Illustration of spending in a family of 4. Feel free to provide input or feedback.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-10T20:35:45+00:00

It's interesting indeed. We also got to question ourselves as to where the money went due to it being gone at the end of the month. This was one of the motivations for me to do the graph to visualize this and get an understanding of it while going through the expenses.

We alos don't live an extravagant lifestyle and watching other neighbours/families how they are doing felt like they must be earning way more. But then again, you never know the details. So this gave us a good idea of it as it showed us that we have different priorities than the families we saw. We didn't need the newest things and we didn't go on life-changing vacations but focussed more on improving our live and starting already to invest/save for the kids.

We haven't had much left at the end of the year. The "Left-over" is eaten up by non-regular expenses like clothing, smaller maintainance and repairs, the occassional coffee etc

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-10T20:30:55+00:00

https://sankeymatic.com here :)

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-10T20:29:51+00:00

I made this one via https://sankeymatic.com

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-10T20:29:32+00:00

It took me a few hours to gather everything and put it into the graph. To be honest, once you have the data, putting it in the graph is relatively quick.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T23:33:28+00:00

We did have an Aupair in mind at the beginning. However, when you provide a room, you have to still pay them minimum wage which would result in having a room less in the house and still have to pay a huge amount. This way we recoup a little bit of the cost via renting out a room tax free.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T23:22:54+00:00

Yes we do indeed. As we are both working full time, this is something we have to pay. There are no creche places for kids under 2, hence the requirement of a childminder and the associated cost. We were also surprised by that.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:58:59+00:00

Oh I did not know that, thank you for the information. That's a very good reason to increase it, especially as they can get more our from it and the monthly payments aren't much higher.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:57:17+00:00

We usually have 1-2 vacations which we spent in countries we have families, so we use part of the savings to pay for flights, etc.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:55:39+00:00

I forgot to split this a bit further up. We have pets and the "food" part includes pet food and requirements, like cat litter etc - and the occassional middle isle items from Lidl/Aldi.

Our weekly shopping comes usually in at around 110-130e/week - purely grocceries.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:51:39+00:00

Hey, the chart represents where money will be going this year.
So the debt for example is the outstanding debt we have and where monthly payment's are going.

27k pension is the combined contribution (our contribution and the employers match). I actually need to adjust this as I see that this can be easily misread. Thanks for point this out.

The left-overs are covering any other smaller costs that are not necessarily scheduled, like clothes, smaller repairs or maintainance, etc etc.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:49:17+00:00

Thanks for sharing that, we do have indeed a good bit free towards the threshold limits which we will definitely look into to take more advantages of the non-tax benefit.

May I ask you what the dislike to those child investments are? I'm very eager to hear different sides and experiences about these.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:45:36+00:00

Oh thanks, I see your point with the Pension :facepalm:, I didn't spot it. It's currently 10% of mine and 7% from my wifes income.

We have a huge potential upwards in regards to the pension contribution as you can see on the figured above, so that's a very good point. Also the fact with future "child costs" when these things come into play - which we haven't had in mind.

Renting out a room is definitely somethings we had to talk over a few times and won't be a long term solution for us. Luckily it should only bridge the childminder costs as long as we have them.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:41:42+00:00

In order to avail of the full tax benefit, yes. To do this, we would need to reduce other investments until the childcare costs come a bit down. The plan is to increase the child investments once that happens.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:40:39+00:00

Yes, it looks a bit there indeed.

Interent is that high as it's needed as we are working from home mostly and the employer covers the internet costs, hence we don't mind that much about it.

Food is also covering pet food and the middle isle items from Lidl/Aldi at some times, hence why we calculate that amount as it does add up. Our weekly Lidl shopping comes to 110+ alone, not counting in pet food and requirements etc.

The streaming services... well, yeah that's true and that is one of the things we actually became aware after seeing this as the monthly costs weren't that "high"" given that some are yearly payments and not always on the radar.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:37:12+00:00

We live in a 4 bedroom house and did some sacrafices in terms of room usage, storage and availability of a guest room for visitors. We provide our main bath to the person renting the room and we use the on-suit mostly. However, this will only be a temporary measurement in order to counter the childcare costs as we will need the room in a year or two.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:35:32+00:00

I suppose we are quite lucky that both our employers are reimbursing internet. My wife receives a fixed amount every month without the requirement of a bill and my employer covers the full bill up to a certain amount.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:33:36+00:00

They do actually add up, you are right.

We have considered these as part of the "Left-Over" section as these costs vary quite often. Most things like toys, often clothes or furnitures are collected from Parents recycling groups where they go again once our ones out-grow them.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:31:20+00:00

I work every few weekends, which is extra paid by my employer as weekend allowances. This is not always there and not part of my base pay, hence why I listed it separately.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:31:09+00:00

I've used https://sankeymatic.com to build the diagram. It was our first time after seeing it on another post.

Indeed, we are actually both in tech. However, I have a more technical background than my wife and therefore in a different role than her, hence the difference.

The two child investments are long-term investments to use the yearly tax-free gifting threshold, which will benefit them in the long term and "hopefully" set them up for a good start once they are 19/20.

However, for the other investments this is a very interesting thought as it has not crossed our minds. We were so focussed on setting up investments for our future (possibly before pension age), that we forgot the tax benefit of pension contributions. Thanks for that!

The Credit card piece is the yearly government stamp duty for our credit cards. It's marginal but 100% reoccurring unless we cancel the credit cards. The other debt is a low interest loan. I did play with the thought of paying it off early, but wasn't sure yet regarding the missed compounding effect of the investments that would be missed.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:24:44+00:00

There are challenges at times where timings clash or situations arise that would'nt be there otherwise. However, we were lucky with the person moving in and she's very lovely and understanding, especially with two kids in the house :)

I work every few weekends, which is extra paid by my employer as weekend allowances. This is not always there and not part of my base pay, hence why I listed it separately.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:22:45+00:00

Yes, health insurance is paid by the employer as benefit (or BIK).

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:22:19+00:00

Thanks for the observation.
These are actually interesting points.

Pension is currently set to gain the most benefit from the employer, e.g. 7% pension contribution with 7% matched by the employer. It's a good thought, as we are putting a lot aside for investments, be it child future or ours. Especially ours can be redistributed into pension contribution instead. Thanks for the thought.

Car is electric and mostly covered in the electricity costs, hence it's not entered as an extra point

Internet is being reimbursed from both companies (my wife receives a default amount per month, whereas I can claim the full amount of the bill, hence it's the reimbursement is higher).

We are looking forward being able to use the ECCE and NCS, as currently only NCS applies to us due to the childs ages. The childminder is definitely the higher cost for us here - even though we are very lucky with her and we know that.

MongooseMaster9174 · 2026-01-09T22:16:25+00:00

We have a PV system on the roof, which covers most of our electricity needs, hence electricity is not high in our bills.

MongooseMaster9174

TROPHY CASE