In this thread, BobT asked if he was the only person in America who balances his checkbook.
A quick search found this old What grown-up things do you not do? thread in which a number of people said that they do not balance their checkbook.
I want to hear from the Teeming Millions. What say you? Do you meticulously calculate each charge down to the penny, and call the Bank about every discrepancy (me) or do you throw caution to the wind and let the checks fall where they may?
I do not balance my check book. I keep a running total in my head. I call the automated system at the bank every few days to make sure that my head matches the bank.
The funny part is that I an accountant and balance other people’s accounts all the time.
Throw caution to the wind, but when I write checks that get my balance down to a dangerously low level, I’ll sit down for a few hours to ensure how much I have, down to the penny. Often I’ll check my balance at an ATM when I’m getting cash, and if it’s off by a serious amount (several hundred dollars) then I’ll investigate.
Rationally I know that this is a prime situation to lose track of a lot of money, but I write so few checks, that it just seems like a hassle.
yup, I balance it. It’s the one thing that I am anal about. I am horrible at math and if I dont balance my checkbook I will seiously overdraw my account.
I’m a cross between Zumba and LNO. I have an approximate balance in my head (within ten or fifteen dollars, plus awareness of what might still be outstanding), and I eyeball the ATM slips. I also call the automated line for a balance every week or two. If something seems to be off, I’ll laboriously reconstruct the last month or two of transactions and figure out a correct balance. Otherwise, I don’t worry about it.
Since I inspired this thread, I will say that I balance my checkbook because I was taught by mother that doing so was of vital importance. Even though she has passed away, I can picture her ghost haunting me if I ever skipped a month.
Now that I keep track of everything on my computer, it’s very simple to do. Rarely takes longer than 5 minutes.
The decline of Western Civilization can be traced to two things in my opinion:
I balance my checkbook and am diligent about entering in everything, down to the penny, that gets deducted or added (paychecks, checks written, debit transactions, etc).
Because I’m as strict about writing everything in my ledger, I only balance the checkbook itself every 6 weeks or so. Whenever I have a slow 30 mins to kill at work I fire up IE and check it online. I never bother with the monthly statments from the bank.
Only in Quicken.
Oh God how I love Quicken.
Yeah, but not right then and there.
I just write the name of whom I wrote the cheque to then go online at a later date and see which of my cheques have posted. Mose every cheque clears within one or two days, the rest within a week/week and a half. It’s great because checks usually clear by the time I get my paycheck.
If I ever want to make a large purchase I put it on my Visa.
HELL YES!
I have it reconciled down to the penny monthly. I also keep a spreadsheet that keep a running breakdown as to where the money should go (house payment, car payment, food, etc). That gets updated about every two weeks when the ol’ paycheck finally finds its’ way to me.
I just use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of what checks are out, what my balance is, and the total of my bills that I need to pay until next payday, leaving me with an “unencumbered” amount that I can withdraw at ATMs and POS terminals.
I usually do this every payday, and in between sometimes if I lose track of how much I’ve withdrawn, or find some sort of discrepancy. If things are tight, I’ll do a projection for the following pay period to see if I can avoid getting into a hole by letting one or two unimportant bills slide. (All of my savings go straight in mutual funds, stock, and other assets that I’d prefer not to liquidate. Hell, in practice, if it’s liquid, it doesn’t save.)
I have overdraft protection line of credit for several thousand dollars so I’m not worried about being off by a few bucks - I’m not going to incur any stupid overdraft charges.
Thank God for credit unions!
I don’t balance my checkbook specifically. I don’t think it’s worth the time.
I do have a budget written out in Excel, that I fill in every couple of days. I’ve kept track of every penny I’ve spent since last November in there. It took about 2 hours to put the thing together and set up the calculations, and it takes me about 3 minutes every 3 or 4 days to keep it up. I do spend more time with it than that, but more as a planning tool then basic upkeep. I usually call the bank once or twice a month to check my balance and make sure that everything has cleared. If there’s any discrepency I can find it in Excel faster than I could in the book.
I never in a million years thought I would be that anal about it. It started because I had to finance a car repair and it was going to be a ridiculously tight squeeze. I put the budget together as a schedule of when I could send checks out. I got used to doing it that month, and kept the habit.
I used to be terrible with money, mostly because I didn’t earn enough to live on, I figured that overdrafts were going to happen, and there wasn’t anything I could do about them. Now that I’ve got a better income, I find I am more comfortable knowing where everything is going, it helps me see the waste and save more.
I never balanced my checkbook, the I talked to the girl at the bank one day and found out I’d had twenty-eight bounced checks in the past three months! :eek:
At an overdraft fee of $30 each, I figured it was probably time to start keeping a better eye on things.
I don’t.I look at my monthly statement.And if i’m unsure i call the automated system and check.
Yes. Whats the big deal people. You write a check for 50 bucks, take the 10 seconds to record it. I have NEVER been off by as much as a penny, NEVER. Grade school math really works. TRY IT!!!
rande…
Never. I have had checking accounts for 21 years and have never balanced my checkbook. I am sure that I lose a few bucks every year in bank mistakes, but that is more than worth the time and aggravation I save.
Non-anal people unite!
I use Quicken. Since I started keeping careful track of my accounts I have caught some bank errors that would have cost me a few hundred dollars otherwise.
I proudly declare that I haven’t balanced my checkbook since the Reagan administration (1987), which is something of an achievement since I’ve only had a checkbook since the Reagan administration (1985).
I do keep track of my balance. In the days B.I., I abused my banks’ phone services; now I check in online at least 2-3 times a week.
I remember when as a law student I had a balance of $42.00. I still wouldn’t balance the damn thing.
Mainly it’s because of ATMs - I hated keeping track of the receipts, and since it gave me a balance every time anyway I always knew what was (or wasn’t) in the account. I’ve also (thankfully) never had much of a spending problem, so the extra fiscal discipline checkbook-balancing might offer doesn’t matter much.
Oh, and thanks to pay-online, autopayment, and check-Mastercard, I only write maybe 5 paper checks a year anymore. BTW, if you really want to get shot in Manhattan, write a check in a store. I dare ya.
No. That’s what butlers are for!
I don’t bother. It’s never that close 