Thought I'd share my main money-management tactic: I keep an unsent e-mail in my draft folder of my Yahoo account, and check my checking account online daily. I list my current balance, list all the income and debits I expect for the month (in half-month groups), and see whether I'm ahead or behind.

NT's income is irregular as he's a temp, so his money is surprise bonus money, and we use some for spending, some for paying down debt. AS and I have regular paychecks twice a month.

It's a nice system because I go in daily and change the balance, then delete items that have come through, or add items for upcoming income or debits that I've just found out about. I have a general budget document that I keep as well, but this one gives me a more specific idea of where we are, because it factors in the unpredictable stuff.

Here's a sample of what my "number crunch" looks like right now:

Balance 6/22: $1589.86
Pending check card auth: 108.21
(SIMONDELIVERS.COM INC $99.23
AMAZON.COM $8.98)
Available balance = $1481.65

June 16-30 upcoming debits:
$60 spending money
$20 for farmers market
$19 for Nat'l Geographic
$450 for Wii plus accessories
28th: Comcast $45.95
American Express $372
16th-30th: Groceries $161.03
keep $350 for next month
= $1477.98

$3.67 LEFT OVER

July 1-15 upcoming income:
$6 Agent blue refund
6/29 CJ paycheck $1362.32
7/1 parking rental $75
7/5 AS paycheck $938.32
Add back in $350 from last month
= $2731.64 + 3.67 = $2735.31

July 1-15 upcoming debits:
1st: Citimortgage $1356.97
2nd: Firstmark $71
4th: NT Bus Pass $76
5th: Association dues $520.97
6th: Reserve Line $89
9th: Netflix $10.70
14th: Barber (for all 3 of us) $60
1st-15th: Groceries $440
Gift for friends' wedding: $100
= $2724.64

$10.67 LEFT OVER

July 16-31 upcoming income:
7/16 CJ paycheck $1362.32
7/19 AS paycheck $938.32
= 2300.78 + 10.67 = 2311.45

July 16-31 upcoming debits:
15th: T-Mobile $95
Bremer $95
16th: Capital One $564
21st: Rental car for friends wedding: $190
24th: Barber $60
28th: Comcast $46
American Express $366
misc household $100
16th-31st: Groceries $440
keep $350 for next month
= $2306

$5.45 LEFT OVER

Looks like we're cutting it kind of close, I know, but NT gets some kind of money every Friday that's not factored in until we get it. Today's was just enough to break us even for the next month, but next Friday's will be a lot bigger because he worked full-time this week. But we don't know how much, so I haven't put it on.

CJ

I got my family on the straight and narrow sometime in mid-March. Didn't have time to estimate my debt then, just needed us to cut some spending and come up with a workable paycheck-to-paycheck budget, fast. But in mid-May I finally sat down and counted up our* debt. Not pretty, but best to know.

Debt as of 5/24/07:
Credit card:
RL: 2,766 (pays off $25/mo)
CO: 19,218 (pays off $420/mo)
AE: 18,819 (pays off $340/mo)
----------
Total credit card debt: 40,803

SM: 16,129 (deferred; AS in school)
FM: 3,489 (pays off $55/mo)
DL: 12,500 (deferred; AS in school)
----------
Total student loan debt: 32,118

Home loans:
CM: 184,559 (pays off $280/mo)
BM: 10,288 (no $ to principal)
Dad: 7,000 (not paying regularly)
----------
Total home debt: 201,847

Total debt: $274,768

*Disclaimer: This is just me and AS. Third person in our household, NT, just joined eight months ago from another country. I haven't yet asked him for his exact debt, but I do know it's part mortgage (don't know how much - $60K?) and part credit card (fairly substantial - $10K-$20K I'd guess, and he's got it on a 0% card). He's renting his foreign property and using the proceeds + tax refund to pay the mortgage and his minimum credit card bills. Sooo, eventually I'll need to wrap my head around his stuff, but at least he's building home equity, keeping on top of bills, paying off some debt and not paying any interest. It doesn't affect our lives directly, so I'm tuning it out for the time being. More on this at some point!

Greetings! I need to check out some other blogs on this site to figure out the best way to do this, but I thought I should post something just to get started. It's funny, I'm now the third of all three people in my household to have started a blog for the first time this month! Leave it to me to have the most boring and dorky (although not to me, and apparently I've found some like-minded people on this site). I look forward to sharing the minutiae of my financial life with anyone who will listen (or read).
CJ