My monthly Savings Rate report: March 2020

Well, this was an interesting month for obvious reasons. The Coronavirus took a hold of the world this month after it caused a lockdown in China. It’s not exaggerated to say the coronavirus has the world in its grip. The upside to this for me personally is that it means I barely made any expenses besides groceries. I did make one large purchase after receiving a tax deduction on my apartment.

This tax deduction also helped me reach Savings Rate levels I didn’t think I would ever see again. It’s not the only tax break I got. I finally received my tax refund for the 2019 tax year.

Thanks to these tax breaks I finally got myself a TV. I bought an LG C9 55″ OLED TV. I’ve been dying to get an OLED ever since they got int the sub 2000 EUR price range. I always put of buying one since I lived with my parents till end last year when I moved to live with my now fiancée.

Even after buying this TV my monthly expenses are nothing compared to my income. Let’s have a detailed look at both my income and expenses.

My income for March consists out of three parts.

1. My regular income for March at 2571.16 EUR.
2. The tax deduction for my apartment in Brussels at 16,625 EUR.
3. A tax return of 351.25 EUR for tax year 2019.

This translates to a total income of 19,196.16 EUR for this month.

Home and ownership

As I now own an apartment I created a category for everything related to home management and ownership. Under this category I placed the rent we pay as well as the escrow, interest and principal payments for my Brussels apartment. Since most escrow was handled last month I really only have the rent (322.50 EUR), some garbage bags from city hall (16.25 EUR), and the first due interest on a first mortgage withdrawal of 45,000 EUR (20.13 EUR). The total cost of homeownership and renting comes down to 408.88 EUR.

All the expenses

Like February,  March was, in terms of personal finances, calmer. As expected I had at least one big expense. The other two I foresaw didn’t happen because of the coronavirus breaking out worldwide. For sure a wedding reception won’t happen but since our wedding is in May I still have hopes that that will still happen. So I still need wedding bands. These well probably set me back another 1,000 EUR.

Anyhow, for this month, It all comes together to a solid 2,826.92 EUR in expenses.

March was abnormal bit in a good wat now. I jumped all the way to an 87% Savings Rate. I reached the target I set myself last month with ease. Preferably in March of course. For this month I landed on 16,720.49 EUR / 19,547.41 EUR = 87.10%.