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    [OC] Our (26M/30F) first financial year as a frugal couple after buying our first house. (Netherlands, prices in Euro)
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    [OC] Our (26M/30F) first financial year as a frugal couple after buying our first house. (Netherlands, prices in Euro)

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    32 Comments

    1. kubrickfr3 on

      In the Netherlands, 3200€ for groceries for a whole year, without eating out? What did you eat?

    4. xxStefanxx1 on

      Some notes:

      * First a correction: I made this sheet last week (and lost the Sankeymatic file) and missed some costs from the times where I forgot the joint bank account card for groceries for example. This adds another €330 to the groceries, and €169 miscellaneous spending. Minor edit.

      * Post was made with [SankeyMATIC.com](http://SankeyMATIC.com), and exported our combined bank accounts as a CSV file. Our banks automatically categorize things like “groceries” in the banking app which is what I used to categorize some of the costs. Some of these might be 100% accurate, and may include some non-food stuff. I manually made the diagram.
      * We live in rural Netherlands, and bought a 96 m2 house for €285k ($335k, 1000 sqft).
      * Yes we’re quite frugal, we both come from families who weren’t necessarily poor, but cautious with spending money. We’re quite precise (okay, maybe frugal) with food. We basically never throw away any food, and plan meals for the whole week. We both eat free lunch at work.
      * We put down over €50k on the house as a downpayment, but that all came from savings. I started the financial year the day after completing and moving into our house. No major DIY-projects had to be done the first year, except for at the end where we’re doing the babyroom.
      * I just started working after college, and couldn’t find a full-time position yet.
      * We have over 450 clothes for our upcoming child. We got over 90% free from people around us and second hand.
      * We did 95% of the house, garden, and baby-room work ourselves, including installing solar.
      * We only eat out like twice a year.
      * It’s very uncommon here to take out a loan for your car. You either buy it or (private-)lease them. Though everything’s possible of course. Gas is quite expensive though.
      * My wife paid off all (student) loans, and we have no other debt besides the mortgage. I only start paying off my student loans from 2026 onwards (0% interest).
      * We don’t have a credit card (except PayPay / Revolut without any charges).
      * Gas and electricity is quite expensive here, averaging €0,26 per kWh and €1,30 per m3 of gas. However, our home is well insulated and, combined with solar power, we only pay an average of €68 a month, which includes montly fees for the power company. We used about 1800 kWh of power, 321 m3 of gas, and generated 4150 kWh of power with solar.
      * I buzzcut my own hair and my MIL does my wife’s hair, so basically 0 costs. Only once last year for a wedding.

    6. macrolidesrule on

      Okay, that health insurance part has really thrown me – is that private insurance in addition to state coverage or have you Dutch gone full American whilst we’ve all been distracted by Trump?

    8. NMVPCP on

      How do you do a two-week vacation for 1,250 EUR? Did you ride a bicycle inside the Netherlands (legit question)?

    14. righthandofdog on

      You’re loving frugally, but it’s amazing to see how different a nation with a social safety net is. It would be all but impossible for people in the US to buy a house at twice your monthly payment. The fact that you saved 20k while doing so is just amazing and you did it with gasoline prices 2x ours.

    18. gk4p6q on

      Will you get an electric car in the future? Could you install more solar panels to offset this as I see this is a big part of your expenses?

    21. ShadowBannedAugustus on

      As someone who lived in Amsterdam and basically paid your entire budget in rent, energies, health insurance and education, I applaud you. This is amazing. For a bit more context, could you please specify “rural” a bit more concretely (whatever you feel comfortable sharing)? Thanks!

    25. HYThrowaway1980 on

      Managing to save €20k a year on your income, at your age, is *seriously* impressive. Is that a pension scheme or something else?

      Whatever the mechanism of saving: Well done.

    26. Reed_4983 on

      Damn, it’s still possible to finance a house with very modest salaries. 21k and 32k is anything else but a high income. To be fair, the mortgage is also relatively low.

    29. NorahGretz on

      I’m so curious to see the income before tax. I’m looking to make the move from the US to Europe, because I prefer controlled burns to actual dumpster fires, so having that baseline would help.

    31. -Puss_In_Boots- on

      So 21k is not for a full time job as you said in a comment.

      Can I ask, what is the job of your wife that pays 32k?

    32. Lannisterling on

      Congrats with the baby. Whereabouts (not specifically of course, cause reddits) did you manage to get a house? And dumb question but is savings just savings or are you investing it as well?