How much house is in it?

Tax class 3 and parental allowance guarantee a hefty refund.

Not necessarily, it depends, among other things, on the child's birth month and how much income is actually lost. The progression proviso is a strange thing.

I didn’t calculate that nicely. I had explicitly said that I have no idea how this exactly works and that I just quickly got numbers from the big wide internet without researching too deeply. Yak, tax class 5, that’s correct. I was just wondering why it’s still so high in the calculator. That’s then 350 euros less remaining net, and depending on the parental allowance regulation, that’s 1,700 euros per month. I updated the fuel costs at the front, but they were still exactly included in the buffer. Now I also know why I had less in the Excel sheet that I went through with the financial administrator. But since banks calculate with a flat rate anyway (1,000€ for a household), I spared myself from investigating the causes further.

Have you meanwhile increased the car costs per month? Maybe you need a second car if you live further out, have children, or eventually change jobs. I would definitely play it safe and calculate at least 800 euros per month for two cars (then subtract the car insurance elsewhere). And I still don’t believe the 300 euros for food - we (three-person family) spend more per month on food than your items "Nahrungsmittel" and "was leisten" combined. You quickly spend 20 euros per day...

Home office and sap consulting and/or development while raising children?? Still have a lot to learn

So we spend about 1200€ on our children (there are 2 of them) (food, the extra insurance, daycare, daycare meals, clothes, health, clubs), plus additional costs for more living space, a bigger car, more expensive vacations... I don’t want to know the exact details. Before the children, we had no car, a much smaller apartment, vacations were much cheaper, I felt like I bought less than half the amount of food compared to now, and constantly "here a new pair of shoes, here a bike, there a few pants/shirts/etc.," it adds up quickly. And I already buy a lot second-hand and resell everything as much as possible. We spend about 400€ a year just on one child’s glasses (outgrowing the frames or breaking them, regularly new lenses because they get totally scratched or a new frame). Then the older one wants to start horse riding soon, which adds about 120€ per month and later times 2. Well, you don’t have to do that, of course, but it has always been my hobby and that way I also get to experience fresh stable air again. We have also done all kinds of swimming courses from baby swimming to learning to swim, gymnastics courses, in daycare they do English, singing, and dancing. Great-grandfather pays for English, my parents pay for dancing, we pay for singing.

Anyway, you can save in many areas, especially on clothes, but daycare fees and things like that are fixed. Oh, I almost forgot... the older one is about to go to a private elementary school, which costs about 240€ a month including meals and without after-school care. The public school would be cheaper, but that is also one point where we like to spend the money and rather save elsewhere.

Home office and SAP consulting and/or development while raising children?? You still have a lot to learn

I come from a classic consulting background. Monday to Friday at the client or hotel for 6 years. Not even Friday was office time. I actually only know partners who are still stuck in consulting at 40/+40 years old. I don't know anyone who wants to do it for more than 5 years. 3-4 projects in a row and you are fed up. How long have you been doing it?