quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

God, give me patience, because if You give me strength, someone will die.

Stolen

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I’ve still got my quicken records going back to 2006. And hand written ledger before that.

I’m a little OCD when it comes to my money.

Preach it, Brother! My checkbook balances TO THE PENNY every month. Old habits die hard.

Additionally, I keep a spreadsheet of all my expenditures (outside of the occasional small cash outlay). It really helped me see where I was pissing money away and rein in my spending habits.

I have a column for each of my recurring expenses and tuck a fixed monthly amount in each "bucket" so when car insurance or property taxes or whatever come due, the money is sitting there waiting.

Great for my peace of mind.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Additionally, I keep a spreadsheet of all my expenditures (outside of the occasional small cash outlay). It really helped me see where I was pissing money away and rein in my spending habits.

I have a column for each of my recurring expenses and tuck a fixed monthly amount in each "bucket" so when car insurance or property taxes or whatever come due, the money is sitting there waiting.

In addition to my Register spreadsheet, like you, I also keep another sheet tracking all personal expenses. I also keep a sheet for house expenses. It sometimes amazes me just how much goes into keeping a house, and we don't even have a mortgage payment. It all adds up quickly. I keep a template sheet for each one, and morph the template into a new year's sheet, so I can refer back to prior year sheets as well. Each is tab within the sheet.
 

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

In addition to my Register spreadsheet, like you, I also keep another sheet tracking all personal expenses. I also keep a sheet for house expenses. It sometimes amazes me just how much goes into keeping a house, and we don't even have a mortgage payment. It all adds up quickly. I keep a template sheet for each one, and morph the template into a new year's sheet, so I can refer back to prior year sheets as well. Each is tab within the sheet.
 

I do a fresh sheet each month and start a new set on 1/1 every year. The last year's worth are archived for reference.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
I shudder to think of her having access to a credit card.

Fortunately, so does she.

Not because she'd go on a spending spree, she's tighter than bark on a tree. Because she's horrible at keeping track of receipts.

Credit cards might not be as horrendous as you think.

For our credit cards, after I set it up, I have my financial software (Quicken) go get each credit card transaction from the issuer's data: date, amount, and a "merchant ID" entry that generally is informative but admittedly sometimes is cryptic. Armed with date and amount, though, even on the cryptic ones I have been able to figure out what it was for/from.

That actually has come in handy at tax time, when I need to sleuth around for deductible expenses.

I don't care what you do with your checkbook on your own time, but for Christ's sake, don't balance it in the checkout line with me behind you seething. You're on my time now.

My wife pays our bills with checks.

She is very good at it, but she was an accountant for a very long time before she retired.

Ever sign up for automatic payment of a bill with, say, a utility company? All they need is the bank routing number and checking account number. Both of those are on every check you write. Secure? I think not.