Over the 36 days of the study, I made a total of 184.- euros for food and beverages. Converted to a month of 30 days, this gives a total of 154.- euros a month. I have bought "normally", inexpensive own brands, but also some organic products, very well with an eye on the price, but not just everywhere automatically the cheapest product.
The cheapest day was day 30 at 3.82 euros for regular three meals. A very favorable lunch I had on day 01 – noodles with tomato sauce, green salad and Hollersaft around 0,88 euro. I had the most expensive lunch on day 04 with 5,81 Euro -beef steak with fried potato and green salad with a glass of beer. The most expensive day in total in terms of food was day 11 with 8.22 euros including drinks. The daily average for food costs is 5,13 Euro. Mostly I cooked at home. If I also ate out sometimes, these costs are listed in the column "social participation.
Resume:
I have food expenses of 150.- to 160.- € per month:
For food and drinks I usually need between 150.- and 160.- Euro per month. The prerequisite is that I cook myself, do not prepare too many meat dishes and also look at the price a little when shopping. You can live cheaply with main dishes of pasta, rice, potatoes, polenta, lentils etc. More expensive are meat dishes and alcoholic beverages.
Food costs of 140.- € per month
If I wanted to save money, or if I wanted to live healthier, then I could use Sweets just leave out in between. Chocolate and gummi bears etc. out would give me 6.- Save Euro. Further I could omit the alcohol. Without beer and wine I could save another 15.- Euro per month. So I would come to a cost of living of about 140.- Euro per month.
Food costs of 120.- € per month
If I could live on 120.- Euro monthly expenses would like to get by, then it becomes difficult. I could do without meat completely. That would cost 15.- Euro per month. Then I would have to save 5.- save Euro by buying cheaper.
Food costs of 100.- € per month
This would probably be very, very difficult for me to do. I would certainly not have that much discipline. But there are people who can live like this and want to, like the man in this video:
How high are my fixed costs?
Here I have taken into account all costs that are the same every month. I have converted these costs to each day (per day). I have divided these costs into fixed costs 1 and 2. Fixed costs 1, these are costs I can’t do without or don’t want to do without. The fixed costs 1 for me amount to 103.- Euro per month.
At Fixed costs 2 I have listed costs that would not be incurred if I had a low income due to exemptions or that I would also do without, such as my newspaper subscription. The fixed costs 2 amount with me to 70.- Euro per month.
Resume fixed costs 1:
For the item fixed costs 1 I give per month 103.- Euro from.
Cell phone – 0,37 €/day: There is nothing to shake. The 10.95 per month is OK.
Internet – 0,44 €/day: I live in the country. 4G does not exist here. Therefore I absolutely need an Internet connection and WLAN in the house. If you had a good 4G connection, you could possibly do without it.
Bank account – 0,23 €/day: Everybody needs an account. But there are also free accounts. If it would not be too much effort for me, I would change over. In the year I pay 83.- Euro in account fees. In 10 years this adds up to 830.- Euro. If I assume, for example, 4 hours of effort for the account changeover, then that would result in an hourly wage for this effort of over 200.- Euro. You could earn really good money.
Website – 0,17 €/day: I enjoy the Internet. I do not want to do without my website(s). There are people who have more expensive hobbies.
Insurance – 0,22 €/day: You should have a personal liability insurance in any case. With me there is still a household insurance and the dog liability with it. Car insurance is considered under mobility.
Hygiene – 0,32 €/day: Here I have roughly estimated the consumption. Surprisingly, the cost of the hairdresser is the highest at €0.17 per day. If you do not use expensive branded products, you can keep the costs for personal hygiene low.
Household – 0,18 €/day: With 0,18 Euro per day you can’t save much here either.
Dog – 0,50 €/day: I have a pet. Even if I would earn little, I would not want to give my dog away.
Clothing and shoes – €1.00/day: Here I have 30.- Euro per month. I myself certainly do not need so much.
Resume fixed costs 2:
If I would earn less, these costs would not arise. I would take advantage of the prescription fee exemption and the GIS exemption, I would cancel the newspaper subscription, and the church contribution would, at least I think, not be due either. After all, the item fixed costs 2 makes 70.- Euro per month from.
How much money do I spend when I go out?
Nobody sits around at home all the time. You want to meet friends, go for a coffee together or go to the cinema to see a movie. In the experimental period of 36 days I have spent a total of 222 euros for it. This results in 185 euros in a month with 30 days. My expenses for going out are listed in the column "social participation.
In the trial period I went out a little more than usual. I was at a Matura ball, at the Landestheater in Linz. I don’t do that 12 times a year. If I calculate the monthly average differently and simply delete the most expensive 3 days and the cheapest 3 days, I get the following result:
According to this, in a normal month I would be 121 Euro for going out, for social participation to get along. I had the highest expenses for going out on days 04, 09, 13, 16, 22, and 27. Essentially, I spent the money on visits to guesthouses or on gifts for guests at invitations.
How much does my car cost per month?
Car and public transport / mobility costs
I live in the country. You can’t do without a car. Unfortunately! Because owning a car is expensive. The cost drivers are insurances, repairs and especially the loss of value. If you only calculate the fuel costs, you are lying to yourself. My car: a VW Polo, gasoline engine 48 kW, year of construction 2003. That’s how much my car actually costs me:
My car costs over 5.- Euro per day?
Whether I drive or whether the car is only parked in front of the house, it doesn’t matter, for my individual mobility I have to pay a 5 Euro bill every day. Of course, this is very important.
The cost center "depreciation" includes the purchase value of the car. The 600.- Euro depreciation per year can therefore be understood in the way that I can afford per year 600.- Euro per month (= 50.- Euro per month) to buy another car later with this money.
In the study I calculated with the official mileage allowance in Austria, which is set at 0.42 Euro/km.
My old car costs exactly as much as food for one day?
Yes, you could say that. I have 153.- Euro for my food and 125.- Euro for my car, but I drove only 264 km in 30 days. At 300 km per month the two cost ranges would be congruent.
What does a new car cost per day?
I have a comparison with a new car (z. B. a new Passat station wagon o. a. for a purchase price of 45.000.-) employed. Essentially, the only thing that changes per year is liability insurance with the engine tax and depreciation:
An expensive car would cost 15.- Euro per day.
Savings opportunities for mobility
So there is great potential for savings in the mobility cost group. If it is possible, one can do without the own passenger car completely and drive with the bicycle or a moped. In big cities like Vienna you have a very good offer of public transportation. In Vienna, an annual ticket costs approx. 30.- Euro per month. There one can at one blow equal 100.- Euro per month for other things.