It is once more time for an overview of my expenses and savings of the last month.
As mentioned before: no investment gains are taken into account and our monthly mortgage payments (which are by far our highest expense) are viewed as an expense.
Personal account:
Income: 2 094,62
Expenses : 1 670,05
Savings: 424,57 or 20,27%
The month was off to a bad start with a 35 euro parking ticket. This was my most stupid expense by far as it was perfectly avoidable (free parking for 2 hours if I had just put the little blue disk out) but just shows not to be in a hurry.
The yearly carnival in my hometown of Aalst also cost me around 140 euro. But I had a fun time, so I consider this money well spend.
Anyway, these two items explain the expenses above 1 500 euro. The ultimate goal of keeping a budget for me is to see if indeed I can live on 1 500 euro a month. If we look at what we saved on the joint bank account this goal was once again achieved. Any savings will eventually be reinvested in home renovations. I am counting on special circumstance investing and rising stock prices to grow my stash.
The results of the joint bank account
Income: 2 344 (1 100 euro each and some meal tickets)
Expenses: 1 886,63
Savings: 457,37
Adding this half to my savings amount and my savings rate for the month of February was 31,2%.
Gas for the car seems to hover stable around the 150 euro mark. Hoping for not too much rain in March so we can use our bikes more and try to push this bill a bit lower.
Groceries were 345 euro which is not bad for a 2 person family. The girlfriend can now eat for free at her work. This depends on which work hours she has to work so this is unfortunately not all days. I have started my diet again so for the next couple of weeks our grocery bill should be even lower!
I did get lucky as a big Visa bill will be landing in March. Extra luck: we will also get a big tax return in march so we will keep a positive savings rate!
A savingsrate of 31 while you have a mortgage is very good.
Good luck with the diet.
Still a nice savings rate after the non-recurrent costs. Pleasure has its price too.
Nice your girlfriend can eat for free at her work, saves a nice amount each month 🙂
One off my goals is letting go more and enjoy life a bit more! And sometimes you have to spend a bit of money for that …
Since I know the stash will take care of itself I know need to find out if I can live and enjoy life on a 1.500 euro a month budget. So far so good …
Looks like you had a really great month!!! Plus 345 euros for groceries for two people is great. Keep up the awesome work.
I am also happy with the 345 euro of groceries for two persons! The freezer seems to be helping.