October 2026 – Solar and more house bills

October 2026

October 2026 was a standard month. In October, we have several things we always do:

1. The alpine cattle descent in Albeuves.
2. The Bénichon, which is traditional in Fribourg.
3. The market of La Roche, which is traditional in our region as well.

Additionally, we had other events during the month. These are good occasions to see our friends and family.

It was also the first holidays of our son. My wife also had one week of vacation from her courses, so it was not too difficult to handle, but I had to take a day off since our son had two weeks and my wife only one. For now, we do expect to keep most of my days off for cases such as that.

We finally finished the work on replacing our heater. They installed the new pipes, fixed the wall, and then installed the new heater again. This project is now closed.

We also paid the last installment of the solar panels but have not yet received the subsidy for them.

On the income side, it was entirely normal. So, large expenses and normal income mean no saving again.

Expenses

Here are the details of our expenses in October 2026:

In total, we spent 23156 CHF in October 2026. If we remove taxes, this amounts to 16054. And finally, if we remove the final installment of the solar panels, this amounts to 6654 CHF. This is still well above our goal, but this is not catastrophic either.

Our housing category is significantly too high this month. We paid 9400 CHF for the last installment of the solar panels. And then we also paid about 1000 CHF to redo a well (where the radiator was fixed). The rest is simply our mortgage.

Our food category is also slightly too high for multiple reasons:

• We had an excellent lunch for the game season.
• We had two trips to places with larger markets, so we bought more artisanal food than usual.
• Overall, we ate out a little more than before.

I am perfectly happy with this food budget since we are usually doing that every October.

As for our personal category, it is a mixed bunch. We had a few health bills (one dentist, two doctors). We also spent some money when we went to these various markets. Then, we also paid for after-school care. And finally, there is indeed more shopping than usual. We will see if this continues next month.

Overall, given some of the exceptional items on our expenses, I am happy with our level of spending this month.

2026 Goals

Here is the status of our goals by the end of October 2026:

Overall, our goals are doing alright except for the spending goal.

• We spent too much this month, although we actually did spend slightly lower than the 2026 average.
• Our income average is still going down. It should be slightly higher next month. We might be able to reach this goal, but it will be very close.
• So far, our savings rate has been quite good this year (when we ignore solar panels and the land register bill).

Overall, my workouts are going really well. I think I should be succeeding in this goal. I have a good routine now, and I want to keep it next year.

As I already mentioned, we paid the last installment of the solar panels. They did the final inspection (and it was all good). But at this point, we have not yet received the subvention we should get. I did not expect it to take so long. The installation has been working for a while now. I was thinking we would get the subvention earlier than that.

I am currently happy about the state of our goals.

FI Ratio

Here is the progress of our FI ratio as of October 2026:

Our FI ratio took a hit this month. We went from about 70% to about 68.70%.

This is due to multiple factors. First, the high expenses of this month mean we have actually lost money. This is logical and expected in all negative months.

Additionally, the stock market has also lost value this month. It means we are accumulating losses on the stock market and in actual capital.

Overall, we obviously prefer when our FI ratio is going up, but these swings are quite expected. Overall, the year has been excellent for our FI net worth, so the overall trajectory is very good.

The blog

The blog turned nine years old. It is crazy that we are getting close to ten years on this blog. It was definitely not the greatest year for the blog, but it is to be expected with life being busy.

After I wrote the blog ninth-year anniversary article, I decided to push myself faster to complete the videos. I am done with all remaining videos. I plan to release them in November on the YouTube channel.

Furthermore, I also took the opportunity to update some older articles. There is much more to be done on this front. I want to do more of that again and stop doing new projects. My rankings have fallen significantly, and I need to keep my articles relevant.

Other than that, I did not do much for the blog that is visible. I am still improving some of the foundations. That helps me maintain it to that level, but it is not visible for my users. I did fix something on the contact form that appears to be broken for a while.

Next month, I will release the first videos (I do not have a set schedule yet). Then, I plan to move on to start refreshing older articles and, of course, continue writing new articles.

What did you think of this ninth year of blogging?

Next Month – November 2026

We currently have very little planned for November; it should be a quiet month. Financially, it should be a good month since we do not have large bills planned, and we should have some extra shares vesting.

If everything goes well, I will start publishing the videos on the YouTube channel next month.

What about you? How was October 2026?