Lost way

I have seriously lost my blogging groove lately. Life seems very bogged down at present.  I have put a ban on the national news as that has made it worse. Just leave the EU!!!

Why such a down?  We have thought and thought but can see no economies that will pave the way to a more comfortable life in the next 6 to 12 months.  We need to decorate, want carpets upstairs (4 years of varnished and painted boards) and the lounge carpet has a bare patch, sofas are hanging their springs out the bottoms, need new duvets and a new bed. We will need new clothes next year as we have just about exhausted all the clothes left from better years and recent charity shop finds.

We have given up our river mooring and are selling our boat. That should save £30 a month?  But we don't want the capital regained to go on the "everyday".
We have been through the electric, oil and water bills and we seem to be low users and on lowest tariff. We keep an eye on things and keep as to as low use as possible and within budget.
Our food bill has remained constant for the last 4 years, we are not spending more and our absorbing rising prices by eating less, making things go further and going for basic brands.
Our Sky bill has gone up but there is no reasonable alternative. Though there are days when I feel like throwing in the towel on TV altogether - that really would save a lot.
Our council tax is £1200 a year and we have just too much savings for reductions/benefits and likely to rise in April.
Our motoring costs are stable with low car tax, insurance and no repairs expected.
We have just come to the end of an expensive round of dentists and opticians bills and that should be OK for 12 to 24 months now.

If only we were getting some income of worth from our savings!! Oh for those past years when having savings meant the high interest rates was there to help. Current politics seem to be making prospect of interest rise on savings impossible to contemplate.

So what to do? We have tried optimism and how we are lucky to be healthy, warm and happy.  Not helping. We are struggling to find the money for a load of logs and the oil tank is pretty low.  We really should not have had a holiday this year.  Only good result is duff wood we have inherited on moving here is finally hitting the fire!

Our discussions so far have been about ideas of buying a second property to let.

We could get a mortgage and a one bed flat would give us at least £1000 a year income after expenses. Is it worth the stress of tenants? One new boiler and we would not get anything out of it.
We could get a bigger mortgage and a holiday home with a higher income.  But we worked it out that it would not be much more that the £1000 for less risk.

Are we ready to throw in our lot with the kids and ask for an annex on their next moves?

Our discussions next will have to be about making money from doing stuff creatively. Not just selling odd tomatoes at gate as that did not go well this year (£25 only). I could get my Folksy shop re stocked?  Husband could use his woodworking skills?  Small investments versus risk?  We are constantly encouraging entrepreneur efforts in our children, so perhaps its time to get back in the fray ourselves?

More thoughts needed.  Last alternative is spend all our savings and then throw ourselves under the Benefit top up train.  Another reason to turn off the news - the whole benefit system as reported sounds like a nightmare!!

Oh don't bother sending any fraudsters our way; its hard work getting a penny out of us for anything but basics and a fraudster has got no chance here!

Having got that off my chest, I feel better and may be able to get back to blogging about the good things in our retirement lives soon.  Cheers.