My husband retired 7 years ago and by then, his pension pot (which had seemed reasonably healthy to start with) had shrunk a good bit. He's 11 years older than me, and we decided that if we could manage by my dropping a couple of days at work, we'd have that extra time together each week and also get used to a lesser amount of money coming in each month. I retired last year. I have a minute personal pension and he also has a small occupational pension. I always paid the 'full stamp' thankfully, or things would really be very tight indeed. Come next winter, things are going to be tighter still, because of the gas and electricity price rises. Time was, we could go outside and chop up a bit of wood for the fire - we don't have that option now!