September was a great month in Portugal! Lots going on as usual!

This month was Mrs.Firecrackers birthday and we had several celebrations. We had dinner in a nice place with friends, we hosted our family for some home-made pancakes (our nephews loved it!) and of course i took Mrs.Firecracker for a lovely candle like dinner in Lisbon. Or was she who took me? I don’t remember 🙂

Additionally, we went for a boat ride with some friends in the Tróia area (next to Setúbal). I’ve rented a speedboat (yes, i’m also allowed to be a captain from time to time) and we enjoyed so much!

Just have a look into this area. They have a somewhat sand island between Tróia and Arrábida which is just awesome. We managed to make a picnic with some wine, cheese, fruits…ahh..a day to remember.

Our friends were a bit scared when we went into high tide areas and we navigate against the wind but…its all part of the adventure! Definitely something i would enjoy doing more often.

I went for a 4 days trip to Munich for work and i could attend Oktoberfest for free since some business partners invited me. You don’t have to pay to get it but you do have to pay for food and drinks and they can be quite expensive! I’m always down for some free Oktoberfest invitations! For those of you who don’t know what Oktoberfest is check here.

Basically, its a huge beer festival done in the end of September where Bavarian folks (Germany state of Munich) dress in their traditional clothing, salute each other with 1 Liter beers, eat lots of pretzels, pork knee and schnaps (Bavarian Licour). It goes without saying this is the town event for the whole month since usually around 6 million visitors go there.

While at work i also managed to get some free lunches and another dinner in my boss place which is always nice. Overall Munich is a great city i don’t mind coming back once for a while.

Summing up, i still had some expenses which will only be reimbursed next month (~1.5k). This made our budget go quite higher this month. I’ve removed from our budget the hotel and plane which land in a different account and have only maintained the transportation & food while i was there.

Another highlight this month was that we had a wedding event on which we wanted to give a good gift (300€). Usually the values in Portugal are lower, around 150€ but this was a close friend so we didn’t mind.

Finally i managed to do a medical procedure that was pending to check for a bacteria which likely runs in my family. I’m waiting for the lab results but since i had to be knocked-out for the exam it was quite expensive (175€). Luckily my company insurance covered a big chunk (~130€).

Next month i will also be going to Munich and Mrs.Firecracker will join me since we will have 1 week vacations afterwords. It her first time and i hope she likes it!

Here goes our September monthly update ! We will be focusing on the operational part. Income vs Expenses vs Savings rate.

Income

Salaries: 3 521.02 €

Expenses

Housing

• Mortgages: 1 101.26 €
• Insurance, Condominium, etc: 49.74 €
• Utilities (Water, Lights, Gas, Internet, Phones): 70.02 € (lower due to the mistake of the energy company last month)
• Other Housing expenses: 46.20€
• Total Housing: 1 267.22 €

Cars

• Fuel: 269.60 €
• Maintenance: 55.41€
• Insurances: 129.55 €
• Transportation (parking, tolls): 131.20 € (Work related Uber & Metro)
• Total Cars: 585.76 €

Health & Personal items

• Consultations & Exams: 176.26 € (Medical procedure)
• Clothing: 151.64 € (i’ve bought several shirts for work and we had a wedding)
• Total Health: 327.90 €

Food

• Grosseries: 268.20 €
• Eating-out: 450.84 € (Around 200€ above our budgeted values, here goes my food in work trip ~70€ and also birthday related food)
• Total Food: 719.04 €

Misc

• Wedding: 300 €
• Rest: 309.8 € (Mrs.Firecracker birthday gift, Boat rental, etc. We also had the credit card yearly payment ~41€. We only have it because it collect miles we can use on trips)
• Total Misc: 609.8 €

Total Spent: 3 509.00 €
Budget for the Month: 2 685.78 €

Savings Rate

SR = ((Income – Expenses) / Income ) x 100 = ((3 521.02 – 3 509.00) / 3521.02 ) x 100 = 0.34 % or 12 €

This was a different month with several 1 time expenses. Nonetheless, our networth kept on growing. We also had a wedding gift from my colleagues of around 90€ which was respectfully saved.

Expectation is even tough we will have 1 week vacations in October that we should resume our budgeted values.

Next Steps

To lower down our costs and right after signing the Rental property selling contract i’ve cancelled Gas and Electricity (got a ~35€ credit, yes…first they take and then make the adjustments…). Water cancellation is scheduled and i’m trying to negotiate with Vodafone since i still have 7 months of contract. They seem very adamant on making me pay the rest of the contract ~300€ and there i’m trying to increase our primary residency internet/TV package. Better than having it doing nothing in the rental property.

We should expect some building renovations to take part in next months as well. Our building roof as not been clean for a while and some of the leaks caused the facade of the building to deteriorate. This made an ongoing hole in one of our walls…meaning. Urgent fixing before the rain season starts!

Want to see how our Networth is going? Check here

Ahhh…Portugal in August!

What you think it will be:

What it actually is:

Just kidding.There are still a lot of secret and nice spots around. You just need some research and how to avoid the turist mob.

In August, Lisbon is pretty much awesome. Literally the city goes into ghost town mode. Every Lisboeta (Word for people from Lisbon) goes to the Algarve or abroad which means less traffic to work, less people on queues, generally less people. This is a huge bonus for me as my patience for masses of people dimishes as my age increases. Go figure, right?

We just came back from our honeymoon so this was a light month in terms of spending. Hopefuly this will set the trend for the future!

We also merged several accounts (which can be a pain..) so this process is still ongoing.

I had a few non-programmed health spending taking advantage of an empty Lisbon in August and also less stress at work. This meant body checks, dentist, etc. This is something i would like to pay closer attention in the meantime. Better do it while young!

We also had a wedding in the south side of Rio Tejo which was pretty nice and which obviously meant an expense of around 140€.

We went also a few times for dinner as usual but we are trying to reduce to 1 time per week now. Lets see if we can!

Ah! We did an investment. We found a promotion to buy Zomato Gold which is a discount for restaurants and drinks on which we spent for a whole year 25€. This allows us to get the second most expensive plate for free if the restaurante is on the network. Luckily several restaurants we like or some new are there.

Considering we spend an average of 40€ on a dinner. This means we can lower our eating out to an average of circa 30€. We went out last time to an indian restaurant and saved 12€. 😀

In case you want to join. Use my referal code. MIGU3266 . This will give you a 50% discount signing up but also give me 3 months extra. Win-win right? I believe this is only available in Portugal and in essence Zomato e something like TripAdvisor or TimeOut.

Here goes our August monthly update ! We will be focusing on the operational part. Income vs Expenses vs Savings rate.

Income

Salaries: 3 405.96 €

Expenses

Housing

• Mortgages: 1 046.14 €
• Insurance, Condominium, etc: 49.74 €
• Utilities (Water, Lights, Gas, Internet, Phones): 146.10 € (He still had Netflix this month but we will be cancelling). Our energy provider also decided to bill us in the same month for something that would be laying in September (Great GALP..)
• Other Housing expenses: 37.97€
• Total Housing: 1 279.95 €

Cars

• Fuel: 201.81 €
• Maintenance: 65.41€ (This value is not spent but goes to another account. We do it yearly and this allows us to put is aside already)
• Insurances: 129.55 € (Same here)
• Transportation (parking, tolls): 44.05 €
• Total Cars: 440.82 €

Health & Personal items

• Consultations & Exams: 339.61 € (This month this value was crazy high..i found out i need to remove a tooth)
• Hair: 17 €
• Total Health: 356.61 €

Food

• Grosseries: 131.96 €
• Eating-out: 293.15 €
• Total Food: 425.11 €

Misc

• Wedding: 140 €
• Rest: 91.45 € (Apple Music, Gifts ,etc)
• Total Misc: 231.45 €

Total Spent: 2 733.94 €
Budget for the Month: 2 638.65 €

Savings Rate

SR = ((Income – Expenses) / Income ) x 100 = ((3 405.96 – 2 733.94) / 3 405.96 ) x 100 = 19.73 % or 672 €

We were a bit over budget for expenses but the value is still too high. This is something we are confident we could decrease to around 1 600 € monthly when we come closer to FI. See here why.

Unfortunetly our rental property still draws us around ~700€ every month (morgage, insurances, energy, gas). This didnt matter when we had it rented out but for the past 5 months it has been sitting around empty. Luckily i’m positive we will sell it very soon.

Fun moments

Last but not least! I had for the first time this year some delicious Caracóis (Snails). They are a delicacy best served with some toasted bread and a cold beer. Ahhh.. and this is all you could ask for !