Ok, here goes a total breakdown of all of my personal spending from November 2022 - Jan 2023, aka the last 3 months.
As a parent with no time for other things I basically only spend money on two things:
1) Groceries / Food
2) Things for the kids including clothes, gifts for parties, etc.
My transportation expenses are paid once per year - it's just a general subscription to the national transportation system. One-time payment of $2800 per year and I'm covered.
All amounts in CHF.
Total spend: 1059 per month
This is approximately equal to my budget, surprisingly. So I guess that's fine. But it doesn't account for vacation purchases or a few big Christmas gifts for husband, for kid, and for the broader family.
Insights:
1) Food spend is much higher (70%) than my anticipated 500/month.
This does not include my many one-time expenses like vacations etc. If I do include those, the number will be even higher. So, the question is, we can try and cut down on the Food spend - less restaurants, less takeout at the train station. Or, I can budget for more and live with it as we don't really do much outside eating at all.
2) Spending seems to be creeping up over the months.
I'm not sure what's going on but it seems like my spending has been going up. This could be lifestyle inflation, or due to the gestational diabetes diet being more expensive (cheese, meat, almost no carbs). I can see what happens over the next few months once the diet normalizes a bit more.
Either way, good to track this over the coming months.
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