Most expats when they move to Sweden, then its always one person getting a new job in Sweden and the spouse and family follows them to Sweden.

First year when you move to Sweden, there are so many things to do like finding an apartment to Rent (MOST toughest thing in initial years), getting used to new job, finding school for kids etc, in this busy life we don’t get time to focus of personal financial planning.

Lets be honest ! Running a family with kids on single person income in Sweden is tough,

This point is never discussed openly, here I am trying to share my view on how we as a family have spent our initial years in Sweden with single income and still managed a fairly comfortable life with savings and travelling. Luckily my initial years in Sweden in 2017 was spent in Karlstad, where finding an apartment for rent was easy and cost of living was cheaper.

How to Reduce your expense in Sweden with family and as single income earner ?

1) Each super market has different offers on food going on, search the internet and plan you shopping or get Reklam (advertisement on your post box with all offers & valuate).

2) If you go late night around 8 PM, most of the bread / milks with end date comes in offer/half price.

3) Buy 2nd hand dress, games for Kids from Facebook Market or lot of 2nd hand shop in Sweden known as loppis.

4) Banks are in the business of providing loan, Don’t take a loan in first year itself to buy an apartment. As you need to understand the Swedish Apartment rules, BRF finances and also how to maintain an apartment in Sweden.

5) Non-Working Spouse shall maintain the expense (Sweden& your home country combined) report of the house in an excel file to evaluate and decided which expense can be reduced.

6)Non-Working Spouse shall register with Arbetsförmedlingen when you enter Sweden After 14 months of being unemployed, Arbetsförmedlingen pays around 4000 Kr per month for next 13 to 14 months under job och utvecklinggurantee program if you fullfill its rules & conditions. Pls refer official website for more details.

7) You can open online account with  Avanza/Nordnet, as both provide brokerage free when you invest for the 1st time in stock market/funds.

8) Create a passion for finance (anyone in the house) and read/view article and gain knowledge which will help you in long term to take proper decision in personal finance.

9) Initial years in Sweden we never buyed a car as it’s a huge expense. Car is not luxury in Sweden, for a family person it becomes essential , evaluate before buying a car , as monthly expense for car can be in the range of 3000-5000 Kr (EMI for 150 000 Kr insurance + Petrol+ Maintenance)

10) Tired of looking for jobs ? Start a blog on your hobbies, believe me if you do it with passion for 2 years continuously, it will be successful and you can start your own company in Sweden !