Savings Rate for July 2014

Build your piggy bank by saving

Another month flew by already – time to look at my budget spreadsheet and see how I’ve done savingswise. As I’ve explained before, I update my Excel file every evening to keep track of everything coming in and going back out. I’ve been doing this since university and it works wonders for me. Now, without any further ado, my income and expenses for July 2014!

Income:

  • Paycheck: €2,044
  • Other: €100

Expenses:

  • Rent: €350
  • Groceries: €5
  • Restaurant: €20
  • Games/PC: €1
  • Sports: €5
  • Subscriptions: €37
  • Entertainment: €10
  • Gifts: €71

For those who didn’t read last month’s savings rate report, I’m not actually living on a €25 food budget. Because I still live with my parents since graduating last summer, I hardly have any food or groceries related expenses. In return, I pay my parents €350 rent for my old room.

July turned out to be a great month, easily topping June! With a savings rate of 76.7% I’ve crushed my goal of 50%.  This will probably the last month with a savings rate over 70% because I’m moving out into an apartment of my own tomorrow!  Total savings for this month were €1,645. Of the money I didn’t spend €95 went to a Belgian tax optimized personal pension fund through an automated contribution. The other €1,550 I immediately invested into my three exchange-traded funds.

Spending was back down to normal levels, but still higher than expected because of a bunch of rather expensive gifts. The subscriptions category is also way up, but that’s a result of buying this domain name for three years – is that commitment or what? All in all, I’m really happy with my money management in July. I had a lot of fun activities without spending any money at all!

My main goal, as previously stated, is to save and invest at least 50% of my income. My current rates for 2014 show that I am well under way of reaching that target:

  • January: N/A
  • February: N/A
  • March: 87.4%
  • April: 65.3%
  • May: 78.6%
  • June: 72.9%

The savings rate for January and February contain a tracking error in my spreadsheet, so I won’t use them to calculate my yearly average savings rate. At the moment I’m averaging about 76%, which is the same as at the end of June. I still feel great about budgeting and trying my hand at frugal living, but the next few months will provide quite the challenge. I estimate to spend about €1,000 every month from here on out, so a 50% savings rate should be doable considering my income is about €2,000 each month.

Thank you very much for reading and check back in a month to see how I did!

14 Comments

    1. Thanks! Living at home is awesome money-wise! Your expense report was also mighty impressive. 🙂

      Too bad I’ll be moving out, although I’ll have more friends around and my commute to work will be two hours less every day.

      Have a great day,
      NMW

        1. You have no idea! I can even bike to work now (approximately 25km one-way) when the weather is nice. And I’ll be able to see my friends a lot more. To me that’s totally worth the hit in savings.

          Thanks for visiting,
          NMW

    1. Haha, at this rate it would take me at least 20 more years, I think! I am playing with the idea of releasing quarterly net worth updates too so you can track the progress better.

      Thanks for the support, Will! Someday I’ll be hitting 85% too!

  1. Fantastic job! The best year I ever had was about 55% or 56% (but maybe I’m waffling a bit about this). 😉

    I’m wondering whether there’s anything you’ve cut back on that you particularly miss? If so, it looks like you have plenty of room to introduce any such spending back into your outgoing.

    Again, Great Job!

    1. 55% is nothing to sneeze at! I hope I’ll be able to manage that much in the upcoming months! 🙂

      I haven’t really cut back on anything, but because I’ve been doing quite some (unpaid) overtime at work and because my daily commute takes – scratch that, took! – over three hours I don’t have much time to do expensive stuff. And living with your parents does help a lot, trust me!

      Sometimes I do miss buying stuff for my PC, but I just can’t justify spending €500 every year on the latest graphics card. Technology and gadgets in general are my weak point, but I’ve learned to hold my excitement for new tech.

      Thanks for stopping by and for the encouraging words,
      NMW

  2. Very nice saving rate. Even at 50% saving rate once you move out of your parents, that’s still very good, much better than most people.

    1. Hi Tawcan,

      We’ll see if the 50% rate is manageable, but I think so. I believe the average household savings rate in Belgium was 14% for 2013, which isn’t too great, but not awful either… If you plan on working until 65 and depend on your pension that is!

      Thanks for stopping by,
      NMW

  3. Awesome savings rate, way to go! And, super exciting that you’re moving to your own apartment–you’ll have to keep us posted on that transition. Our savings rate fluctuates month-to-month too–we’ve got a low of 65% and a high of 82%.

    1. Thanks, Mrs. Frugalwoods!

      It has been an exciting week indeed! Everything is finally moved over, the fridge is chock-full and my tedy bear is settled in. 🙂 Now I finally have some time to read up on all the personal finance blogs I follow and post an article on the past week.

      82% is mighty impressive! You should challenge Will from First Quarter Finance to get the highest savings rate. He’s able to do 85%!

      Have a great weekend,
      NMW

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