How do you keep your household budget? Paper? Software? App?

Hello everyone,

I am completely new here, even though I have been reading from time to time for a while.

My husband and I would like to buy a house in the next 1-2 years. We have equity, we are currently saving a certain amount each month and can still live well. From this point of view, it seems quite realistic at the moment. However, we are currently actively planning a family... meaning at some point one income will be lost (fortunately the significantly lower one) and additional costs will arise.

Now we wanted to at least get a current status regarding monthly expenses. This would then allow us to roughly plan whether there would be enough left from one income for an adequate installment, even if there is one more eater in the family.

Therefore my question: how do you manage your household budget? Paper? Software? App? Online? What experience have you had with the different types? Maybe your knowledge can save me unnecessary trial and error.

Many thanks in advance for the answers,
starnight

In the end, it depends on your own preferences. I have kept a household ledger on paper and still do. But I am also someone who generally prefers to write things down on paper and see them in front of me rather than typing them into my phone or PC. I also tried using an app once, but it always took me too long to enter everything. Maybe you should actually just try out the options; the effort and time you put into it should be manageable.

Paper! .. is more patient A small booklet can always be carried with you and I find pencil scribbles faster than an app. It's about supermarket shopping and everyday expenses ([Klimpergeld]), the battery would quickly be in the red zone. You can enter these records with direct debits into an Excel spreadsheet at the end of the month (or try an app).

That's why my question: how do you keep your household budget?

The FAZ once looked into this topic and said that engineers would like to do it in Excel. That was correct -- I do it in Excel .

We found an account framework, adapted it to our needs, and now keep a kind of double-entry bookkeeping for the poor (that's how I would call it). The accounts are roughly called "Housing," "Household/Consumption," "Nutrition," "Leisure," "Mobility" ... I believe the essential feature of our household bookkeeping is that income, expenses, and the balance form a closed balance sheet. There is no unknown variable [there is a little loss here too, the bookkeeping deviates by a few euros, sometimes you lose/sometimes you win]. I doubt that this is possible with paper versions (or rather, the computer is simply an incredible help here; of course, it also worked without it in the past).

Edit: Of course, we also tried a few of the downloads. Excel tables or stand-alone software. Somehow none of them really suited, or they would have been paid. Online tools are out of the question for me; I like to be the master of my data. Hence the self-developed solution.

We do not keep a direct household ledger.

To still have control over the numbers, I created an Excel spreadsheet with different categories. I first entered everything that comes in monthly/quarterly or annually as fixed income (salaries/child benefits) and expenses (insurance, daycare, vehicle tax, house ancillary costs, club, [GEZ]). I also added monthly items like vacation, reserves for replacement purchases for the car, reserves for the house. I initially estimated the monthly variable costs (weekend shopping x 4, canteen, etc./car/phone costs/other). I then checked this randomly against the monthly bank debits and cash withdrawals from time to time and continuously refined my table. I formed average values for the costs of phone/car repairs, etc. over longer periods based on invoices. Since I also recorded the account balances (checking/savings/home savings, etc.) at the beginning of the year, I can quite accurately predict how the account balance should develop, taking into account the monthly income and expenses. I then cross-check this now and then.

Ultimately, for me, this is more of a budget, into which I only additionally enter extraordinary payments (special repayments) or incoming money (tax refunds) and which I then cross-check from time to time against the current account balance at the end of the month.

Thank you for your answers! I’ve downloaded an app now and will create an Excel sheet to try it in parallel. I’m too lazy to do it by hand and then add everything up. And online is out of the question too.