Do.......................

okay - what are your tips and tricks??  SPILL! 

cmon - I'm a geek too!!  and low on fundage.

Help a girl out!!  LOL LOL

The most effective one is when you're low on cash and it's a day or so to pay day and you have an empty tank of gas.  simply use you debit card as a credit card.  when you use it as a debit card, they take money out of your account right away.  However if you use it as a credit card, it can take up to 5 days or longer for the charge to hit your account.  so in essence you are floating yourself money until pay day and if you work it right, you'll get paid before the charge hits your account so you have money in it to pay the charge.  Now pumps go out for 1.06 authorization on your card.  if you don't have that in the bank then you're pretty much sunk.  but if you have like $5 in the bank......and it's a couple days to pay day, fill'er up.  You'll have it covered :)

I didn't realize that about the credit card thingy.

Hmmm.


I'll have to apply that.  I do know they take $1.00 or so out of your account, and you can pump as much as you want after that.  :-p

Sort of, except it is not a checkbook, it is Quicken.

There are times I have been burned before when I let the checking acct go unchecked, LOL,
I do use online and phone payments but I also have paid in person or by mail, so I always strive to rercord any transaction in the checkbook ledger and calculate how much money is actually there. 
The act of writing it down with pen helps my brain to get the message that I have spent the money, and the act of subtracting it and writing the balance tells my brain what I have left in there.  I have no other way that has worked for me to keep my brain caught up with my money.  I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten off track when I tried to use the methods like checking the bank website, using a computer accounting program, automatic draft payments-those are the worst!  I have the most control when I log it by hand.

For me this is just like food.  If I don't keep track of what I eat, it all gets forgotten and I can go way over my "balance" for the day, know what I mean?  For me, money management and dietary management are close cousings and I have the same issues with both.

 I balance my checkbook about once every 6 to 8 months.  I generally have enough money in the account that letting it slide doesn't effect me too much.  I have a flag on my account that alerts me if my balance goes beneath $500, so if I get beneath that amount I just plug in some more money.

Now, spending it?  I do that daily. 

I'm almost as bad as Lisa.  I balance my checkbook (EXCEL spreadsheet) everytime I make a transaction.  I pay 99% of my bills online and wouldn't have any other way.  But, I am obsessive about my balance.