My monthly Savings Rate report: November 2019
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The last month of the year is upon us. With the winter holidays approaching fast it’s also the time to look at what I’m thankful for this past year. I will provide a look-back in December where I post my hightlights and low points. But that’s for the coming month. Let’s get into my income & expenses for November to see what my savings rate is.
Income
My income for November is normal. I only have my regular income from my day job. The euros received this month are 2829.39 EUR. This income also contains my on-call extra.
As mentioned last month This will end with December’s salary. As of January 2020, about 320 EUR will go to my salary car.
To counter this drop I’m considering finding a Flexi-job. With a bit of luck, I can get an extra 500 EUR per month doing this but more in this topic soon!
Expenses
I sound like a broken record but my expenses were higher than expected yet again. this came because of one stupid expensive “forced purchase”. In October we called the plumber to come to fix the boiler because it kept turning cold after only a minute of showering. Since we rent, this malfunction is for the owner, or so we thought.
One very expensive plumber visit
The plumber came alright, but instead of fixing the boiler, he just installed a thermostatic tap that we asked to give us a price for. Unfortunately, I wasn’t home and my GF misunderstood what the plumber was going to do and as a result, the tap got installed and the boiler didn’t even get fixed. Why?
It seems like the boiler was not broken. It’s just a shitty flow-through boiler without reservoir so if you wait long enough the water just cools down again. The water is cold and before it turns warm you have to wait half a minute or so. We could have challenged and tried to void the invoice but in the end, would result in our word against theirs.
The thermostatic tap isn’t a bad investment though since we now have a semi-decent shower and once we move to the apartment in Brussels, we’ll take it with us since we have the old tap.
this little misunderstanding set us back 245 EUR! Including the rent and some smaller things like rubber feet for the washing machine (it vibrates like…), housing expenses reached 679.19 EUR.
Food and groceries
Groceries for two came in at 229.33 EUR which is a whopping 4.51 EUR less than last month! W00t, progress!
We did go to a sushi restaurant this month which pushes the final total for food and groceries to 392.89 EUR.
Personal
Under the personal expenses, I gave my gf an electronic toothbrush, bought a few extra brush heads and got some perfume for myself that she really likes. The total for this category for November is 164.62 EUR.
Finally, I have a bit of a confession to make. I also received 200 EUR from my gf for our plane tickets that I ordered to visit her parents in her home country. The total will of course become visible next month but as a result I “received” 164.62 EUR under luxury. The difference comes from going to an art-house cinema last Friday and my Spotify subscription.
Yet another month where I’m not even close to my 70% savings rate. This is in part due to once again, unforeseen expenses. My hope is that I can at least get above 60% on average (where it is now ~59%) for the year, but with one month to go it’s unlikely.