These numbers are yearly totals, with occasionally monthly averages provided. This is for a single-person household. Numbers are rounded for convenience.

The total is about € 32 800.

See also: Expenses for 2022, Expenses for 2023.

Essentials

Rent: € 15 340, or about € 1280/month. This is more than I’d like.

Rundfunkbeitrag: € 215.

Taxes: € 40. This is the price for the tax software I use.

Electricity: € 820.

Internet: € 780. This is a lot, because I had two ISPs for the entire year. Vodafone’s cable model service was so bad that I had to get another ISP promptly. Luckily, the Vodafone contract came to an end in December, which will bring 2022’s expenses down.

Health insurance: € 406. This is the amount I had to pay out of pocket for my insurance, due to unemployment.

Insurances (excluding health insurance): € 360. This includes home contents insurance, legal insurance, and liability insurance.

Backup: € 60.

Phone plan: € 160.

1Password: € 32. Yep, I consider this an essential expense.

YNAB (You Need A Budget): € 74. I consider this an essential expense because it’s so ingrained in the way I deal with finances that I do not want to get rid of it.

Food

Groceries: € 2960, or about € 247/month.

Eating out: € 630, or about € 52/month. This is way lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Giving

Donations: € 350. This is way lower than 2020, driven by unemployment uncertainty, and my focus on building a buffer for financial support for the family.

Quality

These are expenses that are optional, but increase my quality of living.

Amazon Prime: € 69. As much as I would like to not give Amazon money, it’s a highly convenient service, and provides part of my entertainment as a Netflix alternative.

BahnCard: € 56.

Tenant association: € 108.

Dynadot: € 94. I really spent a lot on domain names. Yikes.

Fastmail: € 68. I love Fastmail and I found it absolutely worth the money. (I’m on a two-year subscription plan, and this number is half of the total cost.)

Cleaning: € 520. I semi-regularly have a cleaner come in, because it lifts such a burden off me. Hourly rate € 25–30.

Clothing: € 290. This is surprisingly low. I think this in large part probably has to do with working remotely and not meeting up with other people much, which certainly reduced the (apparent) need for shiny new clothes.

Education: € 170. This is books and the like.

Haircut: € 69. How nice. These are the tools I need for cutting my own hair.

Home improvement: € 4581. This includes new furniture, plants, cooking equipment, and office supplies. I splurged on a high-DPI ultra-wide screen (€1148) as well as a good office desk and office chair. (Part of this was reimbursed by my employer.)

Household: € 334. This is a bit of a grab bag of various bits and pieces like tooth brushes, coffee filters, washing machine descaler, etc.

Medical: € 120. This includes an emergency room visit, as well as medication and purchasing FFP2 masks.

Software: € 109. Various bits of software that I wanted or needed.

Transportation: € 1945. This includes the purchase of my Brompton foldable bike, as well as public transportation tickets (before I got the bike, and when the weather is too nasty for biking).

Fun

These are expenses just for fun — primarily entertainment and holidays.

Gaming PC upgrade: € 426. New graphics card, new case, new power supply. It was due for an upgrade, and it was worth it.

Convenience: € 22. I took a taxi once.

Creativity: € 60. I bought fonts. (I suppose this overlaps with Software, mentioned above.)

Netflix: € 153.

Curiosity Stream + Nebula: € 15.

Holidays: € 745. This covers my trip to Belgium and the Wadden Sea.

Entertainment: € 612, or about € 51/month. This includes games, books, films/series, and music albums.