Small and winding road to freedom

[Aspirant]

Income 4191,51
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer -100
Savings account transfer
Food -668,72
Lunches -112,3
Gasoline -77,87
Car -76,95 Yearly checkup + Lightbulbs for backlights
Health (should be 80+) -85
Electricity
Phone No bill? Maybe from CC?
Hardware store -15,15
Shopping & sport -192,37 Membership (saves money on a rental cabin), subscription econ. Magazine, rpg for kid, barber for a party
Beer & restaurants -49,8
Travel
Misc -49,35
Broker account transfer -2300 Brokerage account transfers

A different month altogether. Stayed at home mostly and

Some stuff towards goals:
Have been playing outside with kid little more. Now that I have flexibility with working hours and no commute, I can go out and play with the kid during the day for an hour or two. Mostly because we have to alternate work meeting from home office etc. TV can´t be the sole babysitter for entire day

Got a gym program from PT. I tried to support local business and made her do some stuff for me now that things are pretty slow in that sector. Tried it a couple of times. I need to plan my training a lot better if I ever want to get fitter

More cooking at home. As you can see from the food bill, I have been the one going shopping during the corona times. I try to buy more stuff than usual to limit the shop runs to 1-2 per week. Lunch costs are mostly pre-corona, but I have gotten takeout from couple of my local businesses to keep them alive. Also supported a local brewery We had a mishap with freezer, so we melted some of normal frozen supplies and I´ve had to restock them. all in all a horrible food bill. It includes more beer than normally but still...

@horsewoman: I actually planned meals for the whole week and went shopping for that. Some extra bits found their way in the shopping cart, but not badly.

Things to be done:
Cut out the subscription. I got it to get a list of top 500 Finish companies and their financial data. Turns out that its an interesting read, but not much useful in stock evaluation (it helps, but not good enough).

Gym or outside stuff 3-5 times per week. Let´s see how much I manage because the work stuff piles up...

[Aspirant]

Income 3198,31
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer -100
Savings account transfer
Food -511,74
Lunches -12,5
Gasoline -52,46
Car
Health (should be 80+) -95,49
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -261,96 Mostly yard projects
Shopping & sport -24,4 Extra gym payment
Beer & restaurants -125,67
Travel
Misc -10 Charity
Broker account transfer -1000
Credit card payments -650

Well. Not a good month, but not bad either. Income stays the same and expenses are going down slightly. Food is still too high, but at least DW went shopping a couple of times so I didn´t have to pay all of it. Food bill also includes beer and few legos so not all food... Normally kid gets breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack in daycare and we eat lunch outside so now we have 7 meals/snacks more at home per day.

It seems I am consuming too much craft beer. I bought a sixpack from local brewery for 38 EUR
I think I need to find time to make my own beer or something. I can do that if I could get a day alone in the house (hot stuff and glass bottles do not combine well with 5-year olds).

Gym wasn´t too actively used. It seems that I get enough fresh air from doing stuff in the yard. But there is need for improvement since I can do decent training in there so why even use normal gym. Its not like I am actually ever going to the gym. My employer grants culture/sport vouchers so I have to think about where to use them instead. I was thinking of getting a personal trainer so I can improve my weight lifting technique. Currently my lower back is getting stiff even with low weights.

Car ran a whole month with one tank of gas and work lunches were pretty minimal.

The CC payments are from time before Corona. Some frivolous spending on watches. They should last a lifetime or can be resold at decent value.

I managed to quit the newspaper subscription and gym membership (well that´s on hold until I can to go meet the PT live).

[Aspirant]

The isolation is starting to show in the family. Weekends are ok, but weekdays are a bit difficult. I am trying to skip non-essential work stuff and focus on the important ones. Now the non essential stuff keeps piling up, so workdays are starting to get a bit cluttered because I have to babysit for parts of the day. Kid is raised by TV and acts up because not getting enough attention. Does stupid stuff on purpose. I have been feeling a bit non-energetic lately. I think I just need a vacation for couple of weeks, but that seems impossible until summer...

Food. It has been nice to cook, but I think I need to devote a bit more time to learning again. I made paella, curry, salads and opened the barbecue season too. Trying to formulate meal plan and shopping list for a whole week. Not very successful, but last week we had so much leftovers that we didn´t get to do all the meals...

Side project business is apparently surviving Corona. No new growth but not too much cancellations so that is not necessarily going to file for bancruptcy even though this has hit small businesses pretty hard.

I still need more alone time than I am currently getting. I think I need a project or something so I can concentrate on something interesting. I have been looking at doing online courses, but its hard to decide what to study (business, investing, management, psychology?).

DW has 50 % work schedule which is doing her good. And she got a grant Now she is officially among the smartest 5-10 % of the smart people who are doing PhD. Well I am not sure if a PhD is a smart move in the Finnish job market, but anyway... She deserved it in any case.

What are your thoughts on interest rates in the next few years? I have been reading up and seems that the current ECB support measures are keeping the interest rates low in Europe. That is if everything is continuing as 2009-2019. Now there is a distinct possibility that euro area screws up the fiscal policy and we end up getting strong inflation which might even lead to hyperinflation. I think hyperinflation is very unlikely to happen, but I have been thinking that if I should speed up mortgage payments instead of playing in the stock market.

[Aspirant]

May update

Income 3082,07
Joint account transfer -400 Even out grocery bill 400
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -1000
Broker account transfer
Food -551,4 Lots of grill meats
Lunches -41,23 Some office days in May
Gasoline -56,9
Car -2,5
Health (should be 80+) -224 Heavy blood tests
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -331,39
Shopping & sport -207,22 Lego, summer sport stuff for kid
Beer & restaurants -91,56 Grocery bill includes lots of beer
Travel
Misc -116 Investment book, betting 20, charity 10

Credit card payments -253 Stupid vanity purchases from before Corona
June will have stupid purchases relating to musical instruments (me+kid)

Horrible month for spending. I tried to support local small businesses and bought craft beers and local meats since the grill season started. Some money went to backyard projects, which are not bad. I try to build a hugelkultur mound and grow salad and veggies there. Let´s see if I get that sorted out.

I started to get sick and tired of being tired so I got a complete bloodwork done. It was pretty much fine, but I have to see white cell balances with a doctor. My guess is that it is just allergies (if not, its cancer). Eyes feel like someone poured sand into them and general grogginess is worse than before. No broker account transfers because I had minor surgery in June to try to fix the tiredness. I paid it out of pocket with private healthcare so I could choose when to have it instead of waiting in line. Finland pretty much closes around midsummer because everyone is on holiday. A good time to be on sick leave instead of the busier months.

Stocks have pretty much rebounded apart from few misses during March when I was trying to bottom feed crisis companies. I really need to start using some kind of strategy with stocks. I have been moving towards index funds, but I always stumble into some "good opportunities" with turnaround companies. Of course some turnarounds are not upwards

[Aspirant]

I have 2 weeks break from work. I had a small operation, and it went fine. The recuperation period seems to be pretty long though. It´s been 4 days since I had solid food and the meds make it a bit hard to do anything strenuous. But maybe I can take the rest I have been needing, read some, sort out the crappy small stuff that accumulates during life (clean up this, fix that, write the e-mail that has waited for weeks etc).

So I seem to be spending about 200 euros per month on "Stupid" category. Maybe I need to redefine my priorities a little more clearly, so I could avoid feeling bad about my purchases.
I am allowed to spend money on
1. Health
2. Sports
3. Home renovations
4. Kid
5. Fishing

I should not buy vintage watches and guitars online. Duh, that was pretty straightforward. Fishing might not be a "mandatory expenditure" from ERE standpoint, but it is cheaper than therapy. And I need to teach my son how to fish. It´s one of those primal skills everyone should know. I don´t hunt, so can´t really teach that. I have been thinking of buying a kayak, but maybe that is one of those thing that is better off to rent. Its fun, and I have lakes, rivers and sea nearby, but I don´t seem to have time to actually start serious kayaking. The purchase would make sense if used more than say 15 days per year.

Food bill is not going down during the summer. Too much grilling and parties etc. Fun stuff and socializing. We spend 8 months in the year brooding in the darkness, so when it is summer we need to make the most of it.

Health bill will be bad in June, but it actually has little over 6 month payback period, since it should save on monthly medical costs.

Uninstall online auction app. Mostly waste of time mindlessly scrolling and occasionally wasting money on something I don´t actually need.

Work on side project. Planning and getting back on track with the whole thing.

Ride a bicycle. I can´t actually train just yet, but I could try to move a little every day. I think I will faint if I try to have strenuous exercise.

Holiday planning should be on this list as well. Now the Covid has made it cool to not travel abroad, so we can prioritize nature oriented travelling and hanging out in the nature. This is so easy in Finland. If you are not familiar with this country, you can think of it as Canada but less majestic scenery. Already booked 2 cabins for the summer and I am planning a fishing trip (somewhere). What would be your favorite holiday plans for the time of travel restrictions?

[ertyu]

Hahahaha, I recognize your "stupid" category. I call it "bullshit spending" and I know exactly what you mean. About online auction apps used for entertainment - uninstalling works; I uninstalled my online shopping app and it worked. I could always install it back if I needed to as my account was not deactivated, but the additional steps required made me have to stop and consider whether I am making a planned purchase I actually need or whether I am just looking at things, wasting my time, and likely to make an impulse bullshit purchase as a result. The app had gotten quite good at serving me suggestions for exactly the sort of crap I liked but didn't really need, but I found that when I stopped going back on the app and looking at enticing pictures, my desire for bullshit purchases fell accordingly.

[Aspirant]

It seems every month there is something on the stupid category

Now I have been looking at the online auction for guitars and watches, but also a kayak, new (used) cars, plots of land, tools/equipment for home renovation and some bikes. I don't need any of that.

The land could be justifiable somehow, but I wouln't start building anything for at least a decade. Building a log cabin deep in the woods probably crosses the mind of every (male) ERE-person at some point. It would be an inflation hedge though... Maybe @Vaikeasti can enlighten me about the costs of the cabin?

[Aspirant]

I tried to summarize the beginning of the year spending. I didn´t get a fancy graph going, but apparently I have earned 16 k and saved 6,1 k from it.
For the first 5 months I have direct savings rate
Savings+Brokerage / Income 37 %
Savings+Brokerage + Mortgages / Income 52 % (mortgage repayments, not including interest)

These calculations are just for the salary. I have 2 separate halves of investment apartments that have their own accounting (or lack of it). Basically they will pay for themselves in 15 years. I try not to tough the small monthly surplus so I can use that to future renovations or other surprise costs. If I manage to save down payment for third apartment (and my fried is game for one more) I will add more to these.

My income is net income and mandatory pension deductions have been made from that already. So since all the US people are reporting 401K and IRA´s as savings, maybe I should add the 360 €/month deduction to the savings rate as well. That would add up to 62% savings rate from net income. There is employer contribution on top of that as well. But the national pension system will be quite risky in the future. I will start getting it around 69 years old, and I can´t rely on that so much. If I would stay at work until full retirement age I would get approx 2600 €/month. I could live with that. But this is not what this forum is about is it???

The expense side needs to be tweaked. Normally I have had this mental rule of thumb that I save during working months and I wont worry about this during the holiday month. Now that we don´t have bigger holiday plans, I could maybe squeeze in a bit more savings during July. I have a little bit on the travel account and we can use that for rentals and holiday trip costs (gas etc). Biggest rental place will be free, since its a family cabin that we can use for a week (actually longer if we want to but that would lead to working camp).

During the summer the largest expenses will be home renovations, vacationing and partying. We are slowly doing work on the yard and the house. Nothing costly, just maintenance painting etc. Maybe planting some stuff in the backyard. Insurance payments are usually due in the summer so that will make a significant dent in the savings side. Eating is on hold at the moment because of the surgery so that might save some money in June. Also no beer for 2 weeks.

[Vaikeasti]

Maybe @Vaikeasti can enlighten me about the costs of the cabin?

Our cabin costs around 1200 eur /year just owning it in a usable state (taxes, trash, electricity base price, water base price etc.)
Another cabin that I know of had costs of 1700 eur last year. They used it for maybe a months worth so I'd guess the base costs are around the same. Though they have road maintaining costs which we don't have. We have a dock rent that they don't have.

But these sums do not include any maintenance to the cabin. So far we've spent almost 10 000 eur/ year for the cabin as we've been fixing and improving things in and around the cabin. Our cabin is an expensive cabin close to home with modern luxuries (electricity and running water).

Maybe Nuuka might be better informed in the normal price range of owning a cabin?

Also I'd be really interested to hear more about rental investing in Finland. How much do you do yourself and what kind of ROI are you expecting, do you invest only locally or in LCOL areas and so on.

I hope you've recovered well from the surgery and get to enjoy the summer.

[Aspirant]

Yea. That´s the problem with cabins. If its good, it needs maintenance and if it is bare bones, eventually it needs lots of renovation to become nicer and then it will need maintenance. Catch-22
Using the cabin just for a few weeks per year doesn´t justify the cost (IMO). Either I would have to spend significantly more time in the cabin (and less at work). But still the idea of buying just a plot of land is appealing...

I am not a role model of good investing in real estate. I try to have older stuff (with accrued depreciation in the buying price) and rent it out for +5 % profit to total capital (5-8 % ROI) and 15 % ROE for own capital. This ratio gets gradually worse when I pay the loan back (E grows faster than R in the equation). I buy 30 % equity and take 70 % debt. I am staying away from the highly leveraged new apartments (with yhtiölaina). I wouldn´t put my money in real estate in Helsinki. I have looked and the Excel says no. That would require that the prices continue climb higher and higher. So far the prices are climbing, but I don´t see an economic justification for that to continue indefinitely. I split the risk with my friend, so I only own halves. I am targeting the rent to be slightly below local averages so I can select my tenants from a larger group. This should lead to longer term leases (less hassle). So far I am just trying to be nice to the tenants (buy a Xmas gift etc).

This is basically a method of forced savings for me and a way to use leverage in a way that fits my risk profile. I wouldn´t use debt to buy stocks, but somehow real estate is fine.

[Aspirant]

June wall of shame. There is just no excuse.
I paid for bike maintenance, I used credit cards, I shopped online and drank too much beer... And I know its not getting any better in July

Income 3082,07
Joint account transfer 400
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer -1000
Food -576,22 Bday party +130
Lunches -89,13
Gasoline
Car -34,38 One taxi ride
Health (should be 80+) -793,43 Meds, surgery
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store -219 Garden projects
Shopping & sport -104,26 Outdoor pants, lego
Beer & restaurants -170,52
Travel
Misc -118 Bike maintenance
Credit card payments -440,55 Musical instruments

[Aspirant]

Holiday update.

The first holiday week was pretty ERE-friendly. Spent the week with family in a cabin that my mother´s family owns. Free accommodation. Remote place next to a lake. Went fishing and rowing boat trips with my kid and a little hike in a national park. We just bought food, one toy and a book about nature and camping for my kid. About 150 € for the week for 3,5 persons.

I have been thinking about buying a summer cabin, but so far I have decided against it. I have 3 places to lay my head near my home town, so I don´t need any extra maintenance work and expense. Maybe I like to be somewhere else during my holidays so not owning a cabin gives more degrees of freedom to choose. And I have perfectly good camping gear, so I can stay pretty much where ever I please during the summer. So a little mental ERE-win. If I would invest the cost of even a basic cabin in stocks, I could rent a cabin for a week or two with the dividends or use that for other holiday expenses. So I think I will rather have more degrees of freedom on how I use my free time.

This week was supposed to be a home maintenance week, but I hurt my back so not much progress in that department. Few expenses though.
I really need to focus on my physical fitness, to be able to live a fulfilling life as I get older. Now that I got my constant fatigue getting better, I might actually have more mental and physical energy to do the necessary exercise.

We have quite a few renovations coming up for the house during the next few months so I have to build some extra buffer instead of investing this month (or the next). Total might be about 5000 €. Once again, the joys of owning stuff But this was to be expected because we have an old house. I knew there was some accrued depreciation that need to be fixed at some point.

[Aspirant]

Holiday month of eating out and drinking beer.

I behaved like a decent ERE'er for one week only. The rest was just unmindful spending. It seems I had some party or another almost every week, and eating and drinking out can be a huge money sink. We didn´t even do anything extravagant, but it all adds up. Kid was at home for the whole month so that might explain some of the extra costs in food & restaurants. Aug will be daycare costs (from joint account) and hopefully less food costs at home.

Health costs should be lowered in the upcoming months. Although I found out a new medical expense I think I need to undertake. I had such a good experience with couple previous attempts at improving my well being that I might do another inquiry and see where that leads to (MRI scan). Could be nothing, but a small cost to prevent a major health scare.

Luckily things are getting back into the normal routines. The beginning of Aug was also holiday so this month is probably ruined as well. We didn´t get all the household repairs done so the costs will emerge during the autumn.

So no savings during July, but on the other hand most of the travel account is unused. So if I would have transferred the costs from that account, I could have saved almost the normal amount. I think I´ll just leave it there for next year if we do a longer holiday trip as a family.

Income 3005,57
Joint account transfer -1000
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer
Broker account transfer
Food -659,19
Lunches -138,16
Gasoline -94,61
Car -49,8 Taxi + parking
Health (should be 80+) -157,83
Electricity
Phone -7,55
Hardware store -69,49 Paints & supplies
Shopping & sport -99,98 Fishing permits, camping gear
Beer & restaurants -543,5
Travel -97,9 Train ticket, bus tickets
Misc
Credit card payments -50

[Aspirant]

August shame

Income 3211,93
Joint account transfer -1500 Kitchen appliances
Travel account transfer -100
Savings account transfer -500
Broker account transfer
Food -681,25 Strawberries, company food
Lunches -123,96
Gasoline -122,14 Fishing trip
Car -55,69
Health
Electricity
Phone 6
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -314,44 Sheets, sports clothing
Beer & restaurants -268,35 Beer festival, lots of eating out
Travel
Misc -22 Fishing licence
Credit card payments

Well that went badly. We replace all kitchen appliances, so I have to deposit a bit more to the joint account in the coming months. Consequently this means less savings. Salary and food bill are artificially high, because I paid for some food for company occasions and received reimbursement. Food is still awfully high. There was one birthday party that I brought food and wine to so I didn´t eat all that by myself Sheets are a bit of a luxury purchase but I realized that I have bought the last set about 7 years ago

Other thoughts: I have been trying to be happier and I have succeeded I think I need to weed out bad habits one by one. If I stop trying to do 10 things at the same time and concentrate on maybe one, I may see some progress. Now I start to have some energy and my evenings seem to have little openings for some excercise. My physical shape is so bad that I need to train for an year to be fit enough to even start training. So babysteps...
Now it seems that work stuff are getting in the way of "healthy lifestyle" or whatever. I have two work parties in september alone.

Side gig is pretty dormant. We have hopes that things will improve during the autumn. If things stay this way, will will have about 100 000 of yearly sales. It is a societal company not focused on maximizing profits so the profits will be marginal... But I think the net benefit to society will be larger than the profits.

[Aspirant]

September expenses
Income 3288,28
Joint account transfer -1200,00 Still paying for the new appliances to joint account
Travel account transfer -100,00
Savings account transfer -1000,00 Just saving, no investing
Broker account transfer
Food -429,18 Party food reimbursed by employer 160
Lunches Deducted from salary
Gasoline -58,37 Got lucky and DW paid a tank of gas this month
Car -5,80 Parking
Health
Electricity
Phone -8,00
Hardware store -13,05
Shopping & sport -322,41
Beer & restaurants -246,51 I didn´t drink it all, I swear
Travel -51,10 Taxi
Misc -70,35 Bday gift and charity
Credit card payments -34,22

September was uneventful regarding finances. The food bill is actually at record low. Bought groceries and drinks for company event and got reimbursed for 160 (+100 in restaurant category and 25 for taxi) so the actual food spending was 270. This is like Horsewoman level (and I don´t own a farm). I think this happened because I tried to get DW to pay her half of the grocery bill. She got resourceful and used the contents of the food cabinets more carefully and we just had more leftovers and generally poorer quality stuff. I am still alive and kid is not malnourished, so all in all a good accomplishment even though my plan didn´t exactly work

Shopping included football stuff for kid, trampoline and some stuff from the sports store.

I don´t feel like investing at the moment. Things are looking pretty bleak in the stock market, or more precisely in the actual economy and theoretically the markets should follow the real economy. I am well aware that this is not the case, so I am losing out on nice catches on volatile stock market. But I am still licking my wounds from airlines during the spring so I am not keen on looking the best dips.

Side gig is steady and potentially growing towards the end of the year. I should do more work on it, because I need to get the accounts in order before we have to do financial statements. Current estimate for the next 12 months is 100k revenue.

Family life is getting better. We are both more chill around the house and we have been talking more to each other and made plans together. I ws so tired during the last few years that my mind started to think the marriage is ruined. In fact my life was and is pretty good and just my perception of it was ruined I think DW is a keeper. I just need to get more time to exercise and do my side projects. I would be happier then.

Work life is picking up from the slack of covid and summer. Now everyone is busy-beeing around so lots of meetings etc. Now I have more energy to actually shovel the manure, so its not so bad. I try to learn to listen and manage people. I need to communicate more especially now that the team is not physically present so much. The information is not transmitting through daily gossiping, so I need to start actually doing some managerial stuff .

[Aspirant]

Let´s review my plans from January.

I think I have made some progress, but not that much.

1. Health first
Stop the passive and stressful lifestyle
Move 2-3 times per week
Gym, home gym, walking, jogging, playing with kid, be outside with family
Add more veggies to diet
--> Consequently lose weight and get fitter
Health has improved and stress has gotten better but I haven´t found the time or energy yet to start working out regularly. I have lost almost 4 kg (8 lbs) but not because of working out.

Summer was better in regards of being outside, but that will change. We are entering the darkness season next month and things will get pretty bleak if you don´t see much daylight for 3 months.

I have been eating more veggies and less beer. Maybe a slight improvement in the diet front.

2. Family life
Remove stress from daily normal life
More common things to do with the family
Put more time and effort to the kids hobbies

Almost all the boxes ticked. Started to go to soccer practice with kid, so weekly kid time has increased. Stress has gotten better for both of us.

3. Side project 1
Planning in the beginning of the year with the team
Event planning
Marketing and lobbying strategies
Selling
Financial planning and follow through on accounts

Not so much on this front. There has been improvement of the practical stuff for the customers, but I need to do some half serious accounting towards the end of the year. We are taking steps to ensure that we don´t need to actually work for the money in the future, but instead focus on the community building and fun projects

4. Finances
Save a nest egg / emergency fund / war stash
Achieve 30 % savings rate
Optimizing saving and make it an easy routine
Monthly accounting of expenses
Making NW calculations
Course in investing (professional level 1)
Pay off one rental

In the process of doing the nest egg. Way too slow because expenses are staying constant.
On track of achieving 30 % savings rate.
Saving starts to be a routine. No major lapses so far.
Monthly accounting of expenses on track. The expenses are not so much on track though
I will first collect a decent nest egg and only after that start paying double on the rental. Even then this will take years.

[Aspirant]

Lately I have been thinking about depreciation. I think it is just a nicer way of saying that everything falls apart slowly. Entropy is a bitch.

In a systems theoretical viewpoint, the larger and more complex systems we create, the faster they fall apart. If you think about physical stuff, you need to do maintaining constantly and this requires money and time expenditures. In social constructs the time part of maintenance becomes more important. Maintaining relationships and social cohesion.

Now it seems that my current systems are occupying most of my time. I have time to do the necessary "maintenance" of everything, but it is hard to move forward in any front.

This is why I think the current middle-class lifestyle is a trap.
You have to spend weeks every year to maintain non-productive assets (mowing lawns, painting etc). Hermits have it so much easier

I need to evaluate carefully how to minimize maintenance and make the most of the time I spend on it (both socially and physically). I listed some of the stuff I volunteer in and I need to get rid of some obligations. Unfortunately I can't dodge all of them (some are mandatory govt stuff).

Some examples: 200 k house depreciates about 4 k per year. You can combat this by either equity or sweat. I try to do basic maintenance myself and contract the hard stuff (electricity and plumbing). Still it is over a month worth of work every year, just to even the score with entropy.

[Aspirant]

October seems the maintenance month for the year. Every weekend is filled with small maintenance work.Raking leaves, painting etc.

It seems that it takes about a month's work to keep up with my current scheme. This needs to change because currently I am neglegting the most important maintenance work and that is myself. I will accrue derpeciation on my own body and that is something I can't fix later on.

On top of this, I have social maintenance work. I have a few associations that I am a part of. I do mostly bureaucracy for them but that is starting to get to me. Another two weeks of "maintenance work" per year.

And don't get me started with cleaning, dishes and other household maintenance. This takes half a day per week, but I guess that's a normal part of every life...

[Aspirant]

And October expenses

Income 3005,57
Joint account transfer -1000,00
Travel account transfer -200,00 This is basically deferred spending
Savings account transfer -1000,00
Broker account transfer
Food -293,08 Ha, this budget-keeping is paying off
Lunches -27,20 I got lunch vouchers deducted from salary.
Gasoline -80,31
Car -4,70
Health -94,53 Pharmacy and vitamins
Electricity
Phone -6,00
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -174,90 Soccer club tuition for kid and bike helmet
Beer & restaurants -178,34 Yea, I know. This would be the easiest reduction point (but at least I make this accountable for myself)
Travel
Misc -14,75 Includes one 4,9 EUR cup of coffee
Credit card payments

On top of those expenses I got an office desk for DW and winter jacket for me. They were paid from travel account because we didn´t travel far last summer and it seems there are no big trips coming up due to COVID.
ERE stuff I did:
-Changed electricity contract for hopefully cheaper option. This is peanuts since it is only household electricity and our house is heated by district heating. But all savings will be _my_ peanuts from now on.
-Cancelled mail order vitamins (Well duh!)
-In process of quitting Amazon Prime (one series to binge watch left)
-Getting better bids for household insurances (could potentially save 1000 EUR per year for the household).

We are entering the darkness season. we have about 7,5 hours of daylight and it will get worse until Christmas. It is cold, dark and wet. The worst. Consequently I have no extra energy to do sports of exercise. Maybe I should focus on doing the small stuff that has been accumulating around the house? DW has been active on that front, but currently has caused equal amounts of mess in the other places in the house (but surely it will get better eventually).

I still have about a week of ”obligations” I can´t dodge. But I got most of the stuff done so I am not stressing about the rest any more. Actually I should focus on re-renting one apartment, because I need some time to find new tenants and make it happen.

The side project had a little progress. Few more long nights and maybe weekends and we will meet my personal goals for the year. Maybe it is not what the others were expecting, but at least I am happy.

[Aspirant]

Income 2929,07
Joint account transfer -1000,00
Travel account transfer
Savings account transfer -800,00
Broker account transfer
Food -368,76
Lunches
Gasoline -107,17
Car -48,20
Health
Electricity
Phone
Hardware store
Shopping & sport -257,84 Some Xmas presents
Beer & restaurants -203,90
Travel
Misc -30,00
Credit card payments -16,31 CV-19 masks online

Another typically atypical month. Couple of parties and eating out at the beginning of the month, but the virus finally reached the backwoods, so now we are at home office and otherwise socially isolating.

I went camping outdoors for a week. That was nice, and the weather was slightly below freezing the whole week, so we weren´t wet. The schedule was quite busy, so didn´t get enough sleep, and I am still feeling that. Shopping included some gear updates for winter camping. The main thing is not to freeze your ass off, so the gear needs to be good.

Savings are still on the low side because of the renovations and extra expenses from the joint account.

On the positive side DW has been more interested in the savings stuff. Her income is bit lower than mine (studying for phd) so extra expenses need to be planned quite far ahead. Also the relationship seems better that say one year ago. I don´t know if its just me, or what happened We have had talks of saving and financial issues and that is a welcome progress. We are asking a better price on our mortgages, so that might save some actual $$ (or €€ in our case). We will cancel some monthly expenses (yay) and try to live 2021 a bit more frugally.

December will be another costly month. I have to travel to take care of stuff, and that will result in self imposed quarantine. Not that it matters since we can work from home and I don´t have much of a social life. Also I need to buy xmas presents. Anyway, not taking care of that stuff would result in a monthly loss of 1000 €.