The Check Book

As previously allude to, I Jamie Wagner, suck at keeping track of money. Just so we are clear, this means the following statements are true:

• I never remember to pay Khol's if I have a balance
• I always forget to include auto with drawls into my available cash
• I have to check the computer every time I want to go to the store ... Do I have money today?
• I hoard sums of cash in different accounts and forget they are there, all the while accruing service charges for overdraft on another account (not all the time, but every couple of months or so)
  
• I consistently double pay bills and then wonder why we have no cash (ALL THE TIME)
  
• I seriously have no idea how much money we spend, however I know to the penny how much we owe
  

How is all of this possible? For one, I am my mother's daughter. For two, I am so lazy. (truth be told) So mom and I recently were kibitzing about these truths and she said she should just go back to her old system of keeping a ledger because she does the same crap I do. Taking this to heart, I figured I better follow suit. So I broke out the check book. Seriously, I haven't used a check book since I lived in Minot! I only ever write two or three actual checks a year - everything else is auto pay from the bank. Anyway, out came the ledger. And here is how I learned that my lazy ways seriously need to stop.

USAA Balance: $2,486.27 Actual unaccounted for cash between now and next payday: $172.00

If I had guessed I would have said, well the rent isn't due until next month and the car payment comes out in a few days so we probably have 1500 bucks or so until next payday after all the little bills are paid, so half that we should save for rent and the rest is fun money. HA. Not so fun when I end up charging things like the car registration and oil.

So, with all of this, I also re-did our budget. I was surprised to find it is actaully in good shape. Even though I screw up all the little details all the time we do have great credit and low interest on our outstanding debt. So that is good. I had to switch a few balances around to get a lower rate, but it was really easy. Also, since the first of the year we have been able to not accrue any more debt and actaully paid some off. Plus our savings accounts have recovered from the great vacationing summer of 2010, including my Christmas Club account which I totally forgot about is right on target. I set up this random account at a local bank and set a small auto deposit from S's pay each month. Totally forgot about it, until the other day when I got a quarterly statement. I definitely am going to keep that going for next year too, so easy.

In other yeah me news: I gave C a great haircut last night, he looks awesome. I helped a lady round up her loose dog today while walking mine. I saved two cars from crashing in a parking lot by laying into my horn while they were both trying to kill each other. I got my emissions done on my car and passed. I got a refund from our old cable company for six bucks and took myself out to lunch with it. And, I am having a great hair day.

Also, as a side note I ate rotten mushrooms yesterday and didn't know it. I woke up at 1 in the morning puking my guts out and .... yeah it was coming out both ends. Consequently, I made all these accomplishments with out being more than a few minutes from a bathroom today. I do however pity the man who got in my car at the service station to run the emissions test as I had just dropped a horrid fart. Horrid my friends, I might have to sell the car. Mushrooms = errrrr.