I've been playing around with a new way of crunching numbers, courtesy of my friend NJ. He came up with the idea of putting all upcoming income and expenses in strict chronological order (not grouped in semimonthly sets of income and expense as I had been doing) and of showing what the balance would be after each transaction (to see if the account would ever fall short; something that took a little more work with my old method). It's taking some getting used to visually, but I think I like it:
In other news, I'm really busy at work these days since I took on some writing assignments. It's great, but it also means I can't just blog all day. 
AS is still waiting for the hammer to officially fall at work, and has been channeling her stress into baking and sewing (lucky me!) She just made me an awesome padded vest, which she also entered in an online contest:
So comfy yet striking. I love it!
We've been planning for our Halloween party, but we can't tell how many people are coming so we're taking it a bit easy on decorations and snacks. It'll still be a great time if only the people who RSVP'ed come, but we're not going to knock ourselves out completely. So we're planning on making buckeyes, cupcakes, spinach dip and rye bread, and corn fritters with store-bought salsa. Then we've got an easy apple-cinnamon punch recipe and a recipe for black vodka martinis that we'll just print out and let people make their own. For decorations, we'll recycle whatever's left from last year plus add some crepe streamers.
For my costume, I wanted to do something kind of mean and ripped from the headlines, like last year. I try to be nice 364 days a year, but Halloween is for channeling my bitchy side! Last year I was zoned-out Britney Spears from the VMAs, and this year I'm going to be Ashley Todd, complete with "Wanted" poster for a gigantic black man! It should be relatively easy to put together this week--I just need a dark wig and some makeup to make the black eye and the carved "B."
I'll probably go shopping for it Friday after work. I just hope it warms up a bit this weekend--this morning it was 27 degrees! 
Trying out new accounting technique, etc.
October 28th, 2008 at 05:51 pm
October 28th, 2008 at 06:39 pm 1225219194
October 28th, 2008 at 07:24 pm 1225221883
I like the overview of the budget - I had to switch to that myself - having all visible in one place with every last detail laid out. It is hard to predict some things (like our travel expenses to Columbus, OH over Thanksgiving) but I factored it all in and have a clearer idea of how much money I will have at any given time. At least in Excel, I can color code the text to go with my "Budget A" and "Budget B" mentality. Just one question, do you pay cash for your groceries because that is taken out as one $ amount?
And very cute vest. I pine away because I cannot sew. My daughters had a dance competition on Saturday and their friend's mother sewed the cutest costume, claiming it didn't take much time or cost much money. Maybe as a Christmas gift to myself I'll pay for sewing classes somewhere.
October 28th, 2008 at 08:05 pm 1225224328
momsense: No, we use the debit card for all groceries. What I do is, once a grocery bill shows up as a pending transaction (see the Hai Nguyen and Target ones above), I subtract that from the grocery amount for that period. So the current (32.69) grocery item was once (450.00), but I gradually subtracted as we purchased groceries and other household items.
And I know what you mean--I kinda wish I could sew too! But AS has that natural affinity for it that I never would. I may try picking up a different craft or hobby this winter though...beadwork? Haven't decided yet.
October 29th, 2008 at 02:57 am 1225249052
Things that have been taken care of is colored gray.
Things that will automatically come out are a light yellow (after that day, they become light gray).
Things that I will need to send off are a light orange (once I send it off, I color it gray).
Things that have been reconciled with the bank have an X beside them to check them off.
October 29th, 2008 at 02:20 pm 1225290059
October 29th, 2008 at 06:14 pm 1225304099
Everything I do is electronic and I use Mvelopes.com. All my bank accounts, credit cards, mortgage account, etc. are all hooked in. When a paycheck hits, I fund different accounts. When expenses hit, I just drop them into folders.
But each one of us is different. We each have different data requirements. At the end of the day, it's what works for you and your household.
October 30th, 2008 at 04:26 am 1225340796