My monthly Savings Rate report: November 2021
November was a hectic month. Corona is back from having never left, working from home is the default again and our daughter turned 6 (months). Most of these things didn’t have much of an impact on us personally -besides our daughter of course-, but financially it was a bit more expensive since we decided to use HelloFresh for the first time and we ordered takeaway twice. I also made use of Black Friday to get a headphone + microphone combo.
With our trip coming closer, we also got some last-minute things, such as a fanny pack, a summer sleeping bag, and medicine. Paying all of this month’s expenses was through 4 different channels:
- Salary
- Child allowance
- My wife’s share of the expenses
- A 2nd hand sale
November Income — €3,687.25
Salary
Like every month, I received my salary at the end (or before the start of next month). Thanks to a longer on-call period and some interventions during the weekend, this month’s extra added up again to a nice income of €3,408.46 net! That’s a cool €200 net more than normal.
In January I will finally receive the tax benefit of having our daughter as a dependant. This will give me another tax break of about €60 net.
Child allowance
Next up, child allowance: €169.79. Per child, you receive government support through what’s called ‘kindergeld’ or child allowance. This is a fixed amount per child for a few years already -it used to go up for each child you had-. Depending on specific criteria (such as single-parent or special needs) it can increase.
This one might seem a bit strange but what ‘my wife’s share’ means, is that for the expenses we share, we divided each other’s share through the amount our salaries contribute to the combined income. In our case, it’s a 35/65 split with my wife covering 35%. This month she subtracted the food she paid for with her meal vouchers and paid her part of a delivery meal giving an inflow of €89.00.
secondhand sale
For the first time in a while I sold something secondhand. 2 old chairs from my grandmother that nobody in the family wanted. Basically, I got €20 for nothing.
Not included: Dividends
I received a bit of dividend this month:
12 nov. 2021 ASML HOLDING NV | 9,00 EUR |
November Expenses — €1,821.95
Home management and ownership — €670.47
Another month, another downpayment, and interest payment for the apartment. €823.34 in principal and €292.67 in interest.
Except for the recurring mortgage payment, Our only other big home expense was IKEA and work, kinda.
We bought extra gym mats for our daughter using a €100 gift card I purchased a couple of months prior. Only €24.68 was needed on top.
Work, furniture, how does that match? My employer gave everyone in Belgium a €750 discount on office furniture. Thanks to that, I was able to get an ergonomic chair, a Hayworth Comforto 59, and an adjustable height desk for “just” €340.34.
In Action, we got some small organizational stuff for €12.78.
Luxury — €578.36
On Amazon.de I purchased a new pair of (closed) headphones, Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 32 ohm. To go with these new cans I bought an Antlion Modmic USB to create a quality headset for the price of a gaming headset (€161.53).
Also bought through Amazon.de are three books for the niece of my wife (my brother-in-law’s daughter) at €35.05 and €21.27.
Last month, I mentioned I also booked another flight to my wife’s home country besides the upcoming Christmas trip. This month the cost for those plane tickets in April is visible, but at the same time my in-laws paid part of the plane tickets for my wife and our daughter (€746.10); This really softened the plane tickets’ impact of two months ago and this month.
Finally, I have my monthly subscription costs of Netflix (€15.99), and Patreon (€5.45). It’s the last month for the latter as I barely read the novels I support at the moment. I’m so far behind that I have a backlog of 50 chapters, so the benefit of Patreon has become mute.
Food & supplies — €327.30
Food being this low has one simple reason, my wife paid for most this month using her meal vouchers. I only paid for my personal groceries (€78.33) such as Monster Ultra.
Funny enough, the biggest expense was small snacks (€41.14) throughout the month while we were out to the zoo for example.
Restaurants (€3.90) were barely anything either as this month was on my wife.
Kids — €178.82
This month it’s mainly due to extra medicine for our daughter and some clothes because it’s summer in South America.
Person — €60.04
I still had some medical bills to pay, but all of the expenses got covered by my employers’ health insurance. Thanks to those refunds I recuperated the expenses from last month which resulted in this month being slightly negative.
Banking and insurance — €6.73
Finally, we have banking and insurance:
- Family insurance: €7.69
- Cashback: +€0.96
Government — €0.23
I covered my wife’s first TOB tax
All the expenses
The bottom line for November 2021
With multiple income streams providing €3,687.25 and high expenses, €1,821.95, my remaining net income in November was at least positive. This gives me a Savings Rate of €3,687.25/€1,821.95 = 50.6%.
Hellofresh: check out the recipes and ingredients online in advance, and purchase it yourself. Minimum 50% cheaper!
Very true.
The reason we got it was because of a €60 promo, so we thought we’d give their delivery service a try.
It’s nice but yeah, after the promo the price is way too high especially given the portions that are very precise, borderline small.