Monthly expense report: October

October was challenging. Some high expenses but also the first serious withdrawal from my investment account. Full details below

Personal account:

Income: 3 551,63 euro

Expenses: 3 447,70 euro

Savings: 103,93 euro or 2,93%

First off the higher income: 3 550 euro as this was the month I did my first serious withdrawal from my investment account. I transferred 1 500 euro from my investment account. Total day trading profits are at 5 865 USD and I was planning on transferring these in full this year. The idea being to accelerate my savings, thus finish renovating the house quicker and being able to stop working one year earlier. I do not know if I will go through with this plan. Returns on UVXY puts are healthy so at the moment I want to plow as much money as possible into that. I will withdraw another 250 euro next month, bringing my withdrawal to an even 2 000 euro for the year. But above that, not sure what I am going to do yet.

Expenses are high because the extra 1 500 euro was immediately transferred to the girlfriends account. You see, back in March when I bought the Vespa we paid it 50/50 the idea being the girlfriend would also use it to go to work and such. Turns out it is too heavy for her to use (heavy as in weight, not horsepower) and she doesn’t use it at all. But I love the Vespa! I actually prefer to use the Vespa than our car. With this payment it is now completely mine. Trying to convince her to buy a lighter, 50 cc scooter with the money but no success so far …

Another big expense was the year subscription I bought for our local swimming pool. This will reduce my cost per swim from 3 euro to 2 euro and some change so it should save me money over the next year but I had to book the full expense now.

Without these two large expenses I would have been at 1 677 euro. But two visits to Ghent to catch up with some friends explain that overspend. Trying to be a bit less of a hermit and it is an expense that will probably be higher once I no longer work full time.

The joint bank account

Income: 2 312 euro

Expenses: 1 589,38

Savings: 722,62 euro

Lowest we ever spend in our joint account. Again due to our holiday . We didn’t spend a euro in our joint account the first 9 days of October! (we should go on holiday more often 😉
Adding half of these savings to my own meager savings and I come to savings of 465,24 euro or 13%. Not too bad for a month where I essentially bought half a Vespa.

We also received some good news from the government. Our tax refund will hit our account at the end of this year.  This would mean we will start next year with a healthy balance in the joint account!