<prompt> Human: Hello reddit! Since I moved out I started monitoring all my expenses. Not because I struggled with money or someone told me to. Its because I like numbers and I like looking back at the data. Maybe some of you might be interested as well or want to compare stuff. I am curious! None of my friends does something similarI try to explain my circumstances and what and how I monitored and then show the data.nbsp;My background:I grew up in a small family with my single mom and my sister. My sister moved out to attend university just as I did, but she left 2 years earlier.I was born in 1991, finished school at 18, attended university at 19. I am currently 25 and will leave university with my MSc at 26.nbsp;The time:I finished school in 082010 13 years, in Germany you get the Abitur - you need it to attend universities. I joined the german military Deutsche Bundeswehr for the following year. 6 month were mandatory back then, I extended the time to 12 month because I wanted more money love my country. Because I had an accident and needed my knee to be fixed, I left early in 082011 and attended Technische Universität Darmstadt TUD in 102011.It took me 7 semesters to get my Bachelors degree and I am currently in my third of 5 planned Masters semesters.I always lived in the city center where I can reach everything with my bike in a few minutes. I lived in a 1-room-apartment for the first year in Darmstadt. The following 4 years I lived in 2 different shared apartments with other students.nbsp;My income:First and easiest you get child support 150m for your kids until the age of 25. My mother paid some insurances for me but gave the rest to me since I moved out and paid for everything myself.Ever since my parents got a divorce my father pays alimony for me and my sister another 150m.In Germany there is a federal student financial aid BAföG, lets call it FFS. You can get financial aid, if your parent dont make that much money or have high expenses many kids. And the amount varies for that matter. You can get up to 700m or nothing, depending on your parents financial situation. You only have to pay back 50 of what you got, some years after you finished your degree.It is a lot of paperwork you have to do once a year but it is definitely worth it. You can get FFS for your standard period of study 6 semesters Bachelor, 4 semesters Master, not longer. Important to mention: you are also not allowed to earn much money yourself or it will be deducted from your FFS. Such a job called Mini Job where you earn a maximum of 400m, later 450m. Mini Jobs are tax-free.My mother changed jobs during that time and went from low-paying-job to no-paying-job to high-paying-job. Therefore the FFS amount varied each year. The first year was 650mFUCKYEAH! but it went down to 300m the following year and was 150 after that :I worked at a research lab since day one of my time in Darmstadt. Nothing special, had nothing to do with my field of study, but it was an easy and okay job. I typed stuff, carried stuff, copied stuff, did whatever came up. I worked 10hw and stayed under the 400m mark.After I got my BSc. I started working in a start-up IT company in Darmstadt in 102015. I work 20hw now and earn too much to get child support, alimony or FFS - that all stops now. But I get paid enough to be on my own for the first time 1,1km with taxes. Thats why 20hw is okay to handle since I can afford it to study an extra semester or two.in summary: 150m child support 150m alimony 150 to 650m FFS 400m joband later: 1100m new jobnbsp;My expenses:I keep every bill of everything I spend money on for a month. If I didnt get one splitting the bill with someone, paying something on the way,.. I keep a little TXT file on my smartphone where I can quickly add the amount.I split my expenses in 11 categories described below. If i buy items of different categories e.g. buy food and drugstore stuff at the supermarkt, I split the items into two bills so they dont get mixed up.If a bill does not fit a single category, I split it up: E.g. if I go out to eat in a restaurant, the bill goes 5050 into Food and Going out. If I take my GF out for coffee it goes 333333 into Food, Going out and Gifts but that is the most detailed it will ever get.1 Rent: cold rent with no utilities2 Utilities: water, electricity, internet, mobile phone, other apartment utility fees3 Food: includes non-alcoholic drinks4 Going out: clubs, going out to eatdrink, alcohol5 Clothing: socks mostly6 University: Tuition Fees? nope. Hooray Germany! You only have to pay 250semester but that is for some paperwork and a local-transport-ticket. With it you can take every bus, tram or train in quite a big area around Darmstadt e.g. I can reach Frankfurt and move around other university cities. I never had to buy any books we can download everything and I can print 50 pagesm for free.7 Purchases: kind of vage category. Everything I buy for myself like games, furniture, something for the apartment,..8 Drugstore: cleaning and washing supply9 Other: stuffservices that dont fit anywhere else. E.g. Transportation, medicine, ..10 Gifts11 Insurances: since I got a real job in 102015 I have to pay health insurance myself I was covered by my mothers insurance beforenbsp;Data:Detail 2011Detail 2012Detail 2013Detail 2014Detail 2015Detail 2016Overview 2011-2016Bar chart 2011-2016Pie chart 2011-2016nbsp;If you have any questions, suggestions or want some numbers explainedmore detailed, feel free to ask. I try to answer everything I can!Assistant: Excellent post! Off-topic, but how would you rate the quality of education you received at TU Darmstadt? How would you rate the student experience?Human: TUD is a great university from what I heard in comparison to other universities in Germany. We evaluate every course we attended at the end of each semester. I usually rate them 45 or better. Most of the professors regularly improve their talks and update their content. As said, we dont have to pay for books, we can download any material. More than half of the classes are recorded and can be rewatched at home. Nearly no mandatory attendance.All that of course depends on your field of study and the classes. But in general and in comparison students are in good hands.nbsp;The social life is another story. There are some negative factors that can hardly be changed: technical university means 75 dudes. Sausagefests wherever you are. since Darmstadt has excellent train connections and local transportation, many students come from other cities around Darmstadt. Weekends or holidays make it a ghost town. many bars but no nice clubs. Darmstadt itself got rekt in WW2 and has no old town part like other cities. Many buildings were build after the war and look that way.But there are nice cities around Darmstadt that you can visit with your local-transport-ticket. You can still party and go out with friends in Darmstadt, no question. But it just cant compare with Munich, Cologne, Heidelberg and many other cities for that matter.nbsp;If you have any further questions, feel free to pm me.  <response>: since Darmstadt has excellent train connections and local transportation, many students come from other cities around Darmstadt. Weekends or holidays make it a ghost town.This was the story of my Erasmus year in Germany. 90 of students commuted from other cities. Schit sucked. 