I used to keep a "disappeared" $100.00 in my account, too, just in case I made a mistake, but since I started using my budgeter I don't need to. I do keep track of my ATM/debit card spending, but not right as I spend it, usually; I balance my budget sheet against my online banking info anywhere from weekly to a couple of times a month, just plugging the bank's info into my spreadsheet. I generally know how much we have and how much I can afford to spend for the entire month, and I keep enough in the account that I don't get too close to zero, usually. The more I spend, the more often I update the budget with my expenditures so I don't lose track of what's in there.
I found that it's easier for me to make payments twice a month on a regular schedule than it was to try to rotate payments every two weeks. That third payment per month that happens twice a year I would put in savings, or leave in checking to pad the balance if I'd had some extra expenditures that brought the balance too far down. It should work fine for you to make your payments on payday, though, or the day after--as long as you have everything budgeted out and organized it's still easy to do.
If you're interested, I could send you a copy of my simple spreadsheet for budgeting; I use OpenOffice, which is compatible with Excel, if you have that. You can email me at cc1 at tds dot net if you'd like.
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Date: 2012-09-02 02:54 am (UTC)I found that it's easier for me to make payments twice a month on a regular schedule than it was to try to rotate payments every two weeks. That third payment per month that happens twice a year I would put in savings, or leave in checking to pad the balance if I'd had some extra expenditures that brought the balance too far down. It should work fine for you to make your payments on payday, though, or the day after--as long as you have everything budgeted out and organized it's still easy to do.
If you're interested, I could send you a copy of my simple spreadsheet for budgeting; I use OpenOffice, which is compatible with Excel, if you have that. You can email me at cc1 at tds dot net if you'd like.