I update the balance in the register every time I get a direct deposit notice or write a check. Since I only write three checks most months (car, AmEx, Visa), it’s not a big deal. I’m always very careful about it because when I first moved to college, I bounced a check and had a panic attack about how I would never be able to manage money and I would probably starve someday. Now I know all that was foolishness; I’ll starve because I majored in journalism. 
I balance my checkbook. I also balance the checkbook of a major writer’s organization. Quicken helps, and I don’t mind adding in a fudge factor from time to time.
Another “thank God for Quicken”. Balance 'em every month, but do keep a running total in my head.
Nope.
I’ve tried to start a few times and manage for about 4 checks. But then I’ll be in a rush at the grocery store, use my debit card, and by the time I remember that I did it, the amount of purchase is gone. Similar things happen with the ATM.
I check in online and over the phone. I have a general idea (within a few dollars). If it were really off, I’d know.
One of the reasons that I don’t keep that close account of money is that I tend to use it in ways that if I thought about it, I’d find frivolous. I can’t really justify $3 for icecream, but I can justify spending about $X/month for miscellaneous expenses which can include the icecream. And there are some times that denial mixed with sensibility is a fun, happy place and balancing my checkbook would send me straight into panic and worry.
Yes.
And I’m still wondering why my landlord never cashed my rent for April. :eek:
I only write checks for bills by mail, the rest of the time I use credit cards - for everything (I pay the full balance off every month…the card companies hate me). Then, every Sunday, I do a bit of accounting on a ledger I have to balance everything.
Nope. Both my parents are accountants, and my mom has the additional problem of being incredibly anally retentive.
I remember nightmarish hours spent at the kitchen table with this mom, who tried to explain to me about debits, credits, and reconciling, and why you have to copy your register onto the back of the bank statement every month. Consequently, I don’t do none of it. I write about 2 checks a month, use my debit card rarely, have about 2 direct deposits a month, and take out cash once a week, so it’s all pretty simple to just remember. If I have a question, I go to the ATM and check.
She, on the other hand, balances to the penny, sifts through hundreds (yes, really) of checks a month, and spends about 3 hours every Sunday calculatin’ and enterin’ in her special budget software using personal expense codes no one but her understands. She saves receipts from Walmart and divides the expenses into each applicable section of budget.
I’m in my 5th or 6th year of college (I forget) and I’m sittin’ at my desk. My girlfirend drops by and comes upstairs. She’s a math major. She quizzes me on what I’m doing. I reply, “I’m balancing my checkbook…There, done!”
She looks at me suspiciously and asks, “Did you do the worksheet on the back?” My honest to god answer, “What worksheet?” Sure enough, when I turn over the statement, there, in the faintest blue type, is a worksheet for outstanding balances or whatever. Girlfriend is embarassed for my ignorance. I had NEVER, EVER, EVER looked on the back of one of those sheets.
How does this story end? I married her 
and she balances the checkbook now. Every month. To the penny.
Mrs. Spritle rocks!
I do it every two or three days.
I use Quicken[sup]tm[/sup] and I go on line and check what has been posted to me account. I try to put in the transactions every day.
We’re a mixed marriage. I am incredibly anal about it. I keep the register in the checkbook up to date and I transfer that to Quicken. My wife OTOH, has much more of a “let the automatic overdraft protection take care of it” attitude. It drives me nuts. I know where all my money is down to the penney (why hasn’t that BJ’s POS transaction appeared?!)
And as others have mentioned, I am a slave to on-line banking. My account is at the same bank we got our mortgage from, and for some reason our mortgage counts towards the total relationship balance and I get the Circle Gold account with free on-line banking even though our mortgage has been sold twice. I write maybe one paper check a month, usually to the oil company.
I only write checks to pay bills. I never carry a checkbook out in the world – that’s what ATM cards are for. Since the only place I write checks is sitting in front of my computer, Quicken is the easiest choice. But I do balance it (a.k.a reconcile it) using Quicken.
Nope. Not at all. I do almost all my banking electronically (ATM’s, online bill payments, etc.) I log in every couple days to check on my balance and make sure everything’s cleared, and that’s about it. I tried doing the record-every-transaction thing for a year or so, and I got absolutely no benefit from it. So now I just keep a general idea of how much money I have in my head and use the online services my banks provide to track specifics.
I tried Quicken for a while, but it’s way more than I need, plus it costs money and only runs on Windoze. And the online bill payments take forever, especially compared to Fleet Bank, which lets me send a bill payment the next day. Quicken bill payments took about a week just to be sent out.
My income is not such that I can just assume I always have a positive balance, so I do balance the checkbook. However, it’s not a job I enjoy, so I do it about every three months, which makes no sense - putting it off makes it worse.
I used to know someone who would over-report checks written and under-report deposits, balance the whole thing at the end of the month, and then take the excess on a spree. I’d be living in a box if I tried that.
I was sorta spotty about balancing it in the past, but now that I have Quicken, it’s a painless and easy way to do so.
Oh, and I also pay off my credit card balance every month. From what I hear, I’m in the minority, though I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live in debt…
No, because I haven’t got one.
I do keep track of my account though, by keeping a running total and checking online every few days. I have to do this because I cannot rely on bank statements (we get them every six months here!) or on ATM receipts because every frigging ATM machine in this town is “currently unable to issue receipts” every time I use them.
Do I balance it? No. Do I go through and match my register to the statement. Yup. It rarely balances though.
I do keep my register updated at all times and go on-line every day to track what’s cleared.
I also have a running total of what is still out there that I can still write against should I need to (which is often).
See? Now, you’ll never get that Aston-Martin. 
Don’t balance my check book. I’m an accountant and I don’t balance my check book. I reconcile four cash accounts at work every month to the penny. My own, a running total in my head is about as close as I get.
I still laugh at the look on my boss’ face when I told him, “Of course I don’t balance my check book.” I’m pretty sure he was rethinking the hire at that point!
For me, it was because I wanted to live above my means.
When I was a student, and bringing in virtually no income, I used credit cards to have a standard of living that was comfortable - knowing that I would soon graduate, and probably make enough to pay them off reasonably quickly.
It pretty much worked as planned (luckily. I am well aware that things could have gone horribly wrong). When I got a job, I made enough to begin paying off the cards and have a higher standard of living, and now, it is even higher and I’m not in debt. Paying them all off every month the whole way through would have meant misery for a while, followed by relative ease. Instead I got varying levels of comfort followed by relative ease. (Now, I do pay them all off.)
Another no here. Simply put, I use my debit card so much that it’s just a huge hassle to carry my checkbook in my pocket to write down every debit, or go through dozens of reciepts each month.
Fortunately, I have overdraft protection and I’m usually pretty careful; I deposit my paycheck every two weeks so I can check on my accounts, and I read my monthly statements to make sure nothing’s out of sorts. Seems to work pretty well.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. BTW, this is by far the greatest number of replies I’ve ever received to an OP.
Out of 36 responses, there were 19 “yes’s” and 17 “no’s”. So BobT, it looks like Western Civilization (with the help of Quicken) is still in the lead, but the barbarians are gaining on us.