Newbie here

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2005
Newbie here
4
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 3:47pm
Hi I'm new and I thought I would introduce myself. I am a 30 year old, married to my dh with two children. We have lots of debt and this year I went to part time at work after having my dd which hasn't helped. We owe $132,000 on our house and have roughly 15,000 in credit card/ car payment debt. I used to be so good with money and I am so frustrated right now. I am overwhelmed and have overdraft protection on my checking act. but can't seem to balance my checkbook so often go over and it goes on the credit card and charges me $5 plus interest each time. I feel like groceries are a big problem for me, I spend a fortune at the grocery store even though I try to be frugal, food is so expensive! I really don't buy myself anything (last year I did a little here and a little there which added up, but now I am not doing that) - I have been trying to be good but our car has had problems and needed fixed and we needed a new dryer b/c ours broke etc. etc. etc. all on the charge card. We were going to buy a new $12,000 car b/c ours is not doing great but I made my husband listen to what our bills were and we realized that it just wasn't realistic. Anyway, I am checking out groups online and trying to get things under control!
Thanks for reading!
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Tue, 03-08-2005 - 7:25pm

Welcome to the group! I didn't like balancing my checkbook either. I never had the time (or the motivation) at the end of each month to sit down and balance the accounts. So basically, I would "hope for the best" and let the statements pile up for a few months, and then on one of Dh's business trips, I'd do them all in one night, which was frustrating with small children and their frequent nighttime interruptions (potty, drinks, extra hugs/kisses, the latest "knock knock" joke, etc).

What has worked for us is using the Quicken program. There are other programs out there too that you might like better than Quicken, but we got it for free, so that's why we use it. LOL! :-D Each time I spend money on something with check, charge, or debit card, I enter it into the Quicken program. Basically, I hold onto my receipts in my wallet, and in the evenings during a commercial break or while dinner is cooking, I will quickly enter the few transactions in. There's always just a few at a time because I'm not spending like I used to. Then, each morning, as I'm checking my email, I open my Quicken program in the background and have it retrieve my information from my bank (which are items that have cleared the bank). Then when my morning email is done, I just look over at my Quicken program, and approve each transaction that was sent from the bank. If it matches one of the ones I've already entered, it shows up as "Match", and I quickly approve it. If it shows up as "New", I know I need to look into it and figure out if I just forgot to enter the purchase, or whether it's a false charge/purchase. So basically, I took an icky chore that took me forever and made it something that only takes a few short minutes and basically completes itself while I'm doing other things (email, cooking, etc.). When the monthly statements arrive from the bank (the paper ones), I just file them away unopened because I already know my accounts and the bank records match. For me, this is just an easier way to do it.

Good Luck! :-D
Pat

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2005
Wed, 03-09-2005 - 8:16am

Hi Pat,

thanks for taking the time to write such a nice welcome with so much good info! I like the idea of the quicken program, I may just have to do that!!!! Thanks alot!

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Wed, 03-09-2005 - 9:31am

Welcome to the board.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-25-2004
Wed, 03-09-2005 - 9:38am

Welcome to the board! You will get great advice and a wonderful listening ear when you need it here, as these ladies are so helpful :).

As for balancing checkbooks....to be honest I haven't done that in so long because since Bank of America has online bill pay DH and I do EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING through them...they don't charge us a dime and when I'm done it basically balances itself to my account....before we did that, although it was a chore, I'd designate Wed. evenings to calling the bank to see which checks had cleared that I'd written the week before and pay off another week's worth of bills. It was a pain, but it got down to such an exact science that towards the end of that it'd only take 15 min. or so. I think the hardest part is just picking a certain time and day of the week to do it....With a little determination I'm sure you'll find a system that'll work for you.

And as for groceries....well I'm with you on that one :) That's so hard for me. Lately Dh and I have been having really low fuss READ: INEXPENSIVE dinners to try and keep ourselves on track, tomato soup and grilled cheese, spagetti and italian sausage ragu sauce skimpping on the ground beef, etc. yeah it's not a 4 course meal or anything, LOL...but to be truthful after work I'm so tired that it's nice just putting soup to heat :)....

Anyway, enough rambling...welcome to the board again!

:)