Do you do it? Are you religious about it? (this includes your debit purchases)


Every morning I look at our bank account and mark off in the ledger if something has come through. We have so many bills coming through, I have to or we wouldn't know how much money we have and would be in the hole.

I don't look everyday but I do a few to several times a month. I have a budget set up and over the years have gotten pretty good at being able to figure how much we have, can spend, etc. in my head. But I do look during the month to make sure.

I'm terribly financially retarded!!

I'm really working on it though....my mom is awesome at it.

We never do this, I know we should, but we don't. We just rely on the online banking, we really should start doing it ourselves to double check, lol.

I don't keep a register but I am anal when it comes to my checking account. Every morning when I get up I check what has gone through and then at night before I go to bed I look at what is pending for the day.

I am trying. TRYING to get DB to be a bit more careful about this. I usually keep a running tally of all expenditures along with my weekly budget. Doesn't always work out the way I plan it. But it is getting better

I don't keep the actual register - I do, however, monitor it online daily and keep all receipts so that I can check them against what is showing online. I also enter my receipts into the budget spreadsheet so that I can keep an eye on how our actual expenses are comparing to what I have budgeted and adjust accordingly.

i do it a couple times a week :)

i stopped whenI got microsoft money. We only write about 2 checks a month so its just easier. And I can DL it straight from the website so its less for me to worry about. We should be better about adding things to it though, but we are getting there.

no we don't. I tired when we used to write checks but John couldn't grasp the concept of a check and it led to many fights so I just quit. I know what we have and what can be spent.

I don't balance a actual checkbook. but every payday I grab a piece of paper n write everything down so I don't end up over spending. Our bank is really bad about not updating on weekends so it will look like we have way more money than we do. We learned that the hard way

no, i know what's clearing and what's not, and jason tells me when (IF) he spends $$. so i just have a general idea of how much will be left after all is said and done, and round UP when estimating the amount of the bill paid, so we don't end up short.

i probably SHOULD be more diligent...but since we do all our bills online and what not, i just hate doing a paper check registry LOL

no, i know what's clearing and what's not, and jason tells me when (IF) he spends $$. so i just have a general idea of how much will be left after all is said and done, and round UP when estimating the amount of the bill paid, so we don't end up short.

i probably SHOULD be more diligent...but since we do all our bills online and what not, i just hate doing a paper check registry LOL

:agree we do the same thing:yes

I update our ledger daily. I have to keep track everyday or I forget to write down stuff. I also check the bank online everyday and mark of what has posted.

Nope! Never. I try to keep a pretty good idea in my head of how much I have, and I check online often to see my balance. But that's all.

I don't write checks. I pay all my bills electronically through USAA. I have my budget on an Excel file and so I know how much money I have to spend every month. I am excellent with numbers and most of the time I can keep an accurate running tally in my head.

I've done it that way for years. :D

I have a good memory of what we've used so I check it online every morning.

Signed,

Ex Wells Fargo :puke paranoid customer

Everytime we buy something I write it down and I look at the account and mark it when it has gone through! Im really anal about it!

I know what is in there at all times, but not to the penny. I always round my purchases up and subtract from the whole number and then whatever is left over I move over into savings at the end of the month.

ETA that I do the same as rockstarmom pretty much, I have a running tally in my head and know what's going on. For us as long as I have a certain amount in the bank we're good......

I don't write checks. I pay all my bills electronically through USAA. I have my budget on an Excel file and so I know how much money I have to spend every month. I am excellent with numbers and most of the time I can keep an accurate running tally in my head.

I've done it that way for years. :D

Same here, but I use Money instead of Excel.

Every morning I look at our bank account and mark off in the ledger if something has come through. We have so many bills coming through, I have to or we wouldn't know how much money we have and would be in the hole.

I do this.. however the only reason I am constantly checking it is to make sure everything clears ok.. Our register is usually pretty accurate..

I round too.. Like for instance lets say payday is $515..(no this is not our pay.. only an example).. I would put $500 just to be sure that we had extra for any OOPS... and we bank with USAA so at the end of every month we get the interest deposit and the ATM fees deposit and I never include those. .

It has worked great for us..

we balance the checkbook once a month when our statement comes. I don't like doing it, but do it anyway

no, i know what's clearing and what's not, and jason tells me when (IF) he spends $$. so i just have a general idea of how much will be left after all is said and done, and round UP when estimating the amount of the bill paid, so we don't end up short.

i probably SHOULD be more diligent...but since we do all our bills online and what not, i just hate doing a paper check registry LOL

:yes

Every time I use my card or write a check and I balance up if it's got change (i.e. 28.43 = 29.00) and anything that is left in my checking account goes right to savings every single week.

i HATE balancing the checkbook-so it ususally ends me up in trouble

I have a notebook that I write everything down in. I check the bank account usually everyday because Dh likes to spend stuff and not tell me or he doesn't give me the receipts. When stuff goes thru and is posted, I check it off in the book. I like to know how much we have, right down to the penny. I always tell Dh we have less tho so he doesn't spend it on stupid stuff. :giggle

I am faithful about balancing.

I'm really bad about my checking account. I'll look at it occasionally to see how much money is in it. I'm really dependent on my parents when it comes to balancing my checkbook. The statement comes to my parent's house. My dad is an accountant, so I give my checkbook to him and he does it. Mom used to do it, but she got really aggravated with me not writing down all my receipts.
I need to work on getting better on it.

I try to reconcile my bank account every week or least every two weeks. I use Quicken so it is pretty easy to keep track of everything.

I balance in my checkbook daily i'm very anal about it too...I go to the exact penny!

Every military payday, I balance/reconcile our "checkbooks." Well, unless we'll be going on vacation, then I try to pre-balance, so we know exactly what we can spend on vacation. I do check our accounts a couple times a week to make sure there isn't anything funky going on.

About 5 years ago, I decided to take the "Bull by it's horns" and make a budget. And every year, I re-vamp the budget based on what we actually spent the previous year. (Yes, I know, it's anal retentive.) But it keeps me sane and Dh and I don't argue about money. And any extra "budgeted" money that's left over every payday goes to our "fun fund," which adds to our happiness. LOL!

Because honestly, when we first got married, that's all we argued about. Then I read a few articles in magazines and online about how the majority of marriages that fail is because the spouses don't see eye to eye about financial issues.

So, I was seriously afraid that we would call it quits because of our arguments about money. Now that we have a budget and I show him what all our money goes to, etc, as well as get his input, I seriously don't remember the last time we had an argument about money. Maybe a little spat here and there over the past 5 years, but nothing compared to our all out "defensive" fight fests about where all our money went.