Monday
Apr072008
haha! on me...
Monday, April 7, 2008 at 11:39AM
being single-minded doesn't always work out.
i was so "focused" on getting the office cleaned up, i just kept piling the mail up on the end table. oops. friday, i finally sorted through all of it. one "late" notice, several catalogs (straight into the trash bin, this time), a bunch more magazines (more about them, later), and a few bank statements.
well, really, that's not so bad. the "late" notice bothered me, i didn't remember getting the first bill, but it wasn't a major problem - it's the first time in about four years. paid the bill on the phone (bugs me, they charge for that particular service) and now i don't owe them anything. the bank statements are usually not a problem.
i check my bank balance nearly every day. it keeps me balanced, and i learn early if something is "out of order". last year, i discovered a fraudulent charge (ultimately, three of them) the day it occurred. managed to contact the company where it happened and get their cooperation, and the bank covered it. eventually, the hubby got a new ATM card, and it hasn't happened again. NOTE: i wouldn't recommend netzero to anyone, ever. THEIR response was "we're not responsible for the misuse of your card..." very peculiar circumstances, really. whoever was trying to use the card, did so ONLY to try setting up an online FAX account. the first time, it was used to set up a one year service. the next try was a month-to-month service. after the third try, they gave up.
back to the main tale--i hadn't checked my accounts online for ten days. it took me four hours, saturday, to balance the checkbook! at first, i thought i was off by about $750. pulled out all of the receipts for last month and double checked that i hadn't entered anything more than once. then i printed a month's worth of transactions from the bank site (i don't just download the transactions - it confuses me). checked off item by item, and discovered i had not entered a couple deposits and several online transactions. eventually, it all worked out. whew!
i love using quicken. i joke that "i never learned to count; that's how i got my kids." it's really true. until i started using quicken, i could never balance my bankbooks. i'm a little obsessive about it, now ("i check my bank balance nearly every day"), but everything stays balanced and up to date. i probably could take more advantage of the program. there are neat little graphs to show you where you're spending your hard earned moneys. and there are other graphs to show whether your funds are growing or shrinking. the best part is having the numbers show up red if you're overdrawn; i haven't seen those "red" for a long time, but i know they're available.
once i balanced everything, i figured i should finish paying the bills. there really weren't that many, but it took me all night! amazing! of course, i started around 9:00 pm. but i didn't finish until after 6:00 am. sheesh :-( paying the bills includes printing stamps, and filing, and checking when i last paid for that particular subscription or donated to that particular cause... have you noticed that paying for a subscription immediately gets you a "renew now and save" offer? or that donating to an organization gets a "thank you, would you like to give us some more?" you could run to the poorhouse faster if you just gave them everything, right?
so that brings us to sunday. hubby gets up and wants to know if i'm planning on sleeping any time this weekend. he was right; i definitely needed a nap. 1 hour and 20 minutes later, mom calls wanting to know if quicken can print her checks for her. i like talking to mom. her eyesight really is giving her fits, she's not sure she's doing her checks right, and yes, quicken will print out her checks. she just bought a new house! we talked for quite a while. in the meantime, hubby has started working on last year's taxes.
please, would i dig out the taxes from 2006 so he could compare them? did i pay estimated taxes for the state? no more napping. back to cleaning out more office stuff (there are files we could put in the garage, i'm sure). just how long are we required to keep old tax records, anyway? questions answered, old files refiled, and taxes for 2007 are now complete. california wants copies of new mexico taxes, and viceyvers. so now i'm making copies of tons of paper. i also need to run to the mail boxes, etc. store for envelopes. don't i have some stuff i want notarized?
later, gators.
i was so "focused" on getting the office cleaned up, i just kept piling the mail up on the end table. oops. friday, i finally sorted through all of it. one "late" notice, several catalogs (straight into the trash bin, this time), a bunch more magazines (more about them, later), and a few bank statements.
well, really, that's not so bad. the "late" notice bothered me, i didn't remember getting the first bill, but it wasn't a major problem - it's the first time in about four years. paid the bill on the phone (bugs me, they charge for that particular service) and now i don't owe them anything. the bank statements are usually not a problem.
i check my bank balance nearly every day. it keeps me balanced, and i learn early if something is "out of order". last year, i discovered a fraudulent charge (ultimately, three of them) the day it occurred. managed to contact the company where it happened and get their cooperation, and the bank covered it. eventually, the hubby got a new ATM card, and it hasn't happened again. NOTE: i wouldn't recommend netzero to anyone, ever. THEIR response was "we're not responsible for the misuse of your card..." very peculiar circumstances, really. whoever was trying to use the card, did so ONLY to try setting up an online FAX account. the first time, it was used to set up a one year service. the next try was a month-to-month service. after the third try, they gave up.
back to the main tale--i hadn't checked my accounts online for ten days. it took me four hours, saturday, to balance the checkbook! at first, i thought i was off by about $750. pulled out all of the receipts for last month and double checked that i hadn't entered anything more than once. then i printed a month's worth of transactions from the bank site (i don't just download the transactions - it confuses me). checked off item by item, and discovered i had not entered a couple deposits and several online transactions. eventually, it all worked out. whew!
i love using quicken. i joke that "i never learned to count; that's how i got my kids." it's really true. until i started using quicken, i could never balance my bankbooks. i'm a little obsessive about it, now ("i check my bank balance nearly every day"), but everything stays balanced and up to date. i probably could take more advantage of the program. there are neat little graphs to show you where you're spending your hard earned moneys. and there are other graphs to show whether your funds are growing or shrinking. the best part is having the numbers show up red if you're overdrawn; i haven't seen those "red" for a long time, but i know they're available.
once i balanced everything, i figured i should finish paying the bills. there really weren't that many, but it took me all night! amazing! of course, i started around 9:00 pm. but i didn't finish until after 6:00 am. sheesh :-( paying the bills includes printing stamps, and filing, and checking when i last paid for that particular subscription or donated to that particular cause... have you noticed that paying for a subscription immediately gets you a "renew now and save" offer? or that donating to an organization gets a "thank you, would you like to give us some more?" you could run to the poorhouse faster if you just gave them everything, right?
so that brings us to sunday. hubby gets up and wants to know if i'm planning on sleeping any time this weekend. he was right; i definitely needed a nap. 1 hour and 20 minutes later, mom calls wanting to know if quicken can print her checks for her. i like talking to mom. her eyesight really is giving her fits, she's not sure she's doing her checks right, and yes, quicken will print out her checks. she just bought a new house! we talked for quite a while. in the meantime, hubby has started working on last year's taxes.
please, would i dig out the taxes from 2006 so he could compare them? did i pay estimated taxes for the state? no more napping. back to cleaning out more office stuff (there are files we could put in the garage, i'm sure). just how long are we required to keep old tax records, anyway? questions answered, old files refiled, and taxes for 2007 are now complete. california wants copies of new mexico taxes, and viceyvers. so now i'm making copies of tons of paper. i also need to run to the mail boxes, etc. store for envelopes. don't i have some stuff i want notarized?
later, gators.
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