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!

When

How long to save up

First, you will need to figure out how much your mini retirement will cost and how long it will take you to save up. If you are tracking your expenses or know roughly how much you spend a year then this will be a big help in your planning.

Say you will be off for 3 months and without income for 4 months (keeping in mind you will need to work for a full month before you get paid again if you are paid monthly) and you spend 40,000€/year (the average for a family in Ireland) then you will need 13,333€ to fund your cost of living if you are staying home.

If you are taking the time off to travel or start a business etc then you will also need to factor in the additional cost of living of those activities. I go into some of my tips for figuring out cost of living abroad below.

If you will be travelling and you will still have fixed expenses at home, be sure to include those. If you will be renting out your home while you are away, have a look at why we didn’t do this here.

Once you’ve figured the cost out, then figure out how much you can save per month and how many months it will take to save up that amount.

Getting work off

Once you have an idea how long it will take you to save up for your mini-retirement then you should start laying the ground work for asking for time off. There are some great tips in this post on how to make it very hard for your boss to say no to your time off.

Basically it suggests, in the months coming up to requesting your time off, work extra hard, be super helpful to your coworkers (especially if they will cover for you while you are away), mention your dream/goals for your time off in passing so they are not surprised and lay as much of the ground work for your cover while you are away so there is very little for your boss to consider. How you frame your ask for time off will make all the difference.

If you are asking for parental leave in Ireland, then this is already hard for managers to say no to since it’s a statutory leave.

Your employer can only refuse parental leave if you are not entitled to take it.

Your employer can also postpone your parental leave for up to 6 months. They must do this before the confirmation document is signed. After that, the leave cannot be postponed without further written agreement. Grounds for such a postponement include lack of cover or the fact that other employees are already on parental leave.

Normally only one postponement is allowed, but your leave may be postponed twice if the reason is seasonal variations in the volume of work.

Where

If travel is in your plans then here are some of the criteria we considered.

Flights, Weather and Distance

For us, we would be travelling in Jan/Feb and wanted to go somewhere warmer than Ireland, but also somewhere that wasn’t too far from home. As we were travelling with a smallie, we didn’t want to take a flight that was more than 4 hours total. We also wanted the cost of living to be cheaper than staying home.

From Ireland, we checked out:

We googled average temperatures in each for the months we would be there (equally important for hotter months if the weather would be unbearable).

We used google flights to check out direct flights from a specific airport and to find the best rates and dates to fly.

Cost of living

In terms of figuring out cost of living in each location we looked at a number of areas.

Accommodation

For accommodation we used sites like booking.com and Air b’n’b.

Our accommodation checklist included:

• a balcony with sunlight so that we could sit out while baby was napping and not having the hassle of leaving the house (Michael McIntyre’s skit comes to mind)
• washing machine so we could pack as little as possible (plus we use cloth nappies so definitely needed one for that)
• walking distance to Lidl or large supermarket (to help keep our costs down)
• and obviously cost, the lower the better

Keeping all that in mind I searched for the cheapest range first and then ticked off all the other boxes to get a sense of accommodation costs in each location.

Millennial Revolution also have a good travel series where they report their cost of living in each location so I also cross checked my findings with their specific location pages. You can search for a location in their search bar to see if they have a post on that location or scroll through the list here. They live quite frugally so I know their spending would be in line with ours.

Food

In terms of food costs, we had been to Tenerife so we looked at what we spent when we were there. While we felt the shopping was cheap, we actually spent quite a bit more than we thought (260€ for a week) which would be over 1,000€/month if every week was the same as that one.

For Malta and Portugal we looked at sites like Numbeo (where you compare cost of living between two cities, it gives you a percentage difference which you could apply to your typical food expenditure at home) and other blogs/vlogs.

The Our Rich Journey vlog details their living expenses in Lisbon each month since Sep 2019, so that was a good recent indicator of costs to expect.

Getting around

I mentioned how we found our flights above but in addition to Google flights you can also use skyscanner. Both have notifications you can setup to get pinged when a certain flight price has increased or decreased. If you are planning on something far in advance this feature might be of use to you.

We also took into consideration the cost of getting around once we got to where we were going. We tried to find cities or places which wouldn’t require a car rental to keep costs low.

In terms of getting from the airport, often vacation areas will offer shuttle services but usually at triple the price of public transport (though potentially half the time). We scoffed at the 60€ quoted for airport shuttle to our location but may have been short-sighted (read on below).

Google maps and Rome2Rio are other useful sites when trying to figure out routes to get places.

I also googled how to get from and to certain places and read local forums or travel sites detailing typical costs and options.

In the end, as our flight was getting in past our son’s bedtime, we decided to book a cheap airport hotel which had a place for breakfast, when we got up the next day, we popped down for breakfast and then got an uber to the train station where we got a train for the 3 of us to Portimao for 12€ (babies go free). It was about 40 minutes longer but was nice as baby got to nap on me while I read my book.

In the end it may have been much of a muchness to pay for the more expensive shuttle. For example:

• Cost of airport hotel: 50€
• Cost for breakfast for 2: 15€
• Cost for Uber to and from train station: 13€
• Cost for train: 12€

Total: 90€ minus 30€ for extra night in other location = 60€ minus say 12€ for breakfast = 48€ vs 60€ for the shuttle in half the time.

That said, maybe the train was a safer route for a baby without a car seat (although probably cancelled out by the two uber’s we got to get to the train station).

In Portugal, Uber and Kapten are cheaper and more convenient ways of getting around.

All that to say, you’ll need to take into account your added transport costs whether you use public transport, airport shuttles, taxis/ubers, or rent a car be sure to include a line item for this in your budget.

Travel insurance

If you live in the EU and have a tax number where you live, you should be eligible to apply for an EU health card. This allows you to have possibly free health cover in any EU country. We found out about this last minute and went into the office just before Christmas, we were given temporary cards straight away which last for a month and were posted the full versions once available. This doesn’t replace travel insurance and only covers necessary health care but is nice to have as a back up. Even I got one, even though I am not yet a citizen. Your partner can apply on your behalf as well so you don’t need to lug your baby in as long as they have the necessary documentation. You can read more about it here.

In terms of travel insurance, check your employer health insurance plan to see if they have an add-on where you can select travel insurance instead of additional cover for other health cover you may not use.

Visas

If you’re planning on going somewhere for longer than 3 months, make sure you can stay there for that long. Most places have a 3 month limit before you need to leave and come back again. I nearly forgot this as I have been in Ireland so long, I just assumed I could travel to Portugal for 3 or 4 months. Obviously as an EU citizen you can travel to any EU country without a visa.

Getting there

Packing

If you’re keeping costs low by traveling on budget airlines, you will need to pack light. 1 20kg checked bag costs about 50€ for the return trip, which can be hard to swallow when you’re only paying 70€ for the flight.

As we were going for 2 months with a baby, we decided to “splurge” and pay for 1 checked bag between the three of us.

Here is what we ended up bringing:

• 1 20kg checked bag
• 1 5kg small carry-on bag for baby supplies (allowed by Ryanair for free – other airlines allow 10kg though I can’t remember them weighing it)
• 1 handbag
• 1 rucksack
• 1 travel buggy

The first place we were staying had an additional baby package where we got a travel cot, high chair and baby bath for 25€ for the 32 nights so that saved us bringing any of that over.

In terms of clothes we brought 1 week’s worth for each of us and packed a variety of warm and cold clothes.

We also managed to fit all the baby nappies, wipes, creams, travel potty, nappy bags etc into the 5kg carry on bag.

House prep

Insurance

In terms of getting your house ready if you’ll be away for a longer period of time, make sure you check your home insurance for their unoccupied clause. Ours states that after 45 days your home is no longer covered for vandalism, or burst pipes. Having a family member stay for a weekend doesn’t re-start the clock either. Their definition of occupancy is 4 nights in any one week. In order to reduce this risk we gave a key to a friend who will check in every few days. We also let our neighbour know and gave them our numbers in case anything needed urgent attention. As we were leaving in winter, we also left the heating on low and turned the water off at the mains in order to significantly reduce the risk of a burst pipe.

If you’re planning to rent it out, have a look at some of the reasons we didn’t do this before making your decision.

Car

If you’ll be away for more than a few weeks, it’s also a good idea to disconnect your car battery before you go. We forgot to do this last time we went for 6 weeks and came home to a dead battery which needed to be replaced.

And that’s all the tips I can think of. Hopefully it was of some use and gives some food for thought on your next adventure should you be planning one.