As for Judy, we should talk more because I’m still not hip to that check register thing. It takes so much time. I prefer putting expenses on a credit card, ALL spending, and than paying off the credit card each month. That way I never overdraft but get the convenience of living without the register. It has worked for me as long as I continue to use tools to get feedback from my credit card spending to accurately see where money went. Mint.com for example. I only write a check to the mortgage and even that could be paid online soon. I would love to here more about why you like the register method so much. Of course, some months I have a small balance remaining that my income doesn’t get paid off. I just take that as additional feedback the remaining balance is exactly how much money I spent that I did not earn yet.

We just live by our handwritten check register, not by ATM slips or whatever it says our account balance is online. So it doesn’t matter if the ATM says we have 10 grand in our checking account – we know if there is really only 100 in there that’s free to use.

We have friends who never use a check register and bounce checks or are overdrawn constantly because they are too lazy to write down the checks they wrote and withdrawals they made. So they pay huge fees all the time and are always whining that they are overdrawn yet again. And they are not young, they are in their 50s – so youth is no excuse for their stupid behavior with their checking accounts.

The simplest way to avoid being overdrawn is just to WRITE EVERY CHECK DOWN and every other transaction as well. It’s definitely worth the effort to make it a habit.

Next time just use online bill pay or a money order. I made a lot of mistakes in my 20s, now at 34 I am financially savvy. But I would not be this way had I not made financial mistakes.

Sometimes it’s good to make mistakes so you can learn from them.