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

I have also been using Excel for years. It's also nice to see how much everything has changed over the years or how little money you used to get by with monthly ;D

A household budget book is mainly kept to record the daily euros spent over a longer period of time, which are spent on household-related items and for which there are no receipts or only small ones, because the question arises when looking in the wallet: where did my money go? For monthly or yearly liabilities, you don’t need a household budget book, a yearly overview on a sheet of paper created in an hour is enough... Is this actually a male problem, making it more complicated than it is?

Exactly these daily euros are what we care about. We have already gathered all the fixed costs beforehand, estimated the variable ones, and then looked at how much would be left every month. Unfortunately, this amount does not match what is actually left in the account at the end of the month. That is why we now want to see where "our money just went."

Hello,

That's why we now want to see where "our money just went."

I remind you again, ever since my granddaughter was born; especially since "strolling" with Aya (her grandpa) and grandma has become one of her regular rituals.

Here a bread roll, there an ice cream, here a hairband, there a DVD, here a book, there a Filly, here some fabric, there rather a dress.....

Rhenish greetings

That was also one of the reasons for the household book some time ago

I have also been keeping my household budget in Excel for years. More precisely, every single item (down to the individual bread roll) is even recorded. The difficulty here is rather that my wife still finds it annoying after all these years to give me the receipts for entry. Of course, she could do it herself, but ... .

I have also made a page for fixed expenses. Strangely enough, I can't manage to keep this table up to date (e.g. when insurances or similar change). Consequently, I am still surprised by one or the other payment withdrawal (usually for GEZ, car tax, and just today the ADAC fee).

I’ve also been using Excel for years. It’s also nice to see how much things have changed over the years or how little money one used to get by on monthly ;D

Well - rather frightening. Frightening when I see how expenses have increased in recent years and we no longer manage to reduce the amount permanently. Here, actually only the "cash" method has proven effective. You withdraw a (realistic) sum X, put it in a "marked" place and set the goal to get by with this amount. If nothing comes up in between, we manage that. As soon as payments are made electronically again, it’s over. Interesting in this context: Recently there was a daily topic on SWR3 that dealt exactly with this. It was concluded that markets as well as other providers (a large American coffeehouse chain was mentioned) increasingly try to switch to electronic money because, in various tests, they found that money tends to be spent more freely than when paying with cash.

Frightening also to see where some prices have developed. I also always find it interesting that when the Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg publishes its "Black List of Scammers," I can immediately (correctly) name various candidates.

Exactly these everyday euros are what we are talking about.

Handwriting it and then adding it up is too much hassle for me
And online is also out.

Try it with your app, in my opinion Kladde is the fastest way to record expenses, then when you get home with a coffee, put it all neat, like in Excel or something. Who calculates then (mentally, Excel, or the good Texas) doesn’t matter.

I remind again, since my granddaughter was born;

I don’t need a kid to spend money, that works fine for me too

Besides groceries I had items that are easily forgotten.
Like Bauexperte said, the mentioned cosmetic stuff (hair clips and such), as well as health (pharmacy), plants, decoration... you get surprised.

Edit:

To be precise, even every single item (down to the single bread roll) is listed.

But of course you can also overdo it