Time again for my favorite post. As much as its fun to see the monthly numbers of my portfolio go up, I like this post because I feel I have more control over it.

At least up to a certain extend. I do have trouble to keep Expenses in check sometimes. I recently had an idea. I noticed that the last week of the month I spend a lot less, because I know I almost need to record my Saving Rate. So what if I tried to do only purchases the first 7 days of the month? Something to try in November and see if it will help to cut on spendings. I do expect I will then spend more in the first 7 days, but at least I will have thought a long time about what I am spending it on.

I can’t wait for November. As much as I hate lockdowns, I do think it can have a positive impact on my savings Rate.

Expenses

Lets go over the different expenses for this month and compare with last month

The highlights

• Housing: costs have dropped to 593 EUR, which is perfectly normal, it includes mainly my loan, electricity/internet/heating/Tv
• Costs: this one always seems to surprise me. My yearly taxes on my apartment. It was a little over 400 EUR this year. I thought I was going to have a pretty good month until I ran into this.
• Hobby’s: I purchased a second hand bicycle for 250 EUR. its full carbon so I think I got a really good bargain. Its not end of season so I thought it was a good time to buy this now in preparation for next year.
• Groceries: I continued to shop in the Aldi, with one small difference: I stopped buying microwaved food. As you can see my Grocery bill dropped from 245 EUR to 222 EUR. So only a very minor drop, and hardly worth the effort of cooking. However cooking is also much healthier, so I think I will continue to cook most of the time.
• Restaurants: 112 EUR, I usually aim at 100 EUR per month for this so this is fine. Its mostly getting quick snacks or drinks after sports
• I also got 300 EUR of taxes I had to pay additionally, but I didn’t count that in, because they need to do a recalculation and I expect to actually get back 1500 EUR of taxes back in November instead

Expenses overview for 2020

Total Expenses for September = 2218 EUR

Total Expenses for October = 1904 EUR

2020 average = 2134 EUR (-25)

Income

My income rose slightly because I managed to book in some overtime. This month it was 3067 EUR, including wage, meal allowances and overtime.

Saving Rate

Given the circumstances a saving rate of 37.92 % is quite good

2019 saving rate: 45.8%

2020 average (so far): 39.33%

What’s next

• The lockdown will lower my sport and restaurant expenses, so I should have a 100-200 EUR less expenses / month at least (tennis / gym subscription /..)
• I just heard that the 670 EUR syndic cost I pay quarterly will be lowered to 520 EUR quarterly in the upcoming year. It will drop even more in 2022 so I’m really happy that I’m able to save an additional 150 EUR every quarter
• At the same time the garage gate needs to be replaced which would set me back 250 EUR

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