Balancing the Checkbook

I realized tonight as I went to balance our checkbook with our bank statements that I have only done so once since Adrianna was born. That one time was back in May. So that meant that I had many months of statements to go through and compare to the notations in our checkbook. What a fun task that was!

We use our debit card for most purchases. Both Greg and I are pretty good about keeping our receipts so I can record them into our checkbook register later, but it never fails that several each month somehow get lost before they make it into the register.

Instead of recording each of the items found on our bank statements that were not found in our checkbook register, I decided to tally them up and just add the total for the 5 months worth. The total dollar amount of lost receipts for the past 5 months was not pretty – $729.52. Ouch.

During the past few months I have also been getting lazy about having to record all the debit card receipts into our checkbook. They sure pile up quickly! So, I have been using my credit card instead of the debit card for some purchases. We pay our credit card balances off each month, which means we never pay interest, so doing this isn’t a big deal. The bonus of this is that I only have to check the receipts against the credit card statement and don’t actually have to write them down. What a timesaver. But I noticed that I did write some down in our checkbook register anyways by accident. So what got charged on the credit card was written down as if it had been on the debit card. Good news – I was able to add $383.47 back to our balance.

The difference between $729.52 and $383.47 is $346.05. That sure sounds better than that $729.52 figure did. *sigh* I think I will be more on top of our statements from now on. It is a good thing we always leave a pretty good cushion in our account so I don’t have to watch it like a hawk. I would really be in trouble otherwise! And to think I majored in accounting for a little while. hehe. Maybe if I could drag myself to bed earlier than 1:00 a.m. and if I didn’t work at 6:00 a.m. and/or have a baby waking me up early in the morning I would fare better. I actually am really good at figures and enjoy working with them. I also enjoy problem solving, so this was a good little exercise for me to get everything back in order.

In my defense and so you don’t think I am a total slacker, I don’t get a lot of free time now that we have Babyanna, so the last thing I want to do with my free time is balance our checkbook or clean the house. I would rather waste my time on the internet instead. Just like I am now at 12:30 a.m.