I’ve lost count but we too keep the little slips from the store in a wallet, or purse, and every 5-7 days I collect them from Mrs.Nic and input them into my spreadsheet that’s laid out like a checkbook register. I take the slips and stack them from oldest to newest (since that’s how they appear in the online bank statement) and them input in order. Then, every couple of weeks, I go online to the bank and I check off those that have “cleared” the bank. That is where I ensure the total is correct and make sure no slips were misplaced.
The little slips I then put in an old box the checks came in. It holds, for us anyway, about six months of slips. I label it Jan-June 05 and put it in the same drawer that the tax statements and such are kept.
I’ve been doing this for years and never had any problem. In addition, my spreadsheet is called Bankbook 2005 and at the end of the year I save to CD and keep it with my records (and yes, I save to 3.5 about once a week).
That’s exactly what I do with mine, minus the purse or box. I just shove them in a pile by my computer.
I love online banking - it’s made my life so much easier. I use a popular bank that shows my transactions within the hour.
I go through my account online every few days and see if something looks off. I save all my receipts, though, if only for the purpose of returns. I have a drawer in the kitchen whose sole purpose is receipt-collector. Every month or so I toss what I don’t need. I tried keeping track of receipts (folder for each month, folder for each store, etc.) but I found it unnecessary.
I was taught to balance my checkbook by my grandmother, and while it works for her to write everything down in her register, do the math, copy it onto her monthly statement and all that, it was just too organized for me. Half the time I’m with friends and chatting, or want to get my Hot Pockets home before they thaw, and taking the time to get the receipt, write it down, subtract the amount, and put it away is too improbable for me.
I do, however, have a self-imposed budget, so once a month I print out my account and tally it all up. I use Excel too, which is a geat way to compare month-to-month. I even have pie charts showing percentages for easy reference (OK, OK, I just like the pretty colours 
)
I generally record the transactions within a few hours of the time they occur. Not just for transactions that affect my checking account balance, but also for cash purchases and anything that affects how much money I have on hand (e.g., picking up coins off the ground, donating loose change to charity, buying subway tickets from vending machines, etc.).
Sometimes I don’t have my accounting logs with me, and I jot down the figures on an index card or other scrap of paper. At other times, I just commit the numbers to short-term memory and fill in the appropriate entries at the next convenient occasion. This last talent is especially useful when I shop at the local food co-op, which doesn’t give its customers receipts. For example, right now I’m in transit from said food co-op, stopping at the library after having spent $2.87 on apples and potatoes, minus two cents that I picked up off the ground on my mid-day walk.
Is this typical of US banks?
New Zealand banks have been ‘online real time’ for ages, i.e. if I spent $5 at the diary using my debit card, then log in to my online banking, the transaction will show up immediately.
I had assumed this was the case for banking systems world-wide but perhaps not?
Yes, this is also the case in Australia for online banking.
My advice: keep every receipt from every transaction and then you can check them off against your paper/online statement.
I keep register receipts in my wallet until I get around to entering them in my checkbook register at home, which, I confess, isn’t as often as it should be. But I keep a mental tally and supplement with online banking to make sure I didn’t forget anything major.
That was you? Sorry for the eye-rolling and loud sighing, but congratulations on accepting my invitation to join us in the 21st century! 
I check my online banking every other day or so, just to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything, but I pretty much always know, within $20 or so, how much I’ve spent. It’s funny, my math skills generally suck, but when it comes to my money, I’m all of a sudden a whiz with the addin’ and subtractin’.
Do be aware that your bank may not update as often as you’d like, and that if you use your debit card for online purchases, your bank doesn’t get the transaction until the online store submits it, and most online stores don’t charge you until they ship.
I have never balanced a checkbook in my life. It isn’t because I’m not financially responsible (I am), its because I don’t see the point. My bank, Bank of America, has a very good online banking system. I just fire it up and look at it every few days. Transactions are usually posted in real-time and the location of the transaction would make it obvious if there is an erroneously posted one. Now it even has check images stored forever online and I don’t even get paper statements. I am not usually worried about running out of money and I always know roughly how much I have. Even during the times I cut it close, I have $3000 automatic overdraft protection so I didn’t have to worry about that much.
The totality of the chore is simply verifying that the transactions appear correct according to memory. It is pretty easy. I suppose it would be possible for a debit to never get posted but that isn’t really something that keeps me up at night.
I must be the last person in the world still afraid to use online banking.
What is there to be afraid of exactly? Much greater security and less error potential than regular checks? Convenience?
Add Suburban Plankton and I to the list of people who do this. We use Quicken and the moment either of us gets home from spending money, it goes into the register in Quicken. If for some reason we absolutely cannot enter it into the register that moment, the receipt goes on the desk in front of the computer and we enter it the next time we sit down.
Plus we have online banking so we reconcile our balance in Quicken with our bank account several times a week. We are usually within $1 of what the bank says.
well I if you try it-you will never go back. I love online banking. I sit down and pay all my bills in like 2 minutes—it is done. No addressing envelopes, etc. You should at least try it for a month—you will be amazed 
Agreed. The only thing I don’t pay online is my rent. I use precisely one check and one stamp per month, and it takes me about ten minutes per month to pay all of my bills.
I recently got my first Real Job ™ and would very much like to start a real budget. Would you mind emailing me a copy of your spreadsheet (formulas, not the actual entries ). It sounds exactly like something I need, but don’t have the know-how to create. I would be eternally grateful.
DC
Hackers*. Yeah, I know that sounds paranoid and I’ve been told a zillion times about the advantages but have yet to make the leap.
I’m one of the last of the luddites when it comes to money.
[ol]Visit ATM
withdraw sufficient cash to pay bills and buy groceries
Line up at Post Office
Pay bills
Go to supermarket and do weekly shopping
Pay cash.[/ol]
There are two advantages from my point of view: I know exactly how much money there is in the bank and I don’t have to wait weeks (or months) for a payee to present a cheque. And I spend less.
And I’m such a luddite, I can’t even post a list properly. :smack:
Have you ever found a mistake that you wouldn’t have found just by scanning an amount and description of your transactions? I can’t really argue that your type of approach hurts anything. I am just genuienly curious about the benefits that people derive from this type of approach.
My wife and I have many different accounts set up for different purposes. Automatic electronic transfers moves money into them. All I have to do is verify that the types and amounts of debits moving out of them is correct. I trust the banks computers to do addition and subtraction correctly. I can look up the balance any time I want and I always know roughly what debts are outstanding.
DoperChic,
I’m sure Lord Ashtar’s response will be good, but I have another spreadsheet for you to check out.
There is an Excel spreadsheet located at:
http://www.chuvala.com/fpu/worksheets/FPU_Worksheets.xls
It has a “CASH FLOW” tab that has every item you will likely need to budget for in a given month.
If you make a budget based on this, then compare your real-life receipts with the budget you make, you’ll figure out what reasonable values for various categories are for you on a monthly basis.
If you don’t get paid monthly, there’s also a tab entitled “Chuvala’s Worksheet” that conveniently breaks all expenses down into “per month” and “per week” columns.
The other pages on the spreadsheet vary in utility.
Incidentally, I have a custom-crafted spreadsheet I use to plot my month’s upcoming deposits and withdrawals spread across two different checking accounts. It’s uglier than all sin, but I can have 12 months worth of upcoming estimated transactions handy. Nice for making sure I react as far in advance to cash flow issues.