2017 Q3 Budget

Sorry for a bit late update on our budget, but 2017Q3 was not that good 😦 I know that this type of blog readers don’t want to hear something negative as the main thing they are looking in such type of blogs is inspiration, positivity and stuff like that. For some time I was not sure if I would continue with this blog at all, but let it stay. I had few similar blogs in the past and run out of willingness to continue them so they were shut down. Later I launched similar website from the start. This time this blog will stay anyway as it is based on free wordpress services 🙂

Well to be honest there was few things that was positive at this quarter. Actualy two Y2017 goals were completed:

Goal #4 – Repair kitchen balcony – Completed 

Goal #4 – Run a half-marathon 21 km. – Completed

Yes, the kitchen balcony is glazed and the kitchen is extended to it. This was a costly  (Ą1 kEUR) thing, but I think it was worth it. The kitchen is much larger now. Another achievement I managed to run ha half-marathon on September. Timing was not miracle 2 hours 32 minutes and I had to admit that I was not prepared enough. Also we visited another country – Croatia and its beautiful mountain seaside. But lets get back to our budget.

Income:

From the income perspective this was a regular quarter. My wage was little bit higher 3.6 kEUR due to my holiday payment which is slightly higher. My wife wage 1.5 kEUR. No income from military as I did not participated in any of the exercises. Dividend income was minimal 53 EUR Dividend income. In total we received 5.1 kEUR in fact little bit (+61 EUR or ~1%) higher then year before.

Expenses:

Expenses were very high 6.0 kEUR at this quarter mainly due to two reasons – holiday in Croatia 1 kEUR and kitchen balcony glazing another 1 kEUR. Without these two expenses our regular expenses were at 4 kEUR, which was just at targeted 4 kEUR level. But as my taking show there is no more stable thing then unusual expenses 🙂 So this could be treated as a good thing. Lets dig into numbers a bit:

• Mortgage loan:  0,63 kEUR stabilized at this level and should remain the same until EURIBOR will increase above zero.
• Consumer loan: continue to decrease and with last payment for mobile done at July counted for 90 EUR this quarter and will be only 60 EUR next.
• Utilities: were minimal for summer time 0,33 kEUR
• Food: this cost line remains a bit high 1,17 kEUR. But I have to say that it was not that bad. To be totally satisfied 1 kEUR would be nice.
• Transport: were also minimal 0,19 kEUR

In total fixed cost were 2.4 kEUR bellow indicative 2.5 kEUR fixed expenses line. So there is something to be positive after all 🙂 In fact this was the first quarter that the fixed cost was bellow this line (!) Yes, this was summer (low utilities).

• Clothes: cost were minimal 0,11 kEUR.
• Hollidays: small 1,13 kEUR these were expenses for our 10 day holiday in Croatia. Trip was not that excited as we went there by bus. Bad idea and we will never do it. Got very tired by 2 day trip trough half of Europe. But the country is nice. Personally I would recommend some remote small village by the coast. There are a lot of small hotels for that.
• Home repair: 1,19 kEUR mostly for glassing of the balcony. It was not perfect, the windows were few centimeters short, but we have to warm the walls and ceilings.
• Other cost: were high 1,18 kEUR but many of it were related to health things:
  • 336 EUR healthcare – related to our main goal, but in a bit sad way that I would not like to write here.
  • 90 EUR presents
  • 49 EUR meditation app – annual subscribal
  • 43 EUR wife online purchases
  • 54 EUR cosmetics
  • 608 EUR other – most cash out money that were used related to holiday and healthcare expenses.

None fixed expenses 3,6 kEUR way above targeted 1,5 kEUR none fixed expenses line. 

All in all quarterly expenses were 2 kEUR higher then set 4 kEUR limit as mentioned due to repair and holiday expenses. Also around 500 EUR expenses due to healthcare.

Savings:

On the saving side this was a setback quarter. Expenses were -0,9 kEUR or -17% higher than income. Of course some of expenses (home repair) were related to Q1 extra income that we kept, but we have to look at the 9 month result and its not that nice. Average saving rate declined from 19% to only 8%… So we are behind our Goal #2 – Save 15% of income. 

There was no investments during 2017 Q3 due to that, but we did not went underwater as we had 1 kEUR saved from 2017 Q1. So this quarter was a setback for us. Both financially and in other way. This is why I was so late in this update.