Who does the bills in your house? I do, and I'm usually pretty good about it. Everything gets paid on time...and I keep good records. Or so I thought! Switching to online Billpay was easy and I save a bunch of $$$ on stamps annually. Plus, you then have another day or two to hold on to your money.
About once a week, I check the registry, matching the totals in our checking account (joint---and that can be a subject for another blog). Usually I do this late in the evening, around 9:30 or 10. I log all of the past week's check card purchases, MAC withdrawals/check card purchases to the big legal pad...and add our direct deposit funds.
So tonight, I'm plugging along and it finally hit me. There was a large difference between what our online banking account said we had and what was on my ledger. A big gap---around $ 300! The good news was that my ledger had the smaller amount---so if there was an error, I probably shorted ourselves, not the bank.
After an hour, I caught two mistakes. The first was a purchase I wrote down twice tonight. (Yes, I'm a little drowsy and was watching TV while working, but that's not a good excuse). The other was a math mistake of nearly $200 in November. I use a calculator and even then re-check my math each time I begin a new page, so I have no idea how this happened, but I subtracted too much! Fortunately I caught it, and now my legal pad is at least close enough to the online banking amount that I can go to sleep without panic.
That's all the excitement from here. Hope your night was more eventful. Let's hope it's a great PARADE weekend!
About once a week, I check the registry, matching the totals in our checking account (joint---and that can be a subject for another blog). Usually I do this late in the evening, around 9:30 or 10. I log all of the past week's check card purchases, MAC withdrawals/check card purchases to the big legal pad...and add our direct deposit funds.
So tonight, I'm plugging along and it finally hit me. There was a large difference between what our online banking account said we had and what was on my ledger. A big gap---around $ 300! The good news was that my ledger had the smaller amount---so if there was an error, I probably shorted ourselves, not the bank.
After an hour, I caught two mistakes. The first was a purchase I wrote down twice tonight. (Yes, I'm a little drowsy and was watching TV while working, but that's not a good excuse). The other was a math mistake of nearly $200 in November. I use a calculator and even then re-check my math each time I begin a new page, so I have no idea how this happened, but I subtracted too much! Fortunately I caught it, and now my legal pad is at least close enough to the online banking amount that I can go to sleep without panic.
That's all the excitement from here. Hope your night was more eventful. Let's hope it's a great PARADE weekend!
