Budgeted Living Experiment 2023

I'm embarking on a new financial experiment for the first trimester of 2023: budgeted living. Basically, I'll transfer €15K to my transactional account, which will be my €5K a month budget, and as the first three monthly paychecks arrive, I'll transfer full amounts to the savings accounts.

I only have two credit cards (Visa and Diners Club), and I always pay them in full amounts every month. In this trimester, I won't use them, except for the business expenses, which get reimbursed by the Company. But no private credit card usage. Everything gets paid with a debit card.

€5000 monthly budget

My expectations are that this will keep me frugal and intentional with my spending, plus I'd like to learn if there are any reserves in this budget. €5K a month is €60K a year, and that's my current FI estimation.

I want to stay humble and recognize that €5K is much more than many of my peers and fellow Europeans live with, and my goal is not lean-FIRE but chubby-FIRE.
I'm not interested in penny-pinching for a decade, so I can retire and penny-pinch for the rest of my life. I want to live a decent life of joy without any crazy excess.

I believe that €5K a month is something that would work. It's much less than my monthly income, and it's enough to cover my running costs and still leave room for some discretionary spending.

The three salaries I get in the meantime should amount to over €30K, but the exact amounts depend on the performance bonuses. I don't yet have a goal after the goal, meaning what's after the 3 months experiment. I'd like to leave some room for learning and adjustments, but I know what I'll do with the savings — pay off debt.

Follow the progress

I'll follow my spending in a simple spreadsheet and share the progress here – so hit Subscribe to follow along.

Let's do this!