As if the aforementioned wads of cotton on my eyeglasses' temple pieces weren't a dead giveaway, I just revealed myself (and now to you) as the Queen of All Nerds:
First off, you need to know that yes, I balance my checkbook. I love to balance my checkbook. I record everything and carefully add and subtract until it matches my statement. I've been known to balance my checkbook while still wearing my coat and cluctching my keys, so delighted am I to find it in my mail. Second, I don't like it to be messy, so if I make an error, I clean everything up with white-out tape. (No, I will not ever type the actual name of this product. Seriously, were they saving money by eliminating that "h," or what?) And believe you me, if there's an error, I find it. I get positively giddy when something's wrong and I have to sleuth it out. (File that under one of those times when Andy wonders what he was thinking, or suspects that he was misled in some way.) Well, today, I could not find the error. Could not find it. And it was for . . . are you ready? A whole penny! So I thought long and hard and finally decided to just make a new entry, date it 7/20, call it "error?" and enter $0.01 in the deposit column. Without ever finding the error—can you believe it? I'm just ignoring it!
Look out, there's no telling what I'll do next. I might even eat a yogurt the day after it expires!
Oh, my lord!! Sister!!! I thought I was the only one in the world who was so obsessive-compulsive. I don't know how you can bear to just write off that penny though...
Posted by: Susan Barr | July 20, 2006 at 02:09 PM
No, no, no, that's just not going to fly. I predict you'll revisit that checkbook every day until you settle it HONESTLY.
My brother allows himself one-dollar of wiggle-room. A whole dollar! Gah!
(Are you like me and use Quicken, or is that cheating?)
Posted by: Mark | July 20, 2006 at 02:44 PM
I so want to hire you right now! I'm about 15 years behind this exact task.
Posted by: Karan | July 20, 2006 at 03:29 PM
I used to be this way, and I even used to enjoy balancing my checkbook. My mom was always anal about it and so I took it to heart when I became an adult. Then one day a few years ago my mom admitted that she no longer balanced her checkbook. I was so shocked! So...I quit doing it, too. It's so easy to keep track of my balance online -- which is pretty current since I mostly use my debit card -- so I just don't have the need (or compulsion) anymore.
I used to do accounting for an engineering firm and I was VERY anal about balancing the company's checkbook. Once I was stymied with being off by ONE PENNY and I wasted an entire day trying to find the error. Finally my boss (an engineer) said, "Just tape a damned penny to the check register and call it good for chrissake!"
Posted by: Tonya | July 20, 2006 at 09:38 PM
Karen, your life is careening out of control. Someone needs to set up an intervention with you before it's too late.
Posted by: scott | July 20, 2006 at 11:14 PM
That made me laugh. THanks! Have a great weekend.
Posted by: Robin | July 21, 2006 at 10:46 AM