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My monthly Savings Rate report: November 2021

Last Updated on February 7, 2022 by Mr. FightToFIRE

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

This page can contain affiliate partner links to products that I purchased this month.

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.

My wife’s share

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
Savings Rate November 2021
My Income and Expenses for November 2021.

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%.

My Belgian friend Roadtrip to FIRE had a calm month but still shared his latest portfolio update. He reached 200K!

JoneyTalks asked the question If you Can Really Reach Financial Independence in Europe? with Mathias amongst many other podcasts.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

I'm a developer for a major financial institution in Belgium that is present in over 40 countries. I have over 8 years of working experience in the development of customer applications focussing on all aspects of banking. This helped me gain a deep understanding of the inner workings of a commercial bank. All of this experience in both banking and life culminates in this blog about personal finance and my fight towards FIRE.

Monthly Savings Rate Reports
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2. My monthly Savings Rate report: November 2019
3. My monthly Savings Rate report: December 2019
4. My monthly Savings Rate report: January 2020
5. My monthly Savings Rate report: February 2020
6. My monthly Savings Rate report: March 2020
7. My monthly Savings Rate report: April 2020
8. My monthly Savings Rate report: May 2020
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10. My monthly Savings Rate report: July 2020
11. My monthly Savings Rate report: August 2020
12. My monthly Savings Rate report: September 2020
13. My monthly Savings Rate report: October 2020
14. My monthly Savings Rate report: November 2020
15. My monthly Savings Rate report: December 2020
16. My monthly Savings Rate report: January 2021
17. My monthly Savings Rate report: February 2021
18. My monthly Savings Rate report: March 2021
19. My monthly Savings Rate report: April 2021
20. My monthly Savings Rate report: May 2021
21. My monthly Savings Rate report: June 2021
22. My monthly Savings Rate report: July 2021
23. My monthly Savings Rate report: August 2021
24. My monthly Savings Rate report: September 2021
25. My monthly Savings Rate report: October 2021
26. My monthly Savings Rate report: November 2021
27. My monthly Savings Rate report: December 2021
28. My monthly Savings Rate report: January 2022
29. My monthly Savings Rate report: February 2022
30. My monthly Savings Rate report: March 2022
31. My monthly Savings Rate report: April 2022
32. My monthly Savings Rate report: May 2022
33. My monthly Savings Rate report: June 2022
34. My monthly Savings Rate report: July 2022
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Kristof

Hellofresh: check out the recipes and ingredients online in advance, and purchase it yourself. Minimum 50% cheaper!

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