My expenditure since I moved to Portugal has been steadily increasing in various ways... so much so that I'm actually spending more now per month than what I was spending two years ago in England....
What can I say - the combination of living across two countries and prepping (investing) to go more off grid are more expensive than I thought.
- The most drastic increased expense is the car - I'm now spending at least £100 a month more on fuel than I was, and more on insurance and tax too, probably £150 more a month overall (!)
- Tax is also more complex and pricier - I have to pay more tax in Portugal, so add on another £50 a month I estimate on average!
- Next there is about £120 a month I pay for some SEO work, but I can't blame this on Portugal, this is because my income has been good the last couple of years!
- Fourth, I pay for two language learning subs, so that's another £50 a month approximately.
- Fifth communications are pricier - another £40 more expensive roughly that in the UK.
- I guess I should also factor in any regular return trips I intend to make, I'm feeling once every two years should do it - if I want to factor that in, another £40 a month to save up (I know, it really does cost £1000 to make the return journey by car).
This means that overall I'm spending around £350 more a month because of my move out here, and another £100 on top of that because of the SEO.
The good news is that moving here has allowed me to rent the house in the UK out for twice what I pay rent for here and that covers the rent here and all of the above increased expenditure.
And my income has held up so far, so I haven't felt any problems.
Add on the building materials, DIY tools and gadgets and a labour....
I can add around £200 a month to the above for all the toys and help I've paid for....
- Strimmer
- Chain saw
- land clearance work last summer
- rendering work this autumn
- pump for the well
- angle grinder...
- trees...
- I spent £200 today on paint and lime and bits - I've done that a lot!
- Roofing material (eer OK maybe £250 a month!)
MAN I HAVE BEEN A GOOD CONSUMER THESE LAST TWO YEARS!
And then £14K on the other house!
I feel like I need a low-spend 2022-2023... 18 months!
The (not so) funny thing is I didn't come to Portugal to spend, quite the opposite in fact, but that's the way it's gone.
Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed it, crypto gains helped a lot - YES in retrospect it was sensible to cash out enough to help subsidise all of the above!
But now we're in a 'red period' it's time to get back to no-spend mode....
The thing about going into 'no spend mode' is that it's a lot easier to do when you don't need to do it - and I don't need to, not yet, I can keep my current expenditure up for probably a good couple of years yet, BUT with things looking uncertain it's time to reign in the building spending (cheap for me going forward) and a few other bits and bobs too.
And I think NOW is a good time to start - I have a few things ring fenced (Hive Fest, my roof for house 2) but besides these I'm going to TRY and spend as little as possible until the end of 2023!
Then I'll review my situation.
The good thing about getting old is that 18 months doesn't even feel like a long time!