Is a new building realistic?

If I were you, I would simply estimate what both of you have earned in the last 5-10 years and then subtract the amount mentioned in your statement (2050*60 or 120). The difference should then correspond to your equity. If it does not (which I assume), you can spread the missing amount over the months and have a better idea of what kind of poorly predictable expenses like car tires you can expect.

That’s exactly how you have to calculate!!! Don’t forget the theoretical values.

But we still have over 1000 EUR unused every month. These are then for clothes, vacations, repairs, or for extra loan repayments.

We buy tires separately, so they rather come from the 1000 EUR we have left monthly.

Your 1000 € now covers many things – then a broken washing machine, school trip, Christmas presents... and not to forget the barbecues and mentioned birthday parties.

Therefore, definitely name a calculation with individually listed categories. For living expenses, use the amount from the month with the celebrations, extended monthly incidental costs including risk and insurance, and the child getting older... that reminds me, why is the child never mentioned anywhere? – Savings rate for the godchild, but not for your own?... factor that in.

Regarding food: it’s obvious that if you have no connection to cooking itself, food is just nourishment and not a hobby, you don’t have to spend money on exotic herbs and spices, for example. Nevertheless, one should consider that there is a healthy average between cheap and expensive and that costs money. Miele appliances are found in very few average kitchens, and always only the "budget" sausage on the sandwich can make you sick in the long run. It only takes one of you to have some intolerance, then you have to resort to higher-priced products.

P.s. Consider purchase ancillary costs!

One more tip regarding the household budget book. For years, we also had less money left at the end than there should have been. Sometimes "missing" 1000-2000 EUR per month, despite a "simple" household budget book. At some point, we switched to an electronic solution (Quicken). By now, we really pay for everything by card and thus record everything. At the push of a button, we know where the money goes. After just a few months, the mystery was solved: You spend more money in almost every area every month than you feel.

Nobody is talking about a 30 EUR car. If you look more closely at my list, there are still 50 EUR car insurance and 100 EUR fuel listed above. Do I now have to apologize for apparently getting a bargain at MediaMarkt? The loan installment doesn’t matter either; with the equity, I could pay off the loan tomorrow.

The same applies to household management. We shop at the discount store, never without a list and always in larger quantities. We always cook fresh and healthy. Anyone who really keeps a household book knows that vegetables and potatoes, rice and noodles make up only a fraction of food costs. What’s expensive are sweets, drinks (if you only drink cola and stuff), etc.

I’m not fooling myself. Including baby food and baby cosmetics, we spend 300-350 EUR. I can gladly post the household expenses online as well. I eat for free at work and we only eat one warm meal a day. When it comes to food, it’s like everything in life — there’s no limit on how much you can spend. Of course, I could prepare a 400g Angus beef filet with truffle butter every evening. That obviously doesn’t work for 300 EUR. For example, we have a wok pan, pork filet with rosemary potatoes, wild salmon with ribbon noodles. So it’s not like we only eat ketchup with spaghetti.



It’s a matter of opinion that 1000 EUR has to cover a lot. That’s 1000 EUR per month and 12,000 EUR per year. I don’t know how others celebrate birthdays, but with 100 EUR for two birthdays, you get by fine. A washing machine (a good one) costs 500-700 EUR. Our daughter is 1 year old, no school trips yet, but there’s money set aside even for those.

In my view, some unforeseen problems can arise with a 12,000 EUR reserve. Whether it’s a broken electrical appliance, a car repair, a birthday party that’s a bit bigger, a baptism, work on the house, etc. If nothing comes up, that’s also not a problem; then it goes into special repayment. Christmas bonus and bonuses are also still available.

I was at pretty much the same point a while ago and started to justify myself for this or that. There were simply different opinions on some things. I also did a lot of fiddling with our costs in Excel and made various lists to see where money was disappearing to. In practice, it is accurate to within 50 EUR per month, which is completely fine for us. Even though individual points in our list were criticized as unrealistic. What I might see a bit differently than others is that the dream of owning a house means giving up something else. I am especially thinking of car and vacation.

I am very grateful to the users for the tips and the help. That is exactly why I started the thread. It may be that others spend 800-1000 EUR on food (then the combined net salaries will certainly be significantly higher than ours), but I think it is wrong to say that this amount is at least necessary. My household budget says otherwise. With 1000 EUR for 2 people, that is 16 EUR per day. I can almost order 3 meals from the delivery service with that (and they are significantly more expensive than cooking yourself).