In Belgium, the saying goes that a child costs you a house. AG Insurance and the Gezinsbond put a number on it: €264,310 over 25 years, or €917 per month when childcare and study costs are included. The Belgian median house price in Q3 2024 was €275,000. Headlines wrote themselves. VRT's Money Time podcast ran with it, and the Gezinsbond has been publishing versions of this research for years.
A question that comes back frequently with my readers and people, in general, is how they can save money on groceries. Food and water are essential to survive, so it's hard to imagine saving money on this. But it's possible! I will go over two big grocery stores (at the moment), Colruyt and Lidl, and compare a selection of their products.
December, the month of Christmas and New Years’. Lots of celebrations meaning some bigger expenses. This wasn’t any different this year even with corona. We just did it on our own and just handed over the gifts outside. We went a little wild with food but my income was higher so it balanced things out a little bit.
This page can contain affiliate partner links to products that I purchased this month.
Another calm month. Both in terms of expenses and income. It will make for a rather concise monthly overview.
I am currently on-call again but because week 3 of my on-call is the first week of December, I will only get paid at the off the month so expect to see a bigger salary by the end of the year. For now, it’s my base salary.