July 2023 – Holidays
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In July 2023, we went on vacation for a week in Greece. We had a nice time, although it was exhausting. Other than that, not much happened during the month.
Financially, it was an expensive month. But despite the vacation, we still managed to save about a third of our income.
July 2023
July 2023 was a very packed month, with things happening every week. And at the end of the month, we went on a week-long vacation to Santorini.
Overall, it was a good month, despite the intense heat. We had mostly good weather, so we could go out a lot which was great for our son.
As usual, it was an exhausting month with few, if any, full nights. We will seek professional help next month because we cannot keep up like this forever.
Financially, it was a good month, with more than a third of our income saved. We did not count while in Greece, which turned out well.
Holidays in Greece
For six days, we went to Greece, to Santorini. We stayed near the beach, in the Kamari area.
Santorini is a very popular location these days due to its nice architecture, nice beaches, and good weather. It is probably too popular and is quite crowded. Since my wife had to take vacations during the school holidays, we probably went around the worst time, so it was crowded.
Crowds aside, Santorini is a nice set of islands in the Cyclades. It has very nice buildings, nice food, and nice beaches.
We enjoyed our stay there. And our son discovered the joys of the sea, the swimming pool, and the hot tub (not so hot these days). That said, it is not an excellent location for children under five.
We visited most of the biggest spots on the island and had a nice time on the beach.
Financially, the hotel and flights were very expensive at this time of the year. The food there was quite fairly priced. And excursions were also fairly priced, in my opinion.
It was our first time on a trip abroad with our son. And it was very exhausting for us. Given the lack of schedule, his nights were even more erratic. And during the day, we barely had time to relax since his naps were generally short or on the road. 6 days was probably the most I could take myself.
But overall, it was nice going on vacations and not having to worry about anything else.
Expenses
Here are the details of our expenses in July 2023:
| Category | Total | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurances | 762 | Average | Health insurance for 3 |
| Transportation | 443 | Above average | A lot of trains and buses |
| Communications | 119 | Average | Internet and phone |
| Personal | 2557 | Above average | Mostly holidays |
| Food | 592 | Average | Groceries and several restaurants |
| Housing | 740 | Above average | Mortgage, heating, and water |
| Taxes | 5827 | Average | Taxes at the three levels |
In total, we spent 11056 CHF this month. Without taxes, this is 5229 CHF. This is not too bad for us. Considering we spent almost 1500 CHF this month, I am pretty happy about this result.
A large part of our expenses are due to the holidays. We had lunch and dinners outside every day. We also went on several tours and did a little shopping. Considering we went on the very expensive island of Santorini, we did okay not spending too much.
Except for these expenses, there is not much to comment on our costs this month.
So, I am happy about our expenses this month.
2023 Goals
Here is the status of our goals by the end of July 2023
Our financial goals are doing well this month. Our low savings rate and high expenses have lowered two of our goals, but it was expected for a holiday month.
I hoped to be done with the LLC this month, but unfortunately, at least one more step remains, and it did not progress well in July.
I managed to walk quite a lot this month. The weather was very nice before we left for Greece, and we were quite active in Greece. This makes a good average for my steps. And before going on vacation, I did not miss any workouts, which is rare.
Unfortunately, I broke my fitness tracker while on vacation. I have ordered a new one for next month. Fortunately, I could use the stats from my wife to complete the missing days. So, overall, my step results should be fairly accurate anyway.
Overall, the progress on our goals is quite good.
FI ratio
Here is the progress on our FI ratio as of July 2023 :
We made nice progress in our FI ratio, but this did not come much from our net worth. Indeed, our FI ratio is based on our twelve months’ average expenses. And it turns out that June 2023 was much better than June 2022, which lowered our average expenses.
Even though it makes it weird in the graph, it is a good thing. It is the first time in 2023 that we have lowered our average 12-month average.
On top of that, our net worth also increased nicely during this month.
Overall, I am very pleased with our FI ratio this month.
The Blog
On the blog side, not much happened this month. I finished some important updates on the article. But except for improving the quality of some articles and translations, this should not make a significant difference to my readers.
I hoped to be done with converting to an LLC in July, but this was not the case. Most of the income is now going through the new bank account. But we are still waiting on the pension fund, even though it was supposed to be active on the first of August.
It was probably not a great time to start most procedures and leave for a week. But I also underestimated the number of procedures for setting up everything. I would probably have delayed the LLC until next year had I known.
It is not entirely clear at this point, but some personal changes may lead to me reducing the posting frequency on this blog in the coming months. We will see how this develops.
Next Month – August 2023
We are still on holiday the first week of August but will stay in Switzerland. Also, we do not have much planned for August, which is a nice change. I hope it will stay that way with fewer events.
Financially, it should be a very standard month. I do not see anything happening on that front. Hopefully, we will be done with the LLC transition by then.
What about you? How was July 2023 for you?
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Hiii, thanks for this entrance in your blog! We are planning our trip for September. I wanted to ask you, do you have any credit card with which you accumulate miles when purchasing with it? We have seen some videos in which it is advised to have one so you can save money with your flights and hotels, but we haven’t find good options in Switzerland. Thank you!
Hi Camila,
Unfortunately, I came to the same conclusions you did: there are no good travel credit card in Switzerland.
Hey! Thanks for jeeping your blog. Hope Santorini was as beautiful as it looks in pictures. Reading about your expenses for july there were two buckets were I realized I might be overspending. So wanted to ask you about them. Food and housing. I spend the same as you in food and im only 1 and mostly shop in lidle. Any tips? . Housing, my rent is multiple times your budget, is the difference from owning/mortgage?
Hi Daniel,
I have an article about how we save on food: Fight Food Waste with Too Good To Go. I encourage you to keep your Lidl tickets for a month and then try to see exactly what is expensive.
It’s probably the difference between renting and a mortage. Before, for a small apartment, we paid 1360 CHF per month. But keep in mind that we also pay several things on the side like heating, water, more taxes and such for our house.