May was a stable month, while I have managed to get my Expenses in check, I must say that it is mainly thanks to my income that I managed to get this savings rate. One very fun surprise this month was that I was allowed to go shopping for a new company car!

Expenses

Lets start with the expenses and compare April with May

We can clearly see that while I managed to cut down on most of my costs, my housing expenses pretty much became my main expense. May was still a month that I spend largely in lockdown and that made it easy to keep my expenses low.

The highlights

• Living costs increased to 1312 EUR, this includes my loan (about 550 EUR), electricity/gas (50 EUR) and my quarterly syndicate cost (+-700 EUR)
• Its because of those quarterly syndicate costs that I decided to calm down and not buy much other things. The month went by quickly and it was surprisingly easy. For the first time ever my groceries where my second expense at 177 EUR.
• Shopping came in a tie at 100 EUR with health. This included a pair of shoes of 80 EUR that fit me well!
• Health: still quite high at 100, but it included one doctor visit of 70 EUR of which I should get a large part back from the insurance

Expenses overview for 2020

I decided to keep a more in detail track of my expenses this year. I found that I do have a general downwards trend so far this year. One thing I noticed is it remains hard to have low expenses in the four months/year that I need to pay my syndic. Lucky from May next year one of the loans we had to take on the roof will finally be paid off and those quarterly payments will be significantly lower.

Income

I got a high income this month, mainly because I got my quarterly bonus for travelling. This was still due from my travelling in Q1 2020. Additionally I got my holiday money, something we get in Belgium in June.

I also was quite happy to find out it was time for me to select a new company car! In Belgium many companies (especially in IT) give company cars to their employees. I will write a more detailed blog later to show you how I came to a decision and how it works these days.

Saving Rate

Even though the lockdown and some bonusses made things much easier for me, I am still happy to have gotten a 71.89% savings rate this month!

I have a competition with myself that I need to do 5% better then last year and right now I am wining that competition, but of course there is 7 more months to go!

2019 saving rate: 45.8%

2020 average (so far): 51.5%

Whats next

I will continue to do sports (cycling is almost free), watch my grocery expenses and try harder to control my shopping urges!

Since I stopped running I need to find another sport to supplement cycling and I decided to try out the gym. I doubted between the cheapest gym I could find or one of the more expensive ones. Surprisingly I decided to go for one of the more expensive ones. I always had a hard time to keep up with the gym and I feel if I will be surrounded by more high tech and luxury it will make it easier for me to go.

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