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In 2022 I Spend 20954 EUR. I do keep track of all my yearly Expenses quite rigorously. I do make mistakes Im not an accountant and I honestly do not need to have every number behind the comma correct, but still I think I am probably correct about 98%, which is not bad. I like to use the beginning of the new year to reflect and set goals for the new.

Tracking your income & expenses is so important to make life changing decissions, such as deciding how much to invest every month.

2019-2021 Spending

Before I start with my 2022 Expenses a short recap. I spend 30952 in 2019, 25101 in 2020 and eventually 23839 in 2021.

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Where did the money go in 2022?

Of course I will not hold you in tension any longer. This is exactly where my money went in 2022.

1. Housing

By far the biggest cost. Without going to much in detail I would say that about 2000 EUR was spend on energy advances. I actually the advances that totalenergies asked me far outweigh what I am using in energy. It also took them about 6 months to calculate how much I spend in 2021. I have changed energy supplier and after over 60 days I still have not received an end calculation. In conclussion I will never return to totalenergies. I have been with a few energy suppliers in the past but never have I had such a horrible expierence.

Second highest would be the syndic cost. This will also be about 2000 EUR. I expect this amount to be lower in 2023 as in 2022 we were mainly paying off costs on the roof.

The remainer will be internet/streaming (about 500), but also things like furniture.

2. Groceries

With an under 3000 EUR grocery cost or about 250 EUR/month I can’t really complain. I mostly shop in the Aldi and I think this shows in what I am spending here.

3. Restaurants

With business travel picking up again and covid totally gone I am not surpised to see this category having increased with 1700 EUR more then last year. In total I spend 31 nights abroad for business trips. I usually spend about 45 EUR on average per day on business trips on breakfast, lunch and dinner in restaurants or at the hotel. So almost half of this money got spend on restaurants.

4. Gifts

I included in gifts everything I gave away to people for Christmas, Birthdays and of course charity. Charity donations will make up the bulk of this amount. I do get a 45% tax return on any Charity donations so the after tax amount would be considerably smaller. For this reason I try to avoid giving on the street or to individuals, but I admit that I did this anyway.

There are situations when I don’t give anything such as when I’m in my car and people come to my window for money, since I feel that is a bit to much planned, or when someone comes up with an unrealistic story.

But I do think most people do not choose to be in certain situations and I had given very little the last years so this was kinda a way to make it up. I expect this number to be lower in 2023.

5. Holidays

With 2046 EUR holidays rank on the 5th spot. Its actually quite low given the inflation, but lets say that I have found ways to do really cheap holidays, so even if I did 4 trips in 2022 (Istanbul, Europark, Portugal & Bratislava) I managed to keep my expenses here under control. At the same time I do feel I sometimes should spend more on holidays. Stay in slightly better hotels, and do more expensive activities. So I would expect this number to be higher in 2023.

6. Shopping

With 1870 EUR my shopping was more then I planned for. At the same time I do not consider it to be an extreme number, so I feel I should not be to worried about this number. I would be happy if it remained the same in 2023. My biggest shopping cost was probably clothes, perhaps half of the entire budget here.

7. Hobbys

My budget for Hobby’s came in at 1188 EUR far under what I had planned. Most of this budget went to sports. This included for example expenses for my bycicle & sailing. I had planned a budget of 2800 EUR here, but it seems that I already had all the items I needed for my hobbies and did not try out much new things. So I will plan a bit less for 2023.

8. Costs

With 681 EUR my costs are as expected. I would expect this to be mostly some extra taxes & insurances.

9. Business Expenses

With 204 EUR my business expenses include this website mainly, both the costs for WordPress hosting and the payment for the domain name.

10. Activities

This is mainly activites I do with friends or by myself such as cinama for example. Cinema is probably a big chunk in this 203 EUR.

11. Health

At 168 my healthcare costs are really low. I can’t really complain about this, we probably have some of the highest quality and lowest costs of healthcare in the world here.

12. Transport

At 130 EUR my transport costs are not very high. This is pretty much all train tickets & parking. I find it quite reasonable. I should of course take the bike more but 130 EUR / year is really not something to complain about.

Conclussions

For some reason I managed to do better every year. My expenses have gone down from 30k to 20k in a few years. I am very pleased with this result and look forward to keep tracking and cut some expenses here and there.

What did you expenses for 2022 look like? Do you feel I spend to much or to little? Post a comment and let me know?

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