Today’s post outlines our family of 3’s annual spend for 2023. It is worth noting that half the year was spent in Ireland and the other half was spent in Canada.

Total spend in 2023 came to:

€63,547

This is almost double last year‘s spend. The increase was largely due to our move to Canada.

Not included in this figure are the costs/proceeds from the sale of our house in Ireland, the sale of our investments, our income tax refund (8k), or the cost of our new car in Canada- offset by the sale of our car in Ireland (17k) and any other income offsets.

Overall Spend

Here is a summary of the main categories with spend over 2,000€.

And all main spend categories summarised by annual and average monthly spend in both Euro and Canadian Dollar.

EURO

CAD

Food

EUR

CAD

Food stayed almost exactly the same as last year at 10.1k.

Our grocery category (8.7k) includes everything you’d buy at the grocery store so can include alcohol, toiletries, cleaning products, the odd centre aisle item like small tools, toys for our son etc.

Grocery spend was about 400€ more than last year but we spent less on take-away and restaurants (600€ less combined).

So even given the rate of inflation this year on food, we don’t seem to be seeing that much of an increase in our grocery bill, this is likely due to our efforts to eat as little processed foods as possible. We also plan our meals and make lists for grocery shopping which helps reduce food waste.

If we convert the full annual food spend of 10.1k into cost per person per week – assuming 2 adults and 1 small fella (I’ll average at 2.75), it comes to 71€/week/person.

For those that are wondering about the food cost difference between Canada and Ireland. We haven’t really noticed much of a difference.

We shop online at Walmart which helps us avoid the shopping when hungry additions you inevitably throw into your cart, and are usually able to find discount codes using this chrome plug-in that knocks off about 20$ each week. As above, we try to eat whole, local, organic, fairly treated foods as much as possible, so even with the added costs for organic, I do think it is less than a lot of pre-made, processed foods would be. We are averaging about 200€/week since moving to Canada.

Monthly Bills

EUR

CAD

Monthly bills came in at just under 10k which is 2,500€ more than last year. The vast majority was mortgage/rent (6.4k). This is higher than last year as we are now renting instead of paying a small mortgage.

Gas was only 100€ more than last year at 1,265€ but we didn’t have a gas bill once we moved to Canada as our rental is heated with Electricity.

Electricity was 80€ less than last year at 457€. Electricity in Quebec is relatively cheap at 7.3¢/kwh.

Internet was 127€ more than last year as we are now paying 44€/month instead of the average 37€/month we were spending in Ireland (due to new customer offers).

Mobile was slightly less than last year at 520€ but this is only because we’ve been sharing a phone. I am very rarely not in a place with wifi so I don’t really need a phone plan. We are now paying about 30€/month for a bring-your-own-device plan of 20GB and unlimited calls/texts in Canada.

Moving Costs

EUR

CAD

As mentioned, we moved back to Canada this year. This is hopefully a once-in-a-decade cost ;). We spent 7,560€ to ship our furniture. It was well worth the cost for us to have all our belongings transplanted into our new home to help us feel at home more quickly. We spent a lot on our furniture and accessories in Ireland and it made sense to ship them rather than sell them off and replace them on this end. The other costs were flights and shipping materials.

Vacation

EUR

CAD

We spent more than double on travel this year than we did last year at 7.6k. The reason it is higher is that we had 2 weeks in Portugal (from Ireland), 3 weeks in Paris (from Canada) and bought our flights from Canada to Portugal and Ireland for early 2024 in Dec of 2023.

So flights came in at 3,356€ which was 310€ for Portugal from Cork for the 3 of us, 1,278€ for Paris/Ireland from Montreal for 2 of us, and 1,766€ for Portugal/Ireland from Montreal for the 3 of us.

Food came to 1,850€ for the 5 weeks so about 370€/week (compared to the average of 200€/week when staying home), due to taking part in restaurants and nights out on holiday.

Despite being abroad for 5 weeks, our accommodation costs only came to 1,912€. This averages out to 54€/night including 3 weeks in Paris. We managed this largely because we used our guest points that we had built up from home-exchange. We managed to stay almost the entire 3 weeks in Paris without paying for accommodation and we still have 2-3 weeks of points left over!

Here are some of the places we stayed.

Home

EUR

CAD

Home costs were significantly more than last year coming in at 6.7k compared to 1.8k. Part of the reason this looks to be so much higher is that our home-related costs last year were probably lower than usual as we knew we would be moving and did not buy anything we didn’t need. Once we moved, we had to buy a lot of new stuff to get set up in Canada. We sold a lot of our electronics and some furniture in Ireland which helped towards some of the costs but I can’t say we didn’t have fun buying new stuff.

We spent 2.4k on electronics including 2 new TVs, a sound system and 2 PS5s.

We spent 1.2k on furniture including dining room chairs, a kitchen island and a headboard.

We spent 900€ on small appliances including an espresso machine and BBQ.

Accessories costs seem very low at 385€ but this is because we offset these purchases with sales of stuff in Ireland. We sold off 2.4k of stuff in Ireland but bought 2.8k of stuff in Canada. Biggest costs here were an inflatable hot tub, new Christmas decorations and blinds. Although we are renting, we did still need a lot of organisational things like towel bars, soap dispensers, storage bins, door mats etc.

Smaller amounts then, were spent on maintenance, renos getting the house ready for sale, plants and insurance.

Our insurance costs seem so low as we got refunds from our cancelled Irish policies.

Medical

EUR

CAD

Medical costs were higher this year, coming in at almost 4k compared to 1.4k last year. Although we only needed health insurance for part of the year it still cost us 1.8k as we had to pay for interim insurance in Canada while we waited for our government insurance plan to kick in.

Doctor costs were also quite a bit higher at 1k. The largest part of this was my autism assessment and diagnosis which I had to pay for privately. Mr. MH also had to go to a private clinic a few times in Canada to get forms completed for his license and to get a prescription as we don’t yet have a family doctor.

Prescription costs were also higher as we had to pay out of pocket for Mr. MH’s diabetic stuff until we could apply for coverage under the provincial plan.

Little MH had a broken tooth which ultimately needed to be extracted, poor guy, so that brought up our dental costs. We should be getting a tax credit against that next year though which should offset that.

These costs should be significantly lower next year once all our tax credits and benefits kick in.

Transportation

EUR

CAD

Transport costs were only slightly higher than last year at 3.4k instead of 2.8k.

Petrol was about the same at 1.3k although I expect this to be lower next year. When in Ireland we had a 2012 hybrid but when we first moved to Canada we borrowed an older car for the first few months which would have cost more in petrol. In October we bought a 2021 hybrid and are seeing a big reduction in fuel costs so this will be an interesting comparison next year.

Car repairs and maintenance came in at 1k and is largely due to the cost of our winter tires. We hope to get a few winters out of them so again, hopefully this will be less next year.

Car insurance appears lower as we got a refund from our Irish policy which offset the costs on the Irish side. Next year this will appear higher. We pay 870€ for car insurance.

Entertainment

EUR

CAD

Entertainment was 1,400€ less than last year. We spent 480€ less on video games and 285€ less on alcohol. Mr. MH also got money back on sporting events as he had spare tickets to the Rugby World Cup which he sold on. In total, we spent 2.1k on entertainment.

Spending across sub-categories was fairly even between 100€ and 400€ on each.

Other

EUR

CAD

The remaining categories were largely between 1,000€ and 2,000€ each.

Misc was the highest at 1.8k. I got my Irish citizenship this year! This was the cost of my certificate and last-minute flight changes to Ireland.

Another 1.8k was spent on personal stuff like clothing, toiletries, haircuts, accessories, winter boots etc.

I had 1.7k of expenses for work, including indemnity insurance and customs on the shipment of my laptop.

Giving includes charity and gifts at 1.7k. Gifts include birthdays, Christmas and a thank-you gift for my parents for minding little MH while we were in Paris.

Kid stuff includes things like, activities, books, clothing, school supplies, and toys. The biggest cost here was a swing set and trampoline.

Blog costs came in at 873€ for insurance and subscriptions to run the website.

Health costs include things like classes and exercise equipment (800€). This year we bought a bike, a paddle board and some weights and I went to a few yoga classes.

Goals for next year

Needless to say, I’m hoping our costs next year will be significantly lower!

I’m going to target 43,000€ (63,000$). This will include 2.5 months in Portugal and Ireland along with our increased costs from renting.

This post outlines our family’s annual spend for 2022. This is for a family of 3 in Cork, Ireland.

For longer time followers, I know it’s been a while – I will be posting some big life updates soon so stay tuned. In the meantime, see below the details of our spending from last year.

Total spend in 2022 came to:

€34,907

This is just over 3,100€ less than last year which is under my predicted 36k!

Not included in this figure are investments (5k). Also excluded is the tax refund we got from last year’s overpayments (2.7k) and any other income offsets.

Expense tracking and reporting in this article is done using my own excel tracker template.

Overall spend

Here is a summary of the main categories with spend over 400€.

And all main spend categories summarised by annual and average monthly spend.

Food

Food remained our biggest expense in 2022 (10.1k), making up 30% of our annual expenses. This is up 46€/month on average compared to last year.

Our grocery category (8.3k) includes everything you’d buy at the grocery store so can include alcohol, toiletries, cleaning products, the odd centre aisle item like small tools, toys for our son etc.

Grocery spend went up by 300€ compared to last year but take-away spend was 200€ less than last year so we did a bit better cooking at home.

Restaurant spend was our biggest increase by almost 800€ as we were in Canada for 2 months and treated friends/family to meals as we were staying with them.

So even given the rate of inflation this year on food, we don’t seem to be seeing that much of an increase in our grocery bill, this is likely due to an increased effort to eat less meat.

If we convert the full annual food spend of 10.1k into cost per person per week (assuming 2 adults and 1 toddler (I’ll average at 2.75), it comes to 71€/week/person (up 4€/week/person from last year).

Monthly bills

Monthly bills came to a little over 7.2k or 20% of our annual spend. The vast majority of our monthly bills was our mortgage (55% or 3,963€). The rest were made up of Gas, Mobiles, Electricity, Internet, Refuse, Life Insurance (for me only to cover our mortgage). Gas was 300€ more this year due to rate increases. Electricity was 63€ less than last year due to the government credit. Combining the two brings our utility costs up by 238€ from last year. The remaining costs were fairly similar to last year.

Entertainment

Entertainment made up 11% of our annual spend. We spent 140€ more on entertainment this year totalling 3,603€ but sub-categories have shifted. Last year the biggest spend was sporting events which was overtaken this year by video games (double from last year). Alcohol also doubled from last year, some of which was because we could have people over again. The alcohol spend is only those bought directly at an off-license, the remainder is included in our grocery spend. Gadget spend was a bit higher as we treated ourselves to a Nintendo Switch this year. Remaining categories include nights out, sporting events, apps/patreon memberships, netflix, sightseeing (passes to Blarney Castle and Gardens), books, movies, and board games.

Vacation

Travel costs made up 10% of our annual spend coming in at 3,547€. Last year we spent 1 week in Portugal and 2 months in Canada. The one week in Portugal came to 1,482€ – 300€ for flights, 560€ for accommodation, 438€ for food/drink and 96€ for transport (trains and ubers). The only costs included in this category for the Canada trip was the flights coming in at 1,865€. As we were visiting family we didn’t have accommodation costs and food/drink costs were included in our main food/drink category. The other cost included in the accommodation line in this category was our annual membership for homeexchange (149€) which allowed us to host a student for 3 weeks and gather enough guest points to cover our accommodation in Paris this Fall for the Rugby World Cup.

Transportation

Transportation made up 8% of our annual spend coming in at 2,799€. This is 433€ less than last year mainly due to the fact that I paid motor tax for 2 cars last year before we got our “new” car. Petrol was about the same at 1,334€ and car insurance was higher at 728€ as we had a break-in and had to pay an additional 300€ as a deductible to get it fixed. Remaining categories include maintenance (313€), motor tax (180€), taxis (96€), tolls (70€), parking (53€) and public transport (25€).

Home

Home costs came in at 1,892€ (6% of annual spend). Sub-categories include home insurance (393€), accessories (378€ – we got some new bedding and a security camera), maintenance (354€), garden stuff (341€), local property tax (241€ – the additional top up from updates to valuation was paid in 2023), TV license and small appliance costs (spare part for our coffee machine).

Personal

Personal spend came out to 1,477€ and includes things like clothing (both Mr. MH and I needed a wardrobe refresh which we did in Canada), accessories (travel bag, backpack, earrings, shoes and a travel mug), vape and toiletries.

Medical

Medical costs came in at 1,449€. The biggest expense last year was therapy at 656€ (more on that to follow in the life update post but thankfully I am doing MUCH better), supplies (356€) includes things like multi-vitamins, probiotics and other non-prescription stuff bought at a pharmacy, Mr. MH’s glucose sensors ran out while in Canada and we had to pay out of pocket (221€), GP visits (200€), prescriptions (172€) and dentist (50€). Health insurance is a minus because we switched to monthly payments for 2023 instead of paying the full year up-front and we got a refund mid-year due to reduced services resulting from COVID.

Other

The remaining categories had a spend of 1k or less and include things like:

Gifts/charity came out to just over 1k. This was for birthdays and Christmas and charity giving.

Blog costs came in at 842€ for insurance, website and subscription costs.

Kid stuff came in at 321€ including clothing, accessories, toys, books and other supplies. We get most of our clothes from my sister-in-law (thank you!).

Misc includes postage and lottery tickets (238€).

Weddings/Special Occasions (168€) was for accommodation and food/drink for family events.

Goals for next year

I’m actually fairly happy with last year’s expenses and would be happy to aim for the same amount again this year. That said, we have some big changes coming up this year which will hopefully reduce our cost of living even further, potentially by another 8k bringing our annual spend down to 27k/year. Stay tuned for more on that!

Total spend in 2021 came to:

€38,064

This is only 4% less than last year instead of the 18.5% we had forecasted this time last year due to halving our remaining mortgage and selling our Canadian property, getting rid of that negative monthly cash flow.

Not included in this figure are the costs of our garden renovation which added to our home equity (12k), the capital costs of our “new” car (6.5k) and the income taxes we paid on our additional income here in Ireland (<1k) as the taxes are income-related expenses. Also excluded are any tax refunds we got from last years overpayments (8.6k).

Last year’s graphics were from YNAB but I converted my expense tracking to my own excel tracker template which I used to create the below graphics/reports.

Overall spend

Here is a summary of the main categories.

Food

Food became our biggest expense in 2021 (9.6k). Our grocery category (8k) includes everything you’d buy at the grocery store so can include alcohol, toiletries, cleaning products, the odd centre aisle item like small tools, toys for our son etc. Obviously, the food bought out of the house like lunches, restaurants and coffees are minimal due to COVID.

If we convert the full annual food spend of 9.6k into cost per person per week (assuming 2 adults and 1 toddler (I’ll average at 2.75), it comes to close to 67€/week/person.

This is a 23% increase from last years food spend. We got a lot more take-away in 2021 (38% or 400€ more than the previous year). Spend at the grocery store went up 18% (1,468€ more) compared to last year. We did less meal planning and more ad-hoc shops. Our son is eating more now so this could account for some of that increase. Also Mr. MH is coeliac so we spend a bit more on gluten-free pasta and bread and since Mr. MH is now the main grocery shopper and chef, we’ve been eating more meat and more red meat which is more expensive. We really did try to cut back on meat for a while in 2019 and 2020 which did reduce costs but it took a lot of effort to try and find new recipes all the time that didn’t end up all tasting the same. I found veggie recipes use a lot of the same base ingredients and eventually most of our meals ended up tasting very similar. I’d still like to eat less meat but this change has been bumped down the list with everything else that’s been going on.

Monthly bills

Monthly bills came to a little over 7k. The vast majority of our monthly bills was our mortgage (56% or 3,978€). The rest were made up of Gas, Mobiles, Electricity, Internet, Refuse, Life Insurance (for me only to cover our mortgage). Electricity was up 20% from last year (126€ more) and Gas was up 16% (139€ more) – this could be because we were away for the most expensive months in Jan-Feb 2020 in addition to rate increases. Internet was up 20% (100€ more) due to an increase in contract cost despite shopping around for intro offers.

Home

House related costs were our 3rd largest expense coming in at 5.2k. Sure, what else did we have to spend money on last year? We bought a new bed and mattress, a BBQ + supplies, picnic supplies (for all those COVID picnics meeting people outside), an awning for the garden, a humidifier and Christmas decorations etc. Our oven and hob gave up and needed to be replaced. Home maintenance was up this year too. We needed to replace a few taps and sink parts, and a roof repair for a leak as well as a few garden supplies. And the usual home insurance and TV license.

In terms of increases from last year, we spent 27% more on furniture, 45% more on small appliances and 86% more on maintenance than last year.

The joys of owning a 16-year-old home and all the appliances start to go at the same time. Something to keep in mind when looking to buy a house.

Entertainment

This category is slightly inflated by the cost of 2 rugby world cup packages, half of which we will be repaid for at some point. Mr. MH’s lifeline during COVID was sport so there are increased costs for sporting events and sports tv packages, he also got a second-hand bike. The next biggest cost in this category was sightseeing. We got annual passes to both Blarney Castle and Fota as some of the only outings we could do during lockdowns. The gadget category includes some podcast memberships, headphones, a PS4 controller and SAD lamp. The alcohol spend is only those bought directly at an off-license, the remainder is included in our grocery spend. We both play video games so spend a bit there.

Transportation

Transport costs were up from last year too coming in at just over €3,200. We paid cash for our car so have no car payment in this category. Despite not commuting to work we still spent almost €1,400 on petrol. We did have a few trips up to Sligo/Mayo and even though I am not commuting, we still drive around a good bit to various playgrounds and nature walks with our son. Even still, when we were both commuting to work, me with the car and Mr. MH on the bus, and able to drive to visit friends and family, we spent closer to 2k on petrol and public transport alone. Car repairs cost 71% more than last year as our previous car was starting to need more maintenance, part of the reason we got a new one. Motor tax was 33% more as I made a mistake paying for a full year on the old car before we traded it in which I didn’t realise I couldn’t get back. NCT was also up as we had to NCT both the old and new car.

Medical

Our next biggest expense was medical (3k), the biggest part of this was health insurance (almost 2k). We used to have cover through Mr. MH’s work and when we decided to go down to one non-permanent income, this was an additional cost we had to cover. The 2 other biggest costs were Mr. MH’s glucose sensors and GP/counselling costs.

Other

The remaining categories had a spend of 1k or less and include things like:

Weddings/Family events for a friends wedding and a 50th birthday party which we all went away for.

Work expenses wise, my biggest expense was a 49″ widescreen monitor.

Personal expenses such as clothes, shoes, accessories, Mr. MH’s vape.

Gifts/charity came out to almost 1k. This was for birthdays and Christmas and charity giving.

Goals for next year

When I did this exercise last year there were very obvious expenses that I could see we wouldn’t have this year (mortgage reduction, Canadian property costs gone). Looking at the above, I don’t see anything that really stands out.

Food-wise, we may be able to cut down on costs by getting back into the habit of meal planning and eating less red meat. Buying a whole chicken and throwing it in the crockpot is a handy/cheap 2-3 meals. Maybe we could shave 800€ off there.

Hopefully, we won’t have anything else crop up in terms of home maintenance and I don’t think we’ll have any big furniture costs again for a while so that might bring us down another 2k.

I also don’t intend to spend any more on work-related expenses so that’s another 1k.

Car related expenses should also be close to 800€ less as we won’t have the costs from getting an old car ready for trade-in.

That would bring us down to 33,400€. However, we do have travel plans this year so that may cost 2,300€ more than last year, bringing us back up to 35,700€.

My goal for 2021 was 32k. I was off by 6k. My biggest oversight perhaps was the amount of additional food costs my son would add to our bill, and inflation.

This year I’ll target 36k.

Early retirement impact

In terms of early retirement planning, I think I need to be more realistic in my forecasting on cost of living, and subsequently the amount of money we need invested to cover those costs.

Our latest projection was to reach financial independence in 11 years to cover an annual cost of 24k (once our mortgage is paid off) and spending 30k/year from now until then. After increasing the cost of living during accumulation to 36k and increasing cost of living in retirement to 32k this brings our estimations up to 14 years on 1 part-time income. If we go up to 2 full-time incomes once our son is in school, this may reduce further. Still, retiring at 50 and 54 as a worst-case is not a bad goal to have.

If you’re interested in calculating your own time to retirement, I have a questionnaire format excel template in my paid member’s area.

I also read in other blog posts the concept that you actually pay to work and that when you retire you can expect to live on less as you won’t be paying to commute, for lunches, extra take away due to tiredness to cook, cleaners etc and was curious how my year of maternity leave expenses compared to the year before when I was working, so I will do a bit of a comparison in this post too.

This spending includes ALL expenditure for Sep 2018 to Aug 2019 including my Canadian accounts converted to Euro.

High level summary

Here are the high level categories:

So last year we spent nearly 41,000€, quite a bit more than I thought we were on target for but still close to the national average.

Detailed expenses explained

And here are the expenses broken down into further detail with explanations.

Categories	Total	Note
Bank Charges Total	€ 0.71	We manage to cover our bank charges with a cash back credit card and earned interest from cash in our bank accounts
Annual Fee	-€ 30.00	Cost of the credit card
Earned Cash Back	€ 61.81	Cash back from the credit card
Debit Card Charge	-€ 17.03	Non euro transaction fees which we are now avoiding by using Revolut
Earned Interest	€ 21.69	We had a large sum of cash uninvested for a portion of the year
Paypal Tansfer Fee	€ 0.24
Quarterly Fees	-€ 36.00	Our bank account fee structure changed at the end of the year so we both had fees for 1 quarter, we are looking to merge bank accounts to avoid these fees in future
Canada Banking Total	-€ 45.09
Cash Advance/Interest	-€ 18.08	We have a line of credit which we use to top up our Canadian account before our rental income is deposited which costs us in cash advance fees
Monthly Fee	-€ 27.01	We have a minimum balance requirement to avoid fees but we make more by having that minimum balance invested
Blog	-€ 75.08	Cost of the domain for the year
Cash	-€ 461.98	Couldn’t remember what we spent this cash on
Entertainment Total	-€ 2,747.64
Alcohol	-€ 357.05	This is actually higher but it’s included in our grocery costs as we buy wine at Lidl, still groceries and alcohol categories combined are 945€ less than last year
Board Games	-€ 40.00	I treated myself to a board game at Christmas
Books	-€ 52.46	We have started using the library but are impatient sometimes and buy ebooks on holidays
Gadgets	-€ 158.67	Includes a monthly app, a shaver, annual VPN and the resale of my old macbook
Movies/Plays	-€ 61.70	obviously much fewer outings to the cinema since baby arrived
Netflix	-€ 104.26
Night out	-€ 153.30	560€ less than last year (since arrival of baby)
Sporting Events	-€ 505.23	Mr. MH’s main source of entertainment is attending live sports with family, includes tickets, transport and pints afterwards
Sport Equipment	-€1,027.43	We bought 2 kayaks, roof rack, ropes, life vests etc this year, this won’t be a recurring cost
Video games & accessories	-€ 287.53	Both Mr. MH and I play video games so this is a joint cost
Food Total	-€7,258.12
Coffee/Snacks	-€71.46
Fast Food	-€721.25	We usually get take away once a week
Groceries	-€5,021.46	This includes everything you’d get at the grocery store including food, alcohol, laundry soap, cat food/litter and the few tools/misc items you’d find at Lidl. We spent 570€ less in this category than last year, mainly due to shopping at Lidl as much as possible and cutting WAY down on meat
Lunches	-€1,144.50	Mr. MH has a subsidized canteen at work with excellent restaurant quality food so it’s hard not to buy food there. As I wasn’t working and buying lunches at my work our spending in this category went down by 620€ for the year.
Restaurants	-€299.45	About the same as last year, we really don’t go out to dinner much.
Giving Total	-€541.20
Charity	-€100.00
Gifts	-€441.20	Net amount of all spending and gift vouchers received. Includes all gifts for birthdays and Christmas for friends, family and each other, mothers/fathers day etc
Home Total	-€4,228.10
Accessories	-€153.67	Got a new set of sheets and a fire blanket and extinguisher for the house
Furniture	€ –	Didn’t buy any furniture this year
Insurance	-€ 349.62	Standard home insurance for the year
Property Tax	-€ 225.00	Yes, Canadian readers this is the total of our property tax for the year! This is a new fee in Ireland and they are slowly rolling out the costs, I do believe eventually it will be more in line with rates in other countries.
Maintenance	-€2,363.45	Biggest thing here was a new boiler as it hadn’t been replaced since the house was built and was very loud plus a few bits like toilet seats, caulking etc
Renos	-€ 976.36	We had nearly half the house painted, usually something we would do ourselves but were sick of looking at the unfinished job since having a baby, we didn’t want to paint with the fumes so had this done while we were on holiday, best thing to return home to!
TV License	-€ 160.00
Kid Total	-€1,051.06
Books/Courses	-€ 73.05	Bought a few sleep books (to no avail) and some books for the baby before we knew that the library had baby books
Furniture/Accessories	-€ 349.51	Includes chest of drawers, blackout travel blind, car seat and a few other bits
Supplies	-€ 622.50	Includes things like cloth nappies, wipes, soothers, calpol, bibs, high chair, baby cutlery, teething stuff, potty, baby safety stuff, clothes etc
Toys/Books	-€ 6.00	We got most toys either given to us or we got at the second hand store for a few euro, though we felt bad buying from a charity shop since we were taking from those who really can’t afford toys so we will be donating toys there once we are done to give back
Medical Total	-€1,534.23
Doctor	-€ 110.00	Net amount of GP visits after claiming refunds from health insurance
Perscription	-€ 164.59	Includes some birthing supplies, some insulin Mr. MH had to buy in Canada and misc pharmacy spend
Sensors	-€1,259.64	Mr. MH is diabetic and currently uses insulin sensors which we pay for out of pocket as they are not currently covered by the long term illness scheme, this is the net amount after we claimed back the eligible taxes
Misc	-€ 52.20	Random postage costs spent through the year
Monthly Bills Total	-€12,503.37
Electricity	-€ 600.76	I normally shop around each year for the best utility rates and I did last year but when comparing we were still receiving discounted rates which I didn’t realise would expire. I only recently realised we were no longer getting those discounts and so our combined electricity/gas costs are 150€ higher than last year even with the reduced consumption from the new boiler I will be switching again as soon as possible, I think this oversight cost us about 500€ more than we needed to be spending
Gas	-€ 819.16	As above, although our consumption is down from last year, we are paying more since we stopped getting the discount early in the year
Internet	-€ 501.11	We normally look for discounts here too and have managed to pay an average of 42€/month for unlimited fibre internet
Life Insurance	-€ 124.16	Life insurance for me for the year. 75€ less than last year and more cover as I switched plans at the end of the first year
Mobile	-€ 520.50	Cost for 2 mobile phone plans for the year. I use post mobile and pay 20€/month for 7Gb of data 250 minutes and 250 texts. Mr. MH pays 30€/month with Eir as they include access to sports
Mortgage Interest	-€5,507.04	This is an estimate of what interest we would have paid as we don’t have access to online balances, we only get an annual statement
Mortgage Principal	-€4,154.64
Refuse Bins	-€ 276.00	We were paying 22€/month but rates have recently gone up to 25€, even with a baby we haven’t had any weight overages as we don’t have any disposable products
Personal Total	-€ 639.19
Accessories	-€ 19.41	Mr. MH got a new wallet
Clothing	-€ 136.90	Mr. MH got some new clothes. The only clothes I bought were included in the kid stuff category as I wouldn’t have bought them if we didn’t have a kid (I got a few nursing tops and have lived in them all year, they are fit for the bin at this stage haha)
Salon	-€ 42.50	I got one hair cut last year. Mr. MH pays cash so his are included in the uncategorised cash category
Toiletries	-€ 39.48	Razors (I haven’t switched to safety razors yet) and natural soaps from the health food store
Vape	-€ 400.90	Mr. MH vapes, he managed to save 200€ from the year before by finding an online bulk supply
Family Savings	-€ 240.00	This is contributed to a shared family rainy day fund
Transportation Total	-€2,679.61
Car Insurance	-€ 605.70	Our car is a Japanese import so we are limited to insurers when we shop around. This is JUST for third party fire and theft
Car Repairs/Maintenance	-€ 455.89	350€ of this is for an older car we are getting ready to sell off, the remaining 100€ is all we spent on our ’05 Yaris for a tyre and car battery
Licensing	-€ 55.00	Mr. MH’s license was up for renewal
Motor Tax	-€ 358.00	This is for an ’05 1.3L Yaris
NCT	-€ 55.00	Annual NCT
Parking	-€ 46.05	This is what we spent on parking in town though we paid cash sometimes so is probably more than this
Petrol	-€ 717.57	We spent 1,250€ less on petrol and public transport this year as I was no longer commuting to work. Some days Mr. MH would take the car but we live less than 3km from his work so costs are low. We also travelled less since we had a baby
Public Transport	-€ 240.00	As above costs for public transport are down as Mr. MH has access to the car
Taxi Fares	-€ 76.40	We spend 130€ less on taxis, likely resulting from fewer nights in town
Tolls	-€ 70.00	We spent 50€ less on tolls, again as we were travelling less since we had a baby
Uncategorised	€ 177.93	There were a few transactions I couldn’t figure out (or didn’t get around to categorising at the time) including a cash deposit so the net amount is a positive
Vacation Total	-€3,668.01	This was a big expense this year as I was on maternity leave and we were taking advantage of me being off. This includes 7 weeks of holidays (1 week in Tenerife and 6 weeks at home in Canada)
Accommodation	-€ 541.95	This is for the week in Tenerife as we didn’t pay accommodation while I was home in Canada
Cat Sitter	-€ 60.00	This was for the week in Tenerife. My brother in law kindly cat sit for us while we were in Canada
Food/Drink	-€1 ,130.49	This is for the 7 weeks, though we did get quite a few meals provided by my cousin and parents
Gifts/Souvenirs	-€ 22.01	Customary cheese and chocolate for family
Passport/Visa	-€ 46.50	Baby’s first passport
Plane Fare	-€1,601.14	Return tickets for 2 adults and 1 baby to Tenerife and Canada including extra baggage costs on low fare flights
Shopping	€ –	We didn’t do any shopping on holiday
Transport/Parking	-€ 265.92	Airport taxis and public transport for Tenerife and in Canada we had loan of my parents car so had some petrol costs
Weddings/Family Events Total	-€ 775.30	We didn’t attend any weddings this year (despite missing my sisters wedding due to having just had a baby) but we did have a family weekend away for a 50th birthday
Accommodation	-€ 471.00
Food/Drink	-€ 31.50
Transport	€ –
Gift	-€ 272.80
Zero Waste Total	-€ 69.00	About 2 years ago we started trying to cut back on waste and live more sustainably so I have a spend category for zero waste related purchases. We spent alot on reusable items last year so only a small expenditure this year
Consumables	-€ 21.75	This was for an eco egg instead of laundry soap
Re-usables	-€ 47.25	This was for my hair brush (to use instead of shampoo) and a keep cup replacement after my last one broke
Canada Rental Property	-€2,392.00	Our net expenses in Canada after rental income, income taxes and all property expenses came to 2,392€, which is more than 600€ more than we spent last year due to an increase in mortgage interest rates.
Grand Total	-€40,782.87

So there you have it, our detailed annual expenses.

2 year comparison

Comparing the last 2 years (not including house purchase costs, renovations and furniture) we spent nearly 2,250€ less than when I was working.

At a high level we spent less on

• food (1,250 less)
• transportation (945 less)
• weddings (936 less)
• misc (844 less)
• zero waste items (658 less)
• personal (559 less)

but spent more on

• monthly costs (1,612 more)
• vacations (1,193 more)
• our Canadian rental property expenses (617 more)

Costs for retirement

So looking at this years expenses how do we think we could live on less in retirement? Well we could easily cut out big non recurring costs like the boiler (2,400), the kayaks (1,000) and house updates (1,000 for painting), we’d also have sold the Canadian property and reinvested those assets so we would no longer have a negative cash flow of 2,400€ there, and we would be retired so even though we would still like to travel we probably wouldn’t spend 3,700€/year which brings our 41,000€ down to 30,000€ for the three of us. Now we’d probably have some home related expenses or some travel or extra kid related expenses so even if we add 5,000€ to that, 35,000€ for a family of three is pretty good, or so I think.

How do your expenses compare?