What happens if your bank goes under (which it looks like more will happen this year then decades past), or even simpler the bank’s website is down for maintenance and you really need to move some money around. Separate accounts makes these scenarios a little easier to manage. Will you always get your money back when FDIC insured, yes. But when?

I have method that can best be termed as “convoluted” (trust me, I just tried to describe it in writing and even I was confused) which happens to work for me.

I use a spreadsheet and a loose form of double entry bookkeeping (when necessary) to plug in expenses that have to be paid out of my husband’s 2nd paycheck (twice monthly) and to keep my “real time” balance “real”. (Happens when I am scheduling a payment to be made in the future but before the actual deposit has hit the bank. I add the amount to be paid as a “deposit” as well as putting it in the “expense” category on the same line….when the deposit hits, I adjust the spreadsheet accordingly by subtracting the faux “deposit”.)

My spreadsheet is also already filled out with most expenses/bills to be paid/drafted in the order in which they occur. We just add the groceries/other purchases as we go along. That way we can both have checkbooks without worrying about it, though we probably write only two or three checks a month between us.

I’m guessing you have to pay each week in advance like we do. We are able to pay online, but it is a pain having a weekly bill you have to pay. I can understand how you got in the situation, although like many of the other people have comment, we basically never write checks anymore. We use online bill pay or auto debit whenever possible. Fortunately our daycare has their own online payment system.

At my house we have attacked the kids rooms to declutter, but it is so dreadful a job that we do it only once a year or so. To keep messes down, most Sundays after church we sit in the room with the kids (1 parent per kid) and have them declutter a zone in their room, encourage them to throw away papers and broken and disparate stuff, and tidy up horizontal surfaces that tend to get messy. A little bit of work a week has really made a difference!

Incidentally– I also use the spreadsheet to plan for regular bills and project upcoming irregular bills. This is how I’ve learned to stop living check to check. It works as both a budget and a register!

If the “big one” hit right as you emptied your pantry, where would that leave you?

Even if you don’t live in earthquake country (and many people DO even though they don’t think so) just about any place has the possibility of natural disasters to contemplate. And even if you are lucky enough to live in an area where no natural disasters occur, there is always the possibility of non-natural disasters: terrorist, biological, or nuclear attacks; economic stress so severe it breaks down our society.

Now I’m not advocating that you should go into a bunker mentality; just consider the possibility that you might find yourself in a situation where you cannot get power, fuel, water or food for a period of time and plan for that. Set that period of time to whatever you think is feasible – whether a few days or a few weeks – and hope that it never becomes necessary.

Your local bank doesn’t offer online bill payments? I live in a small town (pop 28K) use a local bank, and they offer online bill pay.

As to your original question, do you not yet have extra checks on hand?

Anyway… Interesting. Thanks.

As for the security – I’ve had online banking since 2000 and never had a problem, but I also only keep enough in my cheque a/c to pay the bills I know I have. So if anyone did try to clean me out they wouldn’t get rewarded with a lot (maybe a couple hundy).

Trent – stink that your daycare only accepts cheques, I’ve not heard of businesses having problems with online banking, I’m an accountant and its the preferred way in NZ, we have trouble paying by cheques b/c of bouncing issues. (If you want to pay by cheque you generally have to have been accepted by the company and on their list to use cheques with them).

Good luck and hopefully they move into the future for you!

I bet they will take cash.
I write two checks a month, mortgage, elecric, they don’t take cash, and are out of state

@ Nick – might still be worth looking into another credit union. Mine offers online bill pay and they are quite small. It saves them resources in the long run, which keeps customer costs down and interest rates up (if that’s what you can call them these days!), so a lot of credit unions are now on the online bandwagon.