My husband and I are pensioners on £1,700 a month – but we feel incredibly rich

In our Pension Diaries series, we speak to people of all ages in the UK to find out how much or how little they have saved for retirement and the realities of putting money aside for your future.

Today, we speak to Sarah Butler, 67, who lives in Norfolk and is married to Rodney. Sarah was affected by a brain issue for the majority of her life and despite working on and off, she has no private pension at all and just receives the state pension. She reveals how she feels rich as they can afford everything they want in life.

What’s your pension situation and your working life?

I have been affected by illness ever since I was a child, so although I do hardly anything for money, I don’t consider myself retired, as I am still in a working frame of mind.

I had a problem with my brain which could only be resolved when I was in my late thirties when the right drug was invented. I worked in many varied spheres and I was not able to train or get educated or focus on any one particular thing until a lot later in life.

I did lots of jobs on and off. For example, for seven years, I had my own domestic employment agency, providing anything from milking a goat to pruning fruit trees and providing housekeeping or childcare duties.

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It can be far easier to seek an internal promotion rather than a new job elsewhere

The statistics

A trend of ‘job hugging’

12%

In January, available vacancies were down 12 per cent compared to a year prior.

According to the ONS it marked 39 consecutive quarters of decline.

51%

of UK employees plan to stay in their current roles, as Employment Hero’s first Annual Jobs Report shows. Four in 10 say competition is too high to take the risk.

So how can you improve your current situation without leaving?

Learn to humble brag

Your wins don’t always speak for themselves. Share them. Jump into conversations beyond your usual remit. How people see you today shapes the opportunities that come your way tomorrow. Even small updates can have an outsized impact.

VICTORIA MCLEAN, CEO OF CITY CV AND AN EXPERT IN CV AND PROFILE WRITING

Make your case – with data

Keep a log

The chances of your boss remembering what you achieved in Q1 by December is low so keep a success log.

Treat it as a proposal

Show impact, link it to organisational goals,
and outline future
value, says McLean.

Don’t be shy

Ask your boss directly what you need to do to be promoted in the next six to 12 months.

Offer solutions to problems

Ask yourself: what keeps your organisation awake
at night?

Solve those problems and you shift from just doing your job to being a strategic asset.

Sharing your ideas and views with the people above you can really prove what you’re capable of.

Proactively initiate new projects
or processes.

 It ‘s daunting but getting people to see you in a more elevated position before you get there is really effective.

Ask for training

It’s a fantastic signal to show how serious you are about your development. 

As careers are no longer linear, a promotion may not be in your current role, but perhaps in the same company in a broader role.

Do some digging to find out what else might be available in other areas.

How to resolve the biggest rows that can end marriages

Private school, sex and housework can be some of the biggest causes of tension between warring couples.

Mike Talbot, a psychologist, and chief executive of UK Mediation [below], reveals how to fix them.

What couples row over

Parenting and schooling

Psychologist Mike Talbot says parenting can expose ideological differences in a couple. He encourages people to listen to each other, and find a “third way”, something that they come up with between themselves, rather than sticking to one person’s opinion.

OPINION

3 min read

Money (or a lifestyle)

It’s common for couples to disagree on their property or finances.

Couples might have different ideas about what the best plan of action is for the future.

Dr Talbot says its important to find “common ground” on what both parties wish for, or worry about.

Agony Uncle

5 min read

Incompatibilities around sex

Dr Talbot has seen this when one person loses their sex drive. “It can happen when the couples get older, and she loses her sex drive during menopause, whereas the guy’s still as randy as he was when he was 20.”

Domestic workload

We get people disagreeing about how tidy the house should be, how neatly dressed the kids should be… 

This goes back to the gender stereotypes.

The solution is to focus on value and to get the couple to think about the conflict in a different way.

Being a grandparent
is complicated

Celia Dodd, who looks after her grandchildren two days a week, says
there’s a fine line between being supportive and interfering.

Here she shares the things she’d never say or do with her own family.

What grandparents should never do

Ignore parents rules

It’s important to know what’s expected rather than second-guessing what the parents want, and possibly getting it wrong.

Send endless snaps

Friends understandably get irritated if you keep sending photos and long videos, especially if they’re longing for grandchildren of their own.

What not to say

I wouldn’t do it like that…

The golden rule for grandparents – don’t offer advice unless it’s asked for, and never interfere – is almost impossible to get right.

You might feel like – how can you not interfere when you’re doing your best to support the family? It’s a fine line, and there are times when you’re bound to get it wrong.

What grandparents should never do

Assume involvement

Although it’s a shock, it’s simply not on to drop in whenever you feel like it.

Beat yourself up

Being a grandparent is never 100 per cent bliss, despite what people say. Childcare can be boring as well as fulfilling.

Admit tiredness

I don’t want them to stop asking me to babysit, and I certainly don’t want them suggesting I’m doing too much.

What grandparents should never do

Forget the years fly

Grandparents have to keep finding new ways to keep the connection close, by tapping into what your grandchild loves doing. 

Dismiss the parents

Even if you don’t agree with the way things are done – like using gentle parenting –
it’s a big help to understand why they are doing it rather than just dismiss them.

The price, size and variety of eggs differ

But which is the best value
for money and taste?

Food Editor Sophie Morris
tested 15 supermarket packs, scrambled and fried.

Her findings? The most expensive wasn’t the best.

Supermarket eggs taste test

M&S Golden Yolk Eggs

These shells win the beauty contest and the yolk colour is amazing when scrambled. 4/5

Taste the Difference

These Sainsbury’s eggs taste as good as they look with gorgeous orange middles and a rich flavour. 4/5

St Ewe Rich Yolk Eggs

These are “higher welfare” free-range eggs but the yolks taste no better than other high-end eggs, says Morris. 4/5

Supermarket eggs taste test

Aldi Golden Yolk Eggs

Winner! The Specially Selected eggs are a great price with a delicious yolk. 4/5

Savers Small Eggs

Morrisons Savers eggs are great for the price (£1.10) but not rich in flavour. 3/5

Burford Brown Eggs

They taste great, but not noticeably better than the other high-end eggs. The spend is more to do with branding. 4/5

Supermarket eggs taste test

7Tesco Finest Bluebell Aruacana
The pale blue shells won me over but the insides are just as rewarding with a rich flavour.
4/5

8Waitrose Duchy Organic Eggs
Their sunny yellow middle scrambles beautifully into light, fluffy folds.
4/5

9Lidl Deluxe Golden Yolk Eggs
They’re a great deal and the yolk is a lovely bright orange and the taste is rich and eggy.
3.5/5 

Supermarket eggs taste test

M&S British Free Range Eggs

Large eggs with brown shells and a light orange yolk and they’re a great price for high-welfare large eggs. 4/5

Ocado Large Free Range Eggs

These are the best value large eggs that I try. The yolks are a dark yellow and the eggs turn out a lovely rich and fluffy scramble. 4/5

Supermarket eggs taste test

Packington British Free Range Eggs

Pretty white eggs with a yellow yolk that taste fine but, given the price, I expected a little more. 3.5/5

Supermarket eggs taste test

Waitrose No.1 Longstock Gold Eggs

They are delicious: meltingly rich, they scramble into fat folds. They have beautiful green shells, almost too pretty to eat. 4/5

Asda Organic Mixed Size Eggs

The yolk is a pale yellow and when scrambled the result is an unappealing yellowish grey colour. These are the most bland-tasting of the lot. 2/5

Food inflation could reach as much as 10 per cent by the end of 2026

Why you should stockpile

The modern food system is incredibly efficient – but that efficiency depends on a constant flow and just-in-time delivery. Stockpiling, at its best, isn’t panic buying. It’s creating a small buffer between us and a system that was never designed to pause.

Séamus Higgins, author of Food and Us: The incredible story of how food shapes humanity

What you should consider buying

Bottled water

While we are accustomed to free-flowing water, in recent years, supply has failed for a number of days in many areas of the UK.

Canned essentials

Morris keeps tomatoes, beans, pulses, chickpeas, lentils and fish in her cupboard.

Tea and coffee

As prices vary, and are increasing, it’s good to bulk buy if you can.

What you should stockpile

Dried goods

A base of dry goods, like rice, pasta, oats and flour, are the backbone of a reliable pantry. Make sure bags are stored correctly and replace them when they go out of date.

UHT drinks

UHT dairy, squash and long life milks and juices are worth keeping for emergencies.

What you should stockpile

A well-stocked freezer is also important, but it doesn’t need to be a huge space.

Focus on versatility and rotation in fruit, veg, fish and bread, and buy what you’ll use.

Peanut butter, or a jarred treat like jam or Nutella, is also a good idea.

Nut butters are a great source of protein, fibre, has a long shelf life and can be used on savoury and sweet foods.

I did work in many jobs, but the problem with my brain restricted my ability to do jobs and to function. I did not have the brain capacity to think in a more joined-up way and I literally went from one job to another until I got married and had children.

I am now a trained gardener who does biodiversity gardening, but I hardly ever do any paid work. I have a research garden for biodiversity, so my drivers are other things, rather than money.

I have had long Covid for the last few years and am a householder, a wife, a mother and grandmother. I was asked to become one of the trustees for Norfolk Naturalists’ Society and am one of the chairs for events and education, so that takes up a lot of time.

What is the total amount you receive in pensions?

As a result of family chaos and my life, I haven’t got a pension at all – apart from the state pension. It is the same for my husband.

I never saved for a pension because I didn’t have the brain power to think about it. Also, I was never in a job long enough to have a pension or was self-employed.

So the only pension we both get is our state pension, and the total we receive between us is about £1,700 a month.

How do you make your money last?

We feel very wealthy and believe that having fewer choices makes our life richer. We do not feel hard done by or lacking in any way or desperate in shape or form.

We may have zero pension pot between us and only have the state pension, but we feel wealthy in so many ways. We have a very wonderful life of bees, plants, cooking, friends, entertaining, reading and studying.

We can afford our rent, we can run a car, we can heat our home and we eat well.

As a result of not having loads of choices, we feel more relaxed. I am very environmentally conscious so the thought of flying off for a month to Australia or any exotic place on holiday is not something I want, so it makes our life so much more peaceful and easier. We have a very light footprint on this Earth compared with most people in the West.

We don’t own a home and rent a three-bedroom house, and are lucky as our rent is low. We budget sensibly and we are happy on that money. We would rather have a casserole or stew which costs us £2 or £3 and lasts all week and have that flexibility to pay all our bills and put some money aside.

We have a very cheap car and spend as little as possible replacing cars. When we need to buy a car, we only spend about £1,000 on one and we run that into the ground. But we look after it and have it serviced and maintained and have all our insurances.

We do old-fashioned cooking, repairing and upkeep. We have no debt and would sooner spend a penny less instead of spending a penny more than we have.

We buy a lot of secondhand stuff, but we don’t go without. We have holidays that we can afford and we budget for them. We don’t go abroad because of the environmental impact but we look for deals around the UK and what appeals to us.

We eat a lot of wholesome food, which only costs a few pounds to make and lasts most of the week, so that saves us a lot on our food budget. But we do buy things like good-quality olive oil and don’t scrimp. We don’t smoke and if I want any alcohol, it has to come out of our budget.

We can heat our home and are never cold. We have oil heating and put aside money each month with an oil company. We also put aside savings each month for emergencies, a holiday and the next car.

What is your attitude to money and pensions?

We do feel rich when it comes to money as we live within our means and we budget and manage well with our state pensions.

My husband had three children and then we had two together and there are five grandchildren. All the children have left home and we just have joy and laughter in our lives and don’t feel we need a lot of money in retirement to have a rich life.

We don’t feel resentment about what we don’t have – we feel joy at what we do have.

We are not being smug – this is just our reality. We don’t go around beaming at everything. We live in the real world and are just as burdened by modern reality as anyone else.

But we look after ourselves and each other and other people and don’t feel resentment or expectations of things that would put us in debt.

Do you have any pension regrets?

I have no regrets about pensions as I live in the here and now and don’t see the point in thinking backwards.

We are extremely lucky in this country. We have the triple lock with the state pension at the moment, but even if something was altered, we would take our philosophy of cutting our cloth accordingly.

My life is rich as I live with the ideal husband and we also have our own interests and work. My husband volunteers as a Samaritan and studies. My interests are working outside and doing the naturalist work and contributing to the village where we live.

My advice to people would be to focus on the real values in life and try to avoid building a lifestyle that you can’t afford to carry into retirement.

Would you like to be featured in Pension Diaries? E-mail: Aasma.day@theipaper.com