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

So for me, receipts from the supermarket fall under the category of groceries and drugstore items. Whether there are some socks or other odds and ends that have nothing to do with groceries included, I don’t care. What matters is whether there is anything left over in the end or not. I know exactly that we are now spending more at the supermarket. With salary increases and having a child, the consumption of groceries has also changed. You do buy somewhat higher quality items. But I don’t need to keep a household budget book for that.

You don't leave anything out - you group into categories, see above!

All right, understood! That's how we'll do it too, summarizing in categories (and there's certainly no universally satisfying solution, even if there are commonalities like "groceries").

Get up at 5:00 AM, start marching to work by 5:40 at the latest - back around 7:40 PM with a ravenous hunger.

Wow, either you work a lot or you commute a lot (or both) ... those are really long days :-(.

those are now the typical "I have no time" excuses. I always wonder where others find the time
I guess it’s about priorities that one sets for oneself.

Exactly – the priorities lie with family and the house.
Without my job, we couldn’t afford the payments for the house. Even though my wife is going back to work after the parenting phases (hooray) and earns better than before (double hooray). Surely I could perhaps save 30 minutes per trip if I didn’t take the bus to work but drove a car. But then again I’d have to plan for additional costs of 450 euros (without extra wear on the car), which would jeopardize our home financing. Just as well if I looked for a job nearby – then 800 to 1,000 less would be on the positive side.
Oh, and building a house near my workplace would have easily made the total costs explode by 200,000 to 300,000.
The clear priorities are therefore job and family.

and to the quote: "you have no time for me" is a typical sentence
either from a woman who heard this sentence from her mom (complaining without reason) or this sentence is just your own interpretation and sprung from your imagination. Men often hear something different...

Well then – if before there had already been 1 or 2 times where things got rocky with a similarly phrased argument, it sticks in your mind.
Surely it was somewhat exaggerated – the thread in the meantime had rather taken on a humorous tone.
Despite everything, regardless, all the things that come up during the day (children and daycare, acquaintances/family, what’s coming up, what needs to be bought/dealt with, etc.) are discussed in the evening. You could perhaps try to pull out a bit from this – but the general life planning does want to be discussed (regardless of the fact that at this time I also do such nice things as: pay bills online, request quotes, handle important mail, inform myself about building/expansion topics, etc.).

Wow, either you work a lot or you commute a lot (or both) ... those are really long days :-(.

Both .

So for me, supermarket receipts fall under the category of food and drugstore items. Whether there are a few socks or other miscellaneous stuff that have nothing to do with food is irrelevant to me. What matters is whether there is anything left over in the end or not.

I see it the same way. If we actually buy something bigger at the supermarket that has nothing to do with food or drugstore items (although this category is admittedly very small for us), I can still deduct it separately. In the end, the overview counts. And honestly: food is the thing I want to save the least on. Since we only buy "normal" things and go to the discount store, it doesn’t really matter to me whether I spent 10 or 20 € on sausage and meat. And if we want fresh rolls for the weekend, then we get some. The potential for saving, at least for us, lies in other categories.

That's how I see it too. If we actually buy something bigger in the supermarket that has nothing to do with food or drugstore items (though admittedly that category is very small for us), I can still calculate it separately. In the end, the overview counts. And honestly: food is the thing I want to save the least on. Since we only buy "normal" things and go to the discount store, I don't really care whether I spent 10 or 20 € on sausage and meat. And if we want fresh rolls for the weekend, then we get some. The savings potential lies, at least for us, in other categories.

That's right! A household budget book is supposed to provide an overview. Some things have to be handled individually. Where someone sees savings potential for themselves or their family is also individual. But then you can see that you buy sausage and meat for 100 a month and the diapers add up to so much.

I wish you all a happy Easter (I would book my purchase at Metro right away under the category holidays/gifts )

Best regards, Yvonne