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the original kStyle blog.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Help Me

Does anyone out there have a tip for making checkbook balancing a less daunting, easier task? I hate it more than folding laundry. And I hate folding laundry.

4 Comments:

Blogger Eric said...

I have a suggestion, though I'm not sure it's quite what you're looking for. I too hate balancing my checkbook, so this is the plan I devised early on:

I don't balance my checkbook.

Here's what I do instead: every few days I log on to my bank's website to check the transaction record. If it generally matches my general memory of my debit card transactions and the checks I've written, then I let it go. Over the twelve years or so I've been using some form of this system (the phone did the job of the internet, before there was an internet), it's possible some errors worked in the bank's favor, or in mine, or both. I'm sure it's balanced out over the long haul.

And even if it didn't, I win anyway, because I've never had to balance my checkbook.

9:29 AM  
Blogger kStyle said...

Eric & Ann, G. uses the same system as y'all. I might try it, especially since I keep a running budget in Excel. Actually, that's what I've sort of been doing, except that I let the bank statements pile up without looking because I've been meaning--I really HAVE--to balance the damn checkbook for about 8 months.

Emma, I hate every part of it. Also that it seems to take a WHOLE day. I think I'm going to use Quicken to do the math for me, then check what Quicken says vs what my bank statement says at the end of the month...

1:58 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

Oh, having to look at piling-up bank statements is an even easier problem. When mine arrive, I don't open them and put them in a drawer.

You don't have to look at them if they're in the drawer.

3:46 PM  
Blogger kStyle said...

Then I'd be happy to dust for you. Actually, Ann, I was just thinking about how I kind of like to cook and bake, but I can't sew, and you're the opposite, yes? Therefore, were this the 1800s, we would do well to live on adjacent homesteads and help each other out.

8:51 AM  

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