How to plan your expenses in Denmark

Denmark is an expensive country, this is what you’ll always hear from people who visited here. It’s not completely false either. When you live here, the situation will be different, but you should be disciplined with the money here in Denmark. This is my experience with how I manage the expenses and savings in an expensive country and this may help you to how to plan your expenses in Denmark.

Budget and Planning

I maintain a simple excel sheet for my monthly family account record. You can find the template and read more about it here. I add all my expense expectations for that month in the expected column and record the actual expenses at the end of the month and balance my sheet. I use an app called Monefy on my phone to record everyday expenses. These 2 processes helped me to get a good understanding of my income and expenses for each month in Denmark. 

Initially, we used to buy groceries without much planning and most of the food ends up in waste. To avoid this, every Friday night my wife and I make our weekly meal plan and to make our job easier, we maintain a Trello board. This way, we know exactly what are the items we need for the week and then we do the shopping accordingly. It works out very well for us with less waste and different meal choices.

Housing in Denmark

Basically, you will be spending a large part of your income on housing in Denmark. There are ways to reduce this cost. There is a law in Denmark if you rent a house which was built before 1992, they’re called rent-controlled houses and the rentals are much cheaper than modern buildings. But they may not have all the modern energy-saving facilities. Remember to check the cost of heating when you’re renting a house or an apartment. You can read more about Housing in Denmark in my previous post. 

Groceries and offers

Almost all the supermarkets in Denmark have weekly offers. These include food, drinks, clothes, electronic items to many more. If you are living in Denmark already or have been to supermarkets here, you would have already seen the offer newsletters there. It could be tedious to go to each and every supermarket to find the best offer. You can find several mobile apps that list down the available offers from all those places closest to you. I’m using an app called eTilbudavis. It will notify me if there is a new offer catalog available for any of my favorite places. Also, it will show the most visited offers by other users. I can compare the prices with several places and add them to my shopping list in the app. This way I can sort out what items to buy from and where. 

There are some Asian vegetables and food items that may not be available in normal supermarkets. You can find these items in Asian, Afghan or Turkish markets. Also, they do have other food items such as spicy noodles, so many varieties of lentils, rice, spices, and sweets. They are relatively cheaper than normal supermarkets. So, we usually buy chicken and organic veggies and fruits from the supermarkets and shop at Asian markets for the rest of the items. But, always remember to check the expiry date of the products in any of these places. You have to give more attention if you’re buying fruits from the normal markets. Also, remember to check different brands, the store brand products are comparatively cheaper.

Cooking vs Eating out

High labor cost in Denmark makes everything expensive here. Any industry that depends on a higher number of laborers is costly in Denmark. Even though it doesn’t have a minimum wage concept, the usual labor charge is around DKK 110 per hour. So, it’s necessary to have cooking experience before you move here or any other part of the world. You will save around 60% – 70% of the cost when you cook at home. Also, invest in good cooking appliances. If you’re a coffee-lover, it cost around 35 DKK for a cup of coffee, instead if you know how to make a good cup of coffee, buy a coffee machine to make your own coffee any number of times a day. This goes to other appliances as well. 

If you go to a mid-range restaurant, expect to pay a minimum of 600 DKK for 2 people. Otherwise, there are many Turkish and middle eastern restaurants around the city where you can get a warm big meal without breaking your bank. At our place, my wife and I love to cook, so we try out different food at home during the weekends and batch cook the office meal on Sundays. If we go for long walks or picnics, she always makes sure to bake our favorite pies to bring along.

Companies usually offer lunch and you may have to subscribe to it. The amount will be deducted from your salary each month. It will give you a great opportunity to try out different Danish food and get to know your peers more personal level. 

Furniture

Ikea and Jysk are probably the first few names that you will hear when you ask about buying furniture in Denmark. You will find many more options here. More than that, you can find some fantastic pieces of furniture which are pre-used but in the best condition for a fraction of the brand new price. The same applies to all other household products too. You can use either the DBA or Facebook Marketplace for finding the best products for a very good price. We have bought a couple of items through Facebook Marketplace and we’re highly satisfied with them. 

Transport

Denmark has a very good public transit system. You can travel one part to the other completely using public transport. The high-speed regional trains connect the whole country with its capital and the new Metro System, the urban-suburban S-trains, public buses, and the ferry buses make sure a smooth ride within the city as well as connecting the suburbs with the capital. On top of that, Copenhagen is a cycle-friendly country with dedicated lanes for cycles. The greater Copenhagen area is divided into zones. When you buy a ticket, it’s valid for 45 minutes. Within this time period, you can take any of the public transport systems to reach your destination. Also, if your trip consists of 45 minutes, you don’t have to buy another ticket. 

Rejsekort

There are ways to save public transport costs. If you haven’t got your NemId yet, you can buy an anonymous Rejsekort (Travelcard). It costs you 80 Kr for the card and you must maintain 70 DKK balance all the time. You can buy this at any 7-11. You can reload the card at Rejsekort Kiosk in train stations. If you have NemId, you can order the Rejsekort Personal, it costs you 50 DKK and there’s no minimum balance to maintain. It is possible to reload it through the app and there are few more options. You can check it here. You will save around 40% of the travel cost using any of them.  

Commuter Card

If you are traveling to the same location frequently, you can order a commuter card. You can combine a commuter card with a Rejsekort Personal. Otherwise, you can install either DSB or DOT app on your mobile phone, select frequent zones you travel, and buy the commuter card through the app itself. When you use public buses, you should show the ticket in the app to the driver, there’s no need to tap at check-in and check out. There’s no limitation on how many times you can travel per day. If you’re traveling outside the zones, you can buy a ticket combined with your available zones to reduce the cost.  A commuter card is valid for a month. In any case, if you want to cancel, you can get the refund back as well.

Cycling

It is possible to get a good used bike for a very reasonable price until you get used to cycling here. You will quickly notice how creative the Danes are when it comes to design the cycles. A lot of residences take cycles to commute every single day. If you like, it would be a good option as well to keep you active and reduce the travel cost. 

Summary

When we are a tourist in Denmark, we spend the money we brought here. Because of the 25% sales tax,  you will notice the goods are expensive. Every tourist has a habit of converting the expenses to their country value and make a conclusion that it is not an affordable country. But when you work and live here, you will come to know a whole lot of ways how to be smart with your income and expenses. Also, if you are a couple and used to work from the country where you are coming from, you will be nervous at the beginning of how to survive with a single income. Because it is not always possible for your partner to get into the job market in Denmark right away. If your partner is an experienced skilled professional, there is a possibility to get one soon. Otherwise, most of the jobs may require the Danish language. So, this is why it’s always better to know your expenses before you move in.