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.<\/a> She reveals how she feels rich as they can afford everything they want in life.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your pension situation and your working life?<\/p>\n I have been affected by illness ever since I was a child, so although I do hardly anything for money, I don\u2019t consider myself as retired as I am still in a working frame of mind.<\/p>\n I had a problem with my brain which could only be resolved when I was in my late 30s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n I have had long Covid<\/a> 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\u2019 Society and am one of the chairs for events and education, so that takes up a lot of time.<\/p>\n What is the total amount you receive in pensions?<\/p>\n As a result of family chaos and my life, I haven\u2019t got a pension at all \u2013 apart from the state pension<\/a>. It is the same for my husband.<\/p>\n I never saved for a pension because I didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n So the only pension we both get is our state pension and the total we receive between us is about \u00a31,700 a month.<\/p>\n How do you make your money last?<\/p>\n We feel very wealthy and believe that having less choices makes our life richer. We do not feel hard done by or lacking in any way or desperate in shape or form.<\/p>\n We may have zero pension pot<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n We can afford our rent, we can run a car, we can heat our home and we eat well.<\/p>\n 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 to most people in the West.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t 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 \u00a32 or \u00a33 and lasts all week and have that flexibility to pay all our bills and put some money aside.<\/p>\n 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 \u00a31,000 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n We buy a lot of secondhand stuff, but we don\u2019t go without. We have holidays that we can afford and we budget for them. We don\u2019t go abroad because of the environmental impact but we look for deals around the UK and what appeals to us.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t scrimp. We don\u2019t smoke and if I want any alcohol, it has to come out of our budget.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n What is your attitude to money and pensions?<\/p>\n We do feel rich when it comes to money as we live within our means and we budget and manage well with our state pension.<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019t feel we need a lot of money in retirement to have a rich life.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t feel resentment about what we don\u2019t have \u2013 we feel joy at what we do have.<\/p>\n We are not being smug \u2013 this is just our reality. We don\u2019t go around beaming at everything. We live in the real world and are just as burdened by modern reality as anyone else.<\/p>\n But we look after ourselves and each other and other and other people and don\u2019t feel resentment or expectations of things that would put us in debt.<\/p>\n Do you have any pension regrets?<\/p>\n I have no regrets about pensions as I live in the here and now and don\u2019t see the point in thinking backwards.<\/p>\n![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SEI_283550682-e1770741067614.jpg\")
Sarah loves being outdoors and is a trained gardener<\/p>\n![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SEI_283550683-e1770740899692.jpg\")
Sarah is good at budgeting and lives within her means \u2013 but feels she has everything she wants<\/p>\n