Ospreys. Couple went over earlier too. A military exercise I understand.

There is a major NATO exercise going on where they are trying again to obliterate Cape Wrath.
One of the big slow planes which used to be Nimrods flew low over us yesterday and then turned over the low bit in the centre of Mull and down Loch na Keal.

 

[ColinJ]

I got lucky on today's lumpy little ride. I had seen that rain was forecast but thought I might get back before it started. I set off and climbed steeply up to Todmorden Moor, but soon dark clouds started to roll in. I felt a few spots of rain and didn't want to get caught in a deluge again like yesterday, so I turned and headed back. Not directly though, there were a couple of other places that I wanted to go on the way, including the obligatory stop for a Metro. Well, I managed to just avoid the rain... All the way home the roads showed signs of a recent downpour, but I completely avoided it this time. When I got back into the town centre I could see that half the town had been drenched and the other half was dry. I had been on the dry side for a change.

£90 on a pair of shoes....................now I know I'm poor

I felt the same way... I am so used to being hard up now that spending more than the minimum on things feels very stressful!

It is true about cheap crap though. My last couple of pairs of cheapo boots didn't last well, but what can you do? It is one thing knowing that something expensive is better value in the long run, but how does that help if you can't afford to buy it? I suppose that is what the 'Payday loans' ripoffs are all about... People who don't accept that they can't afford things buy them anyway, but end up in a financial nightmare a few months later.

Once I get my pension, things will improve and I will start replacing the worn-out boots etc.

I look back and can't believe how much money I used to spend without even a second thought. In 1999, annoyed at having missed the Pru Tour peloton tackle the Nick o' Pendle climb, I jogged to a nearby bike shop and decided to buy a new bike. They had some nice Bianchis for about £1,000. But then I saw the nicer Bianchis for £1,250. But they were not quite as tempting as the £1,500 ones. Ooh, that £1,750 bike looks just great. Oh blow it, what's the best one? They didn't have one of them in stock, but ordered a frame my size and built one for me for £2,000. Total time spent thinking about it, around 10 minutes... These days, I might spend hours trying to save £1 on a new inner tube!

 

[oldwheels]

I got lucky on today's lumpy little ride. I had seen that rain was forecast but thought I might get back before it started. I set off and climbed steeply up to Todmorden Moor, but soon dark clouds started to roll in. I felt a few spots of rain and didn't want to get caught in a deluge again like yesterday, so I turned and headed back. Not directly though, there were a couple of other places that I wanted to go on the way, including the obligatory stop for a Metro. Well, I managed to just avoid the rain... All the way home the roads showed signs of a recent downpour, but I completely avoided it this time. When I got back into the town centre I could see that half the town had been drenched and the other half was dry. I had been on the dry side for a change.


I felt the same way... I am so used to being hard up now that spending more than the minimum on things feels very stressful!

It is true about cheap crap though. My last couple of pairs of cheapo boots didn't last well, but what can you do? It is one thing knowing that something expensive is better value in the long run, but how does that help if you can't afford to buy it? I suppose that is what the 'Payday loans' ripoffs are all about... People who don't accept that they can't afford things buy them anyway, but end up in a financial nightmare a few months later.

Once I get my pension, things will improve and I will start replacing the worn-out boots etc.

I look back and can't believe how much money I used to spend without even a second thought. In 1999, annoyed at having missed the Pru Tour peloton tackle the Nick o' Pendle climb, I jogged to a nearby bike shop and decided to buy a new bike. They had some nice Bianchis for about £1,000. But then I saw the nicer Bianchis for £1,250. But they were not quite as tempting as the £1,500 ones. Ooh, that £1,750 bike looks just great. Oh blow it, what's the best one? They didn't have one of them in stock, but ordered a frame my size and built one for me for £2,000. Total time spent thinking about it, around 10 minutes... These days, I might spend hours trying to save £1 on a new inner tube!

The late Edward Enfield said that you should buy what you wanted just before you retire as he reckoned you would not be able to afford it once retired. He was I think a Director of Education so would have had a decent pension in those days. He wrote a few quite interesting accounts of his cycling adventures.

 

[ColinJ]

The late Edward Enfield said that you should buy what you wanted just before you retire as he reckoned you would not be able to afford it once retired.

Unfortunately, my mind retired me before official retirement... I decided that being poor was better than drinking myself to death or joining the poor souls flinging themselves from the Humber Bridge! (Looking back now, obviously other more positive options were available, but it didn't feel like that at the time.)

 

[welsh dragon]

Urgent message for @welsh dragon
Problem = you are looking for washing to try out your machine
Solution = I have just stripped the bed.

I am happy to leave bedding, bagged, on the drive.
All you have to do is collect, wash, dry and bring it back tomorrow morning.

No thanks needed.....I am happy to help out

You're too kind. Bugger off

 

[welsh dragon]

MrsD is back on the ward. She has had 2 cups of tea, a tuna sandwich and a digestive bicky. Sounds a bit weak as expected but generally in good spirits.

Glad to hear Mrs D is back on the ward Dave

 

[welsh dragon]

Hissing down with rain here and thunder as well.