My monthly Savings Rate report: June 2021
Having a newborn in the house really makes it hard to find the time to write. Luckily I do still find it -albeit less for now- and I’m happy I can share another solid month of savings with you.
A benefit to having a newborn, especially ours that has issues sleeping during the day, is that we limit our adventures outside for the moment. We still order delivery ones a month (sushi in June) and go out for drives more, but that’s about it. Add holiday pay to the mix and you get a Savings Rate that goes above 60%!
This page can contain affiliate partner links to products that I purchased this month.
Income
Income was excellent in June. I earned €4,951.61 from my day job which included about €1700 holiday pay. While I wasn’t on-call in June I did receive pay for my time on call in May.
The situation for my wife hasn’t changed yet. No job, so no income. At the moment, everything is covered by one salary and thus we receive the marriage quotient.
Besides my regular income, we also received a ‘welcome gift’ from our National Health Insurance. Each parent gets €130 cash so we got €260 in total for the birth of our daughter.
Next to that, I got my first Adsense payment in 3 years: €101.08! So for those wondering, no this doesn’t cover even 5% of the total amount I spend on this blog.
I also received a first referral payment from bol.com. It’s only €4.73 but I guess it’s something.
Finally, I received €2 interesting from my savings account at Beobank.
Combining all of the above gives me an income of €5,319.42.
Dividends
I received €123,18 in dividends this month:
| 4 June 2021 | AEDIFICA | 41.20 EUR |
| 7 June 2021 | COFINIMMO | 58.00 EUR |
| 8 June 2021 | TENCENT | 4.23 EUR |
| 30 June 2021 | SPDR US DIV ARISTOCRATS | 19.74 EUR |
Expenses
Person
Major shock this month. The first time in a while, the most considerable expense wasn’t groceries!
Nope, it was Personal expenses. Specifically, medical bills (€258.13). That these encompass my biggest personal expenses in June shouldn’t come as a surprise as it is the month after the last checks, and as usual, the hospital takes a couple of weeks to send the bills.
The other €169.93 comes from the purchase of three new cargo shorts. Getting these was long overdue as I wore two of this type of shorts till they started tearing.
You know, I love cargo shorts. They are brilliant. Thanks to two extra pockets, I’m able to keep my car keys, wallet, phone, and cardholder in the front.
I got two cotton shorts: one dark grey and another light brown. Next to those cotton ones, I also got synthetic shorts from The North Face for those tropical days or when I’m in my wife’s home country.
Website
€387.63 for a yearly subscription to MonsterInsights Pro. Yeah, it’s a lot. But with this tool, I bring various statistics right into my WordPress dashboard.
On top of that, it gives me additional insights such as the average scroll depth of my readers, the most read articles, and the tags linked to it, which links get clicked and make people leave my blog, etc.
Banking and insurance
Another category that has high expenses for the first time since, I think, forever. We have the typical costs of course:
- Family insurance: €7.69
- Health insurance: €26.15
- Some cashback: +€1.92
But now for the first time: Legal insurance!
I got myself insured for legal support. More specifically, I’m protected from disputes in several areas of law:
- Civil disputes/defense (€200,000)
- Medical mistakes (€200,000)
- Criminal defense (€200,000)
- Bail (€90,000)
- Administrative fines (€32,000)
- Disciplinary procedure (€200,000)
- Contract disputes
- Fire insurance and civil liability (€200,000)
- Landlord family home (€200,000)
- Construction (€16,000)
- Labor (€16,000)
- Other (€60,000)
- Fiscal law (€32,000)
- Inheritance, gift, and will disputes (€32,000)
- (first) Divorce (€8,000)
- Search and rescue costs (€60,000)
- Advance compensation (€60,000)
- Third-party insolvency (€30,000)
- Driving a vehicle belonging to a third party
All of the above are covered globally for €324.00/year.
All my insurances together cost me €355.92.
Food and supplies
Since May was so expensive in terms of food, it is no surprise that June is the exact opposite. The groceries bill is only €212.31.
As for the other food-related expenses, Restaurants, or takeaway, in this case, was €60.20 because we ordered sushi. It was the first time since my wife’s pregnancy, so we had to splurge a bit. The occasional snacks were with a total expenditure of €26.70, a bit on the higher end, but this is mainly because I started driving my daughter around in the afternoon and evening to help calm her down. While driving, I ended up stopping at a small store to get a snack and a drink.
It brings my total expenditure for June for food to an amazing €299.21.
Home management and ownership
Another month, another downpayment, and interest payment for the apartment. €816.33 in principal and €182.00 in interest.
Besides the payment, I also got some small stuff from Action (€15,18).
From AliExpress I got myself a weather station to track the temperature in 4 different areas (€21.42).
Thanks to very limited spending in and around the house, the total cost stayed around 200 eur; €218.60 to be exact.
Kids
In the kid’s department, we spend quite a bit this time, €213.43. first and foremost we had our first pediatric visit which set us back €43 (although we got €35 back in July).
We had a midwife come over 4 times (€45), bought some extra white towels for during bath time and during changing (€36.56), and finally, bought extra wet wipes, shampoo, and diapers (€33,61).
Finally, at H&M, we ordered PJs and a Guns & Roses outfit for our little girl (€55,26).
Luxury
My final category where I have expenses: luxury. Here we spend €121 on birth cards but at the same time already received €90 received from friends and family for the birth of our daughter. This brings the total for “gifts” to €31.00.
IN terms of entertainment I spend €50 on Win-For-Life. Nope, didn’t win anything. I’ll try again in 3 to 4 months.
Then I have my subscriptions. In June I started with paying for the UHD Netflix plan (€15.99) because I wanted to see the difference and I can definitely see it. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it though. It’s quite a bit more than the €9.99 my dad has and that I used till now. Together with my regular subscriptions to Spotify (€9.99) and Patreon (€5.45) I paid €31.43 in subscriptions this month. Finally, I have other stuff (€45.07) that brings the total to €157.50.
All the expenses
The bottom line
With a relatively normal income of €5,319.42 but a limited expenditure, my remaining net income in April was €3,259.07. This gives me a Savings Rate of €3,259.07/€5,319.42 = 61.27%.
With another Savings Rate above 50, I couldn’t be happier.
However, July is going to be a lot worse. Eventhough I took paternity leave in June, my salary didn’t diminish because I only registered for those holidays at the end of June when it was too late to adust my pay slip. As a result, I will lose about €1,000 of my income in July. I’m really curious what the impact will be on my Savings Rate.
Unlike me, my Belgian friend Roadtrip to FIRE had more than enough time to write, which he did! Of course, there is his portfolio update and Savings Rate, but he also predicted the next crypto winter. And there is even more, so go check him out!
JoneyTalks kept it a bit calmer but he talked about Real estate crowdfunding and How Physical Wellness, Mental Health, and Finances Go Hand in Hand with Valerie.
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!