Comments on: How To Balance Your Checkbook In The Era Of The Debit Card http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/ Financial talk for the rest of us Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:14:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Mary http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-923707 Mary Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:25:29 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-923707 I remember things better when I write them down, so having a paper checkbook is a must for me. I write my transactions in every other night or so, which isn’t often anyway since I don’t spend much. I’ve only had one overdraft and that was because I didn’t have direct deposit for a former job, and the stupid “first $100 applied immediately, rest on next business day” policy kicked my checkbook’s butt when I deposited my check.

Not having a paper checkbook sounds very scary to me.

]]> By: Judi http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-729599 Judi Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:43:31 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-729599 Did you know that the banks are required to allow you to overdraw your account “in case of an emergency”? I recently had an overdraft due to my lousy math, submitted cash to cover it the same day it showed in my online bank activity and was still charged O/D fees even though my account never showed a negative “posted” balance. BOA is now using a different method of reviewing your daily balance by doing the old checkbook method of the date your debit card is swiped. Needless to say once you have been hit with an o/d fee the fees just snowball from there. This episode cost me hundreds of dollars by the time the dust settled. I am going back to the cash method and keep that debit card locked up “in case of emergency”.

]]> By: Rusty http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-223237 Rusty Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:30:23 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-223237 Fifty years ago people used to use the really cool thing called…cash. Cash envelopes to be specific. (Food, Dining Out, Fuel, etc.) My wife and I went back to the cash system several months ago and we haven’t looked back. Now, In order for cash to work you have to follow a few basic rules:
1) Live on less than you make (What a concept!)
2) Do a zero-based budget (This can seem harder than it is). Spend every dollar you make on paper before the month begins. If you have money left over, put it in any catagory, but don’t leave a balance. You will have control this way.
3) When the envelope is empty, you can’t spend anymore money in that catagory. Unless you take money from another envelope.
I know this method is not very sofisticated, but it works. The budget part also helps you cut your lifestyle without a great deal of pain.

]]> By: D Helbling http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-141850 D Helbling Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:30:20 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-141850 I’m embarrassed to ask this but here goes…we haven’t balanced our checkbook in ages and are at a loss as to where to start since we’re so far behind. It is very stressful not knowing EXACTLY what’s in the account. What should we do?? If we take our next statement where do we start??

Thank you

]]> By: claymeadow http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-135809 claymeadow Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:26:43 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-135809 here is how we do it, family of 6;

- fixed expenses are auto pay through bill pay service attached to debit card.

- discretionary expenses are paid in cash that is withdrawn from atm with debit card. no cash, means no spend.

the real secret behind the debit card is to be organized; track expenses/incomes, make budget, and manage cash flow.

]]> By: thelocomonowebsite.com » Blog Archive » T.G.I.B! http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-69713 thelocomonowebsite.com » Blog Archive » T.G.I.B! Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:49:12 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-69713 [...] How To Balance Your Checkbook In The Era of Debit Card (This is a nice article from Trent, a blogger I have mixed reactions to.  See below.) [...]

]]> By: Mark McGuire http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57306 Mark McGuire Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:50:10 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57306 I like this article, Trent. One of your better works.

]]> By: Jesse http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57266 Jesse Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:34:32 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57266 Bill,
See my above comment. Gnucash is a powerful, open-source software similar to Quicken or MS Money.

]]> By: Eric http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57243 Eric Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:45:21 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57243 Just an extra suggestion – My wife and I follow the same method Trent describes but we put all our receipts in a folder labelled “Current month receipts”. After that month is over we empty those receipts into another folder “1 month receipts” and then do it again the following month into a “2 month receipts” folder. So, we’re always storing current receipts and then holding them for two months. We started doing this because we often need a receipt to return or exchange something but don’t want to keep them longer than necessary.

]]> By: Bill http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57221 Bill Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:27:27 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57221 Quicken does all this and more and will download your transactions from most of your institutions for you. There are other open source alternatives as well that are free but typically don’t have quite as many features. Google “open source quicken”

]]> By: Amelia http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57212 Amelia Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:10:15 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57212 What works for me is keeping track using a debit card register. I’ve gotten them from Bank of American and Wachovia. It’s like a little book the size of a credit card with a pocket for my debit card. Every time I make a purchase, I jot it down in the book at the actual time that I’m using the card. It’s almost impossible to forget b/c I have to physically have the book in my hand when getting out my card. Then, I put a check mark next to the charges and they appear online on my statement. That way, if there’s something that hasn’t posted yet, I can just subtract that from my available balance and know the “real” amount that is left. This way I don’t have to hold on to the receipts (I’m hopeless) and I’m always tuned in to what’s going on.

]]> By: Kim Isaac http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57200 Kim Isaac Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:45:39 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57200 Balancing a checking account with two people using debit cards has been a challenge for me. My husband and I have finally learned to record all debit transactions. Now I do know what is in our account at any given time. I don’t use your method, but I like it. I’ll give it a try.

]]> By: Mark B http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57178 Mark B Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:16:40 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57178 I have started a system similar to yours after reading The Simple Dollar. My question is which method of paying bills is better: 1)Paying bills directly through the vendors website, or 2) Paying bills through your banks online bill pay system? I use ING Electric Orange for my checking, but I go directly to vendor websites to pay most of my bills. Any thoughts?

]]> By: David http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57165 David Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:39:57 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57165 You have a really good system which doesnt seem too time consuming, good post.

]]> By: tYLER VS http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57151 tYLER VS Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:03:46 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57151 You answered my question about receipts. Thanks, Trent!

]]> By: LTruslow http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57134 LTruslow Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:37:26 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57134 I have used Quicken for years, with great success. It is easy to use and downloading information is fast and accurate. I know that followers of this site may not want to incur the cost of the software. I only update my software every other year, and buy it on eBay. It costs me about $ 15 per year on average, without the headaches of creating and maintaining a spreadsheet.

]]> By: Reed http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57120 Reed Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:26:17 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57120 I used to use a program called, oddly enough, Checkbook, which worked really well. Then my computer crashed… Now, I use a spreadsheet like everyone else here, but I use Google Docs, so I can access it from anywhere.

]]> By: lori http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57115 lori Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:06:58 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57115 I keep my checkbook balance in whole dollar amounts. For example, if I have a debit of $21.09, I transfer $8.91 to my HSBC online savings account. I find myself putting small amounts in my savings account several times a week. This has helped me build my online savings account tremendously.

]]> By: Alex Lopes http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57102 Alex Lopes Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:29:48 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57102 Hi Trent,
Nice post. Good suggestive way to maintain the expenditure track.
Yeah, it is very true to maintain daily expenses report. Because most of the day we spend 1/3 of our time in workstation. We came back home and forget to maintain the record track. At the end of the month expenditure is higher than income.
Budget=INCOME-EXPENDITURE=$0

It is always better to pay the credit card balance in time. In fact, many credit card companies charge as high as 20% for any purchases that aren’t paid in full at the end of each month.

]]> By: Jon http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57016 Jon Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:26:30 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/08/13/how-to-balance-your-checkbook-in-the-era-of-the-debit-card/#comment-57016 Two comments:

1) Excel? Try OpenOffice Calc. Its very similar to Excel except its better (faster, less issues, better compatability) and its also FREE.

2) Okay now to actually plug a Microsoft product, I use MS Money and love it. Instead of entering in each debit card transaction you can simply download electronic statements from your bank and then check off each one to reconcile things. I use to do it manually like you are doing in Excel, this new way is faster and gives me lots of charts and things. Also I can compare against a monthly budget, view reports such as monthly spending by payee or by category (i.e. gas or groceries). It even learns your repeat transactions so that it saves you alot of typing and selecting of categories. I’ve trained my MS Money to know that my “Netflix” payments should get applied to my “Leisure: Movie Rentals” spending category. Seriously, check it out.

]]>