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I feel really old now!

(83 Posts)
Riverwalk Fri 15-Jan-21 08:21:02

I've just received my first Winter Fuel Allowance - surely it only goes to very old vulnerable grannies, not me!

Don't know whether to laugh or cry grin

joysutty Sun 17-Jan-21 07:33:06

Yes, we thought perhaps we isn't need ours so much but this year the daily reading on small meter screen show 4.50p daily plus my husband constantly leaves lights on upstairs during the day. We are at home more or less all the time apart from a small walk + once a week grocery shoo. So Wil definitely need it this year that's for sure.

hollysteers Sun 17-Jan-21 00:15:51

Senior citizen is my choice of description.

lemongrove Sat 16-Jan-21 22:21:58

Yes Scribbles I think that’s exactly what it is.

lemongrove Sat 16-Jan-21 22:20:53

Jodieb

Do we all hate the term OAP!! I think we should be called Elderflowers! EF's for short. (grin)

Oh I like that? mind you I like anything with elderflower in it.?

Scribbles Sat 16-Jan-21 22:16:31

yggdrasil (and others): that £10 payment dates back to the time of the Edward Heath government of the early 1970s. It was introduced as a way of helping those living on meagre state pensions or certain other benefits to meet the cost of celebrating Christmas at a time of rising inflation. I think, at the time it was introduced, the value was more than a week's pension payment so it was worth having.

Not wanting to be seen as Scrooges by not paying out the same bonus the following year, the government - and all subsequent governments - let the annual payout continue.

I suspect they now can't afford to increase the amount to something more realistic but equally don't want the PR storm that would result from scrapping it.

Lizbethann55 Sat 16-Jan-21 18:21:54

I get my bus pass on Wednesday when I will be 66. I had to get the bus home from work yesterday. I felt so cross at having to pay!

hollysteers Sat 16-Jan-21 15:40:20

I’m hopeless with numbers and often write the wrong year on a cheque (and not just at the turn of the year...) I truly forget how old I am and it really can be a state of mind. Some people are ‘old’ at thirty.
A kind man at the railway station said “What are you doing with your mother’s pass?” when I turned 60, bless him.

Ro60 Sat 16-Jan-21 12:29:12

The list of things I carry around with me gets longer makes me feel old: glasses, liners, fixodent, but apart from that I tell people I stuck at 35 ?

yggdrasil Sat 16-Jan-21 10:13:02

I have got the WFA for several years. I do not need it, but I don't see the Govt doing anything else useful with it. So I give it to a homeless charity with instructions that it it a one off and not to keep on at me about donations.
I have no idea about the £10 that has started turning up.

Hetty58 Sat 16-Jan-21 09:57:42

I bought a mirror for the hall.

Bad idea, it shows, all too clearly, my collection of wrinkles - just before I go out to face the world.

(I must swap it for a picture from somewhere else.)

M0nica Sat 16-Jan-21 09:33:14

DS will be 50 this year, I am well behind many of you, but I suspect that will bring me up fast and realise how time has past.

BlueSky Fri 15-Jan-21 21:48:19

Wow Ellan! Congratulations on the great grandchildren, how lovely is that?

EllanVannin Fri 15-Jan-21 21:23:17

I have a daughter who'll be 60 in a couple of weeks time----how do you think I feel ? Hahahahaha. And oldest great grandchildren ( twins ) will be 15 this year.
I think I'm ever so lucky, really I do.

Scrappydo Fri 15-Jan-21 21:09:37

I didn’t feel too old last year when I turned 60, but when my daughter was 30 in the same year I felt ancient! Weird or what?

BlueSky Fri 15-Jan-21 20:42:24

I felt old the first time I used my bus pass! I was hoping the bus driver wouldn’t believe it was mine! grin

Experigran Fri 15-Jan-21 20:07:45

Being old is a privilege denied to many. Enjoy it!

Musicgirl Fri 15-Jan-21 19:27:50

NannyJan53, a naughty old man once told me that SAGA stands for Sex and Games for the Aged. Puts rather a day light on it, doesn't it?

Lizbethann55 Fri 15-Jan-21 19:21:44

I think I prefer Sex And Games for the Aged to Send A Granny Away. It sounds much more fun!!

CBBL Fri 15-Jan-21 16:20:38

After the death of my husband when I was 41 - I developed Glaucoma. My Mother bought me a "white stick"!!! I am still not completely blind, though I do only have limited sight in one eye. I'm now 73. n.b. I did carry the white stick once or twice when travelling on business. People did not understand that I had limited vision (I had no peripheral vision, and bumped into people in crowded city centres). I felt REALLY old AND Vulnerable when doing this. I worried that I might be attacked because of my limited vision. When I am totally blind, I doubt very much if I will have the courage to go out alone. Thanks Mum!

grandmac Fri 15-Jan-21 15:51:00

Espee I have heard that too. And during the only Saga holiday I have been on there was a bit of that going on...quite a bit!! Or so I was told!! grin

Petalpop Fri 15-Jan-21 15:41:52

I have been receiving the fuel allowance for 5 years and received it with thanks. Through you years all I have had as a hand out was family allowance, bus pass and heating allowance. I worked from the age of 16 until I retired and was lucky enough to always work and pay my taxes so I don't feel guilty. I do make the most of it because you never know when it will be stopped.

I am 69 and don't feel old and during the first lockdown when I went to go into M&S before 9.00 a staff member rushed over the me and told me I could not come in before 9.00 as it was pensioners only. I was chuffed but was going to ask her if she had had her eyes checked lately but didn't. I just skipped out of the shop with a smile on my face.

marta74 Fri 15-Jan-21 15:35:23

I would never use the title Old Age Pensioner, I am State Retired. My husband became old at 65 yrs, and started telling people i am an old age pensioner. Smile.

PamSJ1 Fri 15-Jan-21 15:32:30

I felt old at 55 when a mum with children said mind the old lady. I have osteoarthritis and use a stick. It was at a bus station and I did have my face mask on and woolly hat and hood up. I can only put it down to her not being able to see my face but but it upset me xx

Supergran1946 Fri 15-Jan-21 15:13:28

I am 74, and always feel “young”, well I did until my wonderful granddaughter came round at Christmas, saw all the twinklie lights we had put in the garden and declared” How lovely, twinklies with the wrinklies” ??????

Sheila1952 Fri 15-Jan-21 15:13:00

I'm having one of my "feel old days", today not necessarily through aches and pains but by seeing a catch photograph of myself that my husband took to send to his sister. I looked really old. Fact is fact I suppose. Made me feel bit sad.