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Post by anxiousmom on Oct 22, 2016 15:30:46 GMT
I noticed on the banking question thread a lot of people talked about balancing their accounts and I got curious about how often and how they balance their accounts. I personally haven't balanced my account in years...but that doesn't mean I don't keep track.
I have online banking and it pretty much keeps track for me. I never write checks, only use my debit card and it shows up on my balance as I use it. I know that if I put xxx amount of money in my account, I can spend xxx numbers of dollars and as I use my card, the online balance reflect what is in my account. I know that if on any day I used my card at xxx number of merchants, I can see each one of those uses on my online account along with the new balance after the purchases have cleared.
I have used this method of keeping track for years and have never had a situation where I have had insufficient funds. I don't balance in the traditional sense, not like in the old days where you sat there with a calculator and fretted over a ten cent difference between your tally and the banks.
So what about you? How do you 'balance your account' these days?
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scorpeao
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,521
Location: NorCal USA
Jun 25, 2014 21:04:54 GMT
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Post by scorpeao on Oct 22, 2016 15:35:33 GMT
I don't balance my account. I go on a few times a week and make sure there aren't any strange charges, but I have enough of a "buffer" as I call it, to cover any outstanding charges I may have missed. If a merchant didn't charge me it's likely I wouldn't even notice unless it was a large amount. Although, now that I think about it, I rarely use my debit card...I usually use my credit card and then go in and transfer the money from checking to the credit card. Anyway, to answer the original question...since I've begun online banking I no longer balance my checking account.
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Post by Linda on Oct 22, 2016 15:37:02 GMT
I'm like you - I check my online balance and compare to the charges I've made but I don't have a chequebook so don't feel a need to 'balance' my account
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Jun 9, 2024 23:21:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 15:40:44 GMT
Yes, I use Microsoft Money to balance our account monthly. That program "talks" with the bank I use. I'm sorta old school but it has served us well.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Jun 9, 2024 23:21:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 15:41:50 GMT
I check ours every week. I have a notebook of transactions and I check each one off as it clears. That's how I knew it took the band three months to cash the check I wrote for band fees. After one month, I inquired and was told the treasurer hadn't gone to the bank yet. Same at two months and the director complaining about people not paying their fees. Finally, three months later the check cleared. Bugged the crap out of me because I kept checking and had to remember why there was a $100 difference in the bank balance and my notebook.
My sister must never check hers. She's a borderline hoarder and takes forever to toss out old mail. I helped her clear out her paper trash recently and found 3 years worth of unopened overdraft notices from her bank. 3 years! The amount of money she lost in fees was enough to put a nice down payment on a new car.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Jun 9, 2024 23:21:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 15:46:16 GMT
I write out the monthly budget on a piece of paper that I add grids to and then as things get paid or as I spend money, I write down what I spent or what the actual bill paid was and thrn subtract from the monthly income.
This goes for the oh I stopped at the store to grab some lettuce and cheese. Or oh crap need this or that.
I don't rely on just the credit union to keep track. I like to see where the money is going, what has been paid, what needs to be paid, and how much extra spending money we have at any moment.
That way dh and I can easily see what is going on money wise.
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Belle
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,309
Jun 28, 2014 4:39:12 GMT
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Post by Belle on Oct 22, 2016 15:49:33 GMT
I use Quicken to balance our accounts once a month. I dont love Quicken and wish there was a better option.
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Post by mollycoddle on Oct 22, 2016 15:52:27 GMT
Yes, sort of. I use a register, and compare debit withdrawals against my online account.
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Post by chaosisapony on Oct 22, 2016 15:59:09 GMT
I do what the OP does. It's always served me well but I am the only person using the account so it is not hard to keep track of what has been spent.
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Post by scrapbookdiva on Oct 22, 2016 16:00:25 GMT
I use Quicken to balance our accounts once a month. I dont love Quicken and wish there was a better option. I used to use Quicken too until about six months ago. I resisted adding the banking app to my iPad for a long time. Then I had to do it because we were out of town and I had to transfer some money. I haven't balanced my account since. We don't get a lot of unauthorized charges in Canada, so I really was wasting my time comparing Quicken to my bank account. This has saved me a lot of time each month.
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Post by freecharlie on Oct 22, 2016 16:04:26 GMT
I do not, although I teach my juniors to do it, I use the online banking thing and I typically know what is going in and out
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Post by crazy4scraps on Oct 22, 2016 16:05:31 GMT
Yes, religiously. We use Quickbooks for everything. I worked at a bank for over eight years so not doing it is not an option. I've seen how wrong things can go when people don't pay attention. At one point in my life between our business accounts, personal accounts and my mom's stuff, I was balancing a dozen checking accounts every month. I've gotten pretty good at it.
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Post by PepsiGal on Oct 22, 2016 16:20:41 GMT
We were one of those families that balanced it to the 'penny' - DH was a vice president of a bank when we first were married (35 years ago). Now, we just pull it up online - if we see something 'strange' we question each other - his are PayPal charges and mine are scrapbook charges. Most of our household monthly bills are drafted and we each use the debit card or credit card whenever we make purchases. The only checks we write are when we go to a doctor's appointment.
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cakediva
Drama Llama
Making the world a sweeter place one cake at a time!
Posts: 7,472
Location: Fergus, Ontario
Jun 26, 2014 11:53:40 GMT
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Post by cakediva on Oct 22, 2016 16:26:32 GMT
yep - weekly!
Dh gets paid by the week so it works best for me to check things every payday.
I know it is super old fashioned and non-tech-y, but I need to see it.
I have a little notebook that I "budget" in about a month out - I write down his incoming $, and then take out all that needs to come out that week. Our mortgage is paid monthly, so I divided the total into weekly amounts and take that off the total each week. Then I can see a few weeks out how much we have to 'play' with (for things like DS' basketball, or something extra for the girls for school).
Then on payday, I haul out my cheque book and get caught up on all that has come out of our account into the register (ok it is a slip of paper in my cheque book, they quit making the register books) and make sure it balances. Then I go through the notebook and add in pay, transfer mortgage $$ into a savings account until mortgage day, pay all the bills for that week and then I'm done.
It seems involved, but it really only takes me less than 20 minutes once a week, and then I can "see" where we are for the week and know nothing will bounce, nothing will be missed, and everything is up to date.
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mimima
Drama Llama
Stay Gold, Ponyboy
Posts: 5,026
Jun 25, 2014 19:25:50 GMT
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Post by mimima on Oct 22, 2016 16:36:20 GMT
Yes, every month. I also use Quicken and put transactions into it every couple of days.
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,726
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Oct 22, 2016 16:43:15 GMT
I use the bank app. I do a quick check every few days. I generally use my debit card or credit card. All the major monthly items are pre-authorized and taken out on the 1st of the month, either onto the credit card or my bank account. On the 3rd day of the month, I know what I have to use for the rest of the month. I don't write any cheques at all as everything is pre-authorized. Our church also has pre-authorized on my credit card.
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Post by KelleeM on Oct 22, 2016 16:56:38 GMT
Heck no! It's been a long time. I am on my bank app or check my account on line at least 3-5 times a week. I'm the only one who accesses this account so I know what's going in and coming out. It all got easier a few years ago when we started using an Amazon credit card for everything during the month (food, gas, store purchases,etc) and paying it in full at the end of the month.
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Post by myshelly on Oct 22, 2016 16:57:07 GMT
I look at my account online almost daily.
All the charges all listed individually.
I make sure they all look correct.
With being able to see so much detail instantly online I'm not sure what else you would need to do or why.
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Post by scrapaddict702 on Oct 22, 2016 17:31:11 GMT
I have an excel spreadsheet. I keep track of recurring payments and then have sections for dollar amounts budgeted for certain things that aren't concrete. For instance, I have a line item for children things (diapers, wipes, clothes, shoes, etc.) and I just have a summation formula the dollar amounts into that box rather than give each purchase it's own thing (so the actual expense is in on column added up and then next to it is what I budgeted subtracting the actual from it to keep track of what's left). Same for gasoline and groceries. Then there are items that we use our discretionary income on that just have an addition column under 'actual' with no budgeted amount. To know what our discretionary income is, I just use a calculator. It keeps the spreadsheet to about the size of a letter piece of paper rather than a continual running tab. The only time it ends up a pain is when I have to reconcile why I have a few cents missing somewhere (usually a typo) because I refuse to just adjust it. It works perfectly for me. I don't go longer than a week without reconciling it and I try to reconcile it the day before a payday (especially if it's been close to a week) because we have automatic transfers that just make it harder to balance before starting fresh with that paycheck.
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Post by scrapaddict702 on Oct 22, 2016 17:36:11 GMT
My Mom on the other hand had lots of extra money because she rounds up to the next dollar for everything and does keep a traditional checkbook. The extra gets earmarked periodically as gambling money when she's visiting, lol.
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likescarrots
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,879
Aug 16, 2014 17:52:53 GMT
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Post by likescarrots on Oct 22, 2016 17:38:15 GMT
Nope. I used to work at a bank when online banking was becoming the norm. Sometimes people would come in and leave their ledgers for us to reconcile. I don't think I've ever once reconciled my own account, I usually just keep it in my head. I'm usually very cognizant of having a good amount of 'spare change' so I've never come close to overdrawing.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Jun 9, 2024 23:21:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 17:42:59 GMT
I Googled but I still don't understand what the bank app does or why I need it. I don't write checks.
All my bills are paid automatically from my checking account or on my visa.
I check my bank account and my visa to make sure that nothing weird is going on.
What kind of app do I need and why?
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Post by utmr on Oct 22, 2016 17:46:45 GMT
I check it online every couple of days to see what's cleared but I balance it every month with Microsoft money. It takes less than 5 minutes and balances to the penny.
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River
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,517
Location: Alabama
Jun 26, 2014 15:26:04 GMT
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Post by River on Oct 22, 2016 17:47:43 GMT
We are camping with friends this weekend and two of the women have mentioned balancing their bank account. I guess I looked at them like they had two heads, as they both stopped talking and said "WHAT?". It turned into a great conversation!
We all have a good enough buffer to not need a balancing act. However they said they do it more out of habit than necessity. They like recording each transaction and that it now gives them pleasure rather than dread like the old days.
I always hated recording and keeping track of it all so as soon as we had that buffer, I jumped with both feet to let online banking do it for me!!
Now I just look on payday to be sure there's no mistake with our paychecks and skim the out going transactions.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Oct 22, 2016 17:59:09 GMT
I look at our online transactions at least weekly and balance to the penny at least monthly if not more often. I'm anal like that. I used to balance the checking account for the trust department where I worked before computers did the work.
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Post by melanell on Oct 22, 2016 18:09:10 GMT
I do balance my account. Usually once a week. It's a habit from when I first started my checking account, but it also helps me keep a real idea of what $ is in our debit account. Our bank total is always so much more than what we actually had available, that if I went by that we'd be in serious trouble. I know some people can keep of track of things in their head, but I suck at memorizing anything that has to do with numbers. So I need to have that written register to keep me sorted. When I first started using a debit card, many places took awhile to post, so that was another reason I liked to balance it. Now, its really only target that still takes a few days. But I also write so many checks. Almost all for kid related stuff---sports fees, photos, school lunch accounts, PTA, fund-raisers, field trips, musical instrument rentals, club dues, program fees, etc., etc., etc. And those type of checks take forever to clear. We do have a buffer, but I don't want to accidentally dip into it. I guess I just like knowing I am totally on top of the money. Save
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Post by melanell on Oct 22, 2016 18:14:36 GMT
Yep, that's exactly the kind of thing that happens with so many of our checks. I have had times when the bank showed over a thousand dollars more than we actually had available. It's insanity.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Oct 22, 2016 18:16:42 GMT
I do balance my account. Usually once a week. It's a habit from when I first started my checking account, but it also helps me keep a real idea of what $ is in our debit account. Our bank total is always so much more than what we actually had available, that if I went by that we'd be in serious trouble. I know some people can keep of track of things in their head, but I suck at memorizing anything that has to do with numbers. So I need to have that written register to keep me sorted. When I first started using a debit card, many places took awhile to post, so that was another reason I liked to balance it. Now, its really only target that still takes a few days. But I also write so many checks. Almost all for kid related stuff---sports fees, photos, school lunch accounts, PTA, fund-raisers, field trips, musical instrument rentals, club dues, program fees, etc., etc., etc. And those type of checks take forever to clear. We do have a buffer, but I don't want to accidentally dip into it. I guess I just like knowing I am totally on top of the money. SaveSince I handle all the financial stuff I give DH a balance sheet at the end of the month. We're self employed so income comes in at different times, not always monthly. He keeps a running balance in his head but I always laugh at him and tell him he makes deposits in his head but not withdrawals!
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Nink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,947
Location: North Idaho
Jul 1, 2014 23:30:44 GMT
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Post by Nink on Oct 22, 2016 18:20:06 GMT
I keep a register of our transactions and go online every couple of days to see what has cleared etc. if it has cleared it gets highlighted in yellow. DH is famous for not remembering to tell me transactions or not remember exactly how much the transaction was, and since we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck at the moment, it's crucial I balance.
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Post by anniefb on Oct 22, 2016 18:24:19 GMT
Almost all my purchasing is done with my credit card. I have a few automatic bill payments as well from one account, plus mortgage payments. Haven't written a cheque in years and virtually never use cash.
I don't 'balance' my account as such, but I check online banking to make sure there are no weird/rogue charges. I use an online accounting system that automatically syncs with all my accounts and from there I can print reports etc to see what my cash flow is, how much I'm saving etc.
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