January Expense for a Family of 2 in Switzerland

As a family of two living in Switzerland, budgeting expenses is something we take seriously. We wanted to delve into more detail on what our monthly costs look like and share that with the readers of this blog. To give you some insight into just how much it takes to make it work as a small family here in Switzerland, we tracked each penny spent during the month of January — from housing to groceries, restaurants, transportation, and more! If you’re looking for ideas on ways to save money while still having fun (because sometimes life needs enjoyment!), then come join us as we review all our spending habits for January 2023.

Why Sharing This Information

This year I decided to record and share our monthly expenses with everyone. There are a few reasons for me to do so:

1. Education. I want to help people understand that by cutting back unnecessary spending, you can fast-track your wealth building.

I used to focus a lot on earnings and not so much on spending. Therefore, as someone in her 20s, I spent as much as I earned (most of the time) on things like traveling, clothes, random activities, daily Starbucks, etc. I have one investment that was done on purpose to force me to save money every month because it is a long-term contract with obligations. Thankfully I did that; actually, I was ‘tricked’ into signing that investment without fully understanding it. Long story short, besides that small monthly investment obligation, I spent all I earned.

So when I reached my 30s, I didn’t have too many assets under my name, not to mention some savings or emergency funds, considering how much I earned in my 20s.

I strongly suggest you do this exercise: **calculate how much you have earned all your life till now. Add up all the savings, assets, and investments you have now minus the debts.That is your net worth. Use the sum of your net worth divided by the total amount of what you earned in your life. There you go. That is much you have kept. The rest was spent. Did you manage to keep 10% of it, 20%, or more?

2. Have more financial clarity

We have tracked our monthly expenses for a few years now but never get down to the details by category. I did not know if…