Up: Yearly expenses.

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 € 42 000.

Essentials

Rent: € 17300, or about € 1440/month. I got a rent increase in the middle of the year; my current rent is about € 1500.

Rundfunkbeitrag: € 220.

Electricity: € 750.

Internet: € 660.

Insurances (excluding health insurance): € 360.

Backup: € 60.

Phone plan: € 130.

1Password: € 40. Yep, I consider this an essential expense.

YNAB (You Need A Budget): € 95. 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.

Taxes: € 850. That includes a € 100 fine. Oops.

Food

Groceries: € 3400, or about € 280/month. That is 25% higher than last year.

Eating out: € 2350, or about € 195/month. That is almost 60% higher than last year.

I’m surprised that I spent 35%–40% more on food in 2023 compared to 2022.

Giving

Donations: € 510.

Creator support: € 80. This is Patreon and the like.

Quality

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

Amazon Prime: € 0. I no longer have Amazon Prime.

BahnCard: € 59.

Bear: €16. That’s Bear, my note-taking app.

Tenant association: € 108.

Dynadot: € 113.

Clothing: € 735.

Education: € 400. This is books, for the most part.

Home improvement: € 160.

Household: € 470. This is a bit of a grab bag of various bits and pieces like tooth brushes, coffee filters, washing machine descaler, etc.

Medical: € 1080. I got some teeth work done last year.

Psychotherapy: €1600.

Software and hardware: € 380.

Transportation: € 235. I used public transportation instead of biking quite a bit after surgery and during the cold spells.

Bike repair: € 400.

Electronics: € 69. Nice.

Fun

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

Display replacement: € 790. I am still annoyed that my old screen broke so quickly.

Gaming PC upgrade: € 130. I now have a big SSD instead of a HDD, which makes quite a difference.

Creativity: € 2790. A huge increase from last year, but I am so happy I am following my creative passions now.

Apple TV+/Disney Plus/Mubi/Netflix/whatever: € 100. I’ve been hopping a lot between streaming services.

Curiosity Stream + Nebula: € 22.

Holidays: € 1770.

Entertainment: € 970, or about € 80/month. This includes games, books, films/series, and music albums.

One more thing

As I touched on in 2023 in review, I financially helped in the purchase of my mom’s house, which — as you can imagine — was quite the expensive. I haven’t included this in here, and I’ve also left out the fees and taxes associated with the purchase.