What's your approach to money?

I am with you Ruth. I think I was saying 'Do it now' long before Nike! Once you have provided for the essentials go out and enjoy as you don't know what is waiting round the corner to bite you. DH and I agree that aking memories together is the most important thing so that if one of us dies the other has lots of happy times to remember.

Way to go Annobel! Me too!

One of my biggest sadnesses was to see my dear old Dad save all his life and then become too old & infirm to enjoy the benefits. He realised this himself and commented that his savings may as well have been 'stones in my pocket' for all the use the money was to him in the end.

My own view is that life's not a rehearsal and that once the bills are paid, we must grab the opportunity to enjoy our lives, while we can.

Like Annobel I'm afraid my approach is cavalier too! But I am married to a wonderful man who has organised, planned and saved so that we are in a very comfortable place now. Mind you, I worked long and hard for it , and so did he, but he sorted it all out, with only the occasional sigh in the past over a credit card biil. I do appreciate all this so much, bless him.

I am more of a budget person myself. However I don't mind as I like charity shops rather than ordinary shops in general. As for clothes my size means I only have the likes of Bon Marche and Evans to shop at. I do spend money on shoes though or if there is something I like very much.

It has always been DH and mine approach to life and thank goodness we were like it. We are in a comfortable place for us, not a lot but enough and as we get older we do not spend so much. As long as we get a holiday and a couple of weeks away in England we are quite content. We also take the GD on a Sun £9.50 break as she loves the caravan, how many GN',s go on them?, not many I think, more cruises for you gals.

I'm glad to see DD has followed our suit too. She is a good with money but I think we are all going to have to be over the coming years because of world economy. I do fear for me GD because of that but I feared for DD too, so no change there.

I'm afraid my general approach to money can be described as 'cavalier'.

We have had to be very frugal at times in our lives so I have kept the habit for everyday things. We add sweaters rather than putting the heat up and close the doors of the rooms we don't use and turn those radiators off.

In the supermarket we buy things on special offer and freeze things like meat so we always have variety. I never pay full price for washing powder, fabric softener, coffee, toothpaste, baked beans, cereal etc., etc., as we buy them when on offer and keep until we need them.

This means that when we want to go out we can do so and don't need to scrimp. I do buy clothes in sales sometimes but if I really like something I buy it because as someone else said, you can't take it with you and we have done our best for our boys so it is our turn now. We have much better holidays now than we did when the boys were around as we can afford them now.

I really don't see the point of saving for a rainy day now, we might not live that long.

I enjoy budgeting - I have worked out what my monthly outgoings on food, petrol, electricity, insurances, internet/telephone and management charges for my flat are, allowed some extra for yearly bills like water and property taxes, and then I transfer anything surplus to my deposit account which pays for repairs to household/car and my travels. Some months I have to buy replacements, like tyres or a new fridge, so I can't put anything on deposit that month.
I have always been prudent with money - my mother was hopeless at budgeting her very small income and my sister tells me that when I was about eight I was already reminding her that she needed to put something away towards the gas/electricity bills. My parents never had a bank account and both got paid weekly in cash.
I got married at 18 and took over the household finances - my ex-husband was completely impractical and wanted to change his car every few months. (I didn't let him!)
A member of my family has addiction problems, which include over-spending and getting heavily into debt. This has involved me in considerable losses which is galling when none of it was spent on me.

I have had quite a topsy turvy life but because of insecurity, I've had to be fairly frugal. I go for writing a shopping list; turning lights off etc. etc. All those things that are talked about on TV. Make sure you eat before food shopping and stick to the list (unless there is a very good offer). I budget an amount for food weekly and try not to exceed this. As we don't have a car I use the buses but use an all day ticket and do most things on one day (roll on my bus pass in 2 years time). I have been buying warm winter jumpers (not acrylic) and Woolovers is good value - not fancy, so I can turn the heating down.

I like my treats too. My favourite just now are scones with strawberry jam. I have one when I get home from work.

Perhaps deciding what your next treat will be and saving an amount each week could help. It's a great feeling when you have reached your goal.

All the best

I was brought up fairly, though not lavishly, affluent so it's quite difficult to adjust to living on a pension.

Afraid I am with you as long as the bills are paid,I am noti irresponsible with money but don't seem able to hang on to it either....life is too short not to have treats....and you can't take it with you...