I don’t balance my checkbook. I can’t remember the last time I did. I’m a personal finance blogger who has a budget, but I don’t balance my checkbook. One of the first lessons I learned about personal finance was how to balance a checkbook. My mom sat me down and had me help pay the bills with her checkbook so I would learn. I believe I was 11 or 12.
Amount in checking, write in all checks cleared, and then see balance. This was to prevent me from spending money we didn’t have. The realization that just because a check hasn’t cleared doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be accounted for. And just because you have $x of dollars, doesn’t mean you should be preplanning to pay $x for mortgage, utilities, etc.
So what happened?
Well I got lazy. Truth is that I write maybe one check a month. I withdraw $80/month in cash near the first for our allowances of eating out lunch. Everything else we charge. So I have one credit card bill at the end of the month to pay in full.
I don’t have any auto-debits on my checking account, but I do have autopayment of our cell phone and cable bills to my credit card. On the first of every month I pay all our bills. I pay utilities, mortgage, HOA, property taxes, and all credit card bills. Everything is early and we work mostly a month ahead.
But it’s a habit from being paid once a month. It’s easier to just pay your bills and let the next month’s salary build up to pay next month’s bills. Thus I don’t track any checks or payments after the 1st. On the first, I know I have to pay $X and I should have enough in my checking.
Thus I stopped tracking my bills. The only bill I pay by check are my doctor who doesn’t take credit cards. I have a check cut from my account for my HOA, property taxes, and utilities saving me a stamp since the bank pays for those checks to be mailed.
So I have honestly stopped budgeting my checking account. I do budget and track my expenses. I see if we’re on track for the month using an excel spreadsheet. I preplan all known expenses a year out. But I find it unnecessary to balance my checkbook anymore.
Do you?
4 responses so far ↓
1 CentsInTheCity // Jul 2, 2009 at 10:34 am
I haven’t balanced my checkbook in probably close to 10 years. I think partly this is due to change in technology. I can login to my accounts online and see the updates to my checking account, savings accounts, and credit cards. I also have a Mint account, where I can see everything in one place…all of which is usually up-to-date within the past few days. I login at least once a week and keep track of my spending on a spreadsheet, so I notice any charges or amounts listed that are out of the ordinary right away.
2 LAL // Jul 2, 2009 at 10:43 am
I sort of use mint, but I’m not sure how comfortable I am using an online service.
3 Meg from FruWiki // Jul 2, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I’m not even sure where my checkbook is. I’ve written — in my life — MAYBE one or two checks. My mom can’t believe this, but then she still uses checks for a lot of things and, as behind the times as her local bank is, I’m not even sure how to set up online billing for her — if it’s even possible. (Seriously, their website looks like it hasn’t been significantly updated since about ‘97.)
My husband and I now do pretty much everything by check card, automatic payment, or cash. And we normally don’t even use much cash, but we recently started going to a weekly farmers’ market and the merchants there are cash only.
And anyhow, we try to keep $1000 in our checking account that we don’t count as money to spend. It’s sort of a mini emergency fund in addition to money we have elsewhere. It’s enough to cover our largest bill — our mortgage. And, wouldn’t you know, one month the automatic systems at the mortgage company and bank screwed up (yes, it took a joint effort) and charged us twice. Luckily, we had the money there, so it was just a matter of waiting a couple weeks till everything got figured out.
4 LAL // Jul 5, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Ouch on the accidental bill pay. I keep it in my bank’s savings account $5k for overdraft. We have a large mortgage and it’s too risky to not have enough in there in case of accident.
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