Shortly after hubby and I got married it was determined that I was the better one to handle the checkbook and I have been doing it for decades. In our early years I, too, worked with "imaginary numbers" in the checkbook. I didn't know that anyone else did that! LOL! Back in the days when I was a stay-at-home mom with no income of my own, and hubby only got paid twice a month, I would deduct one half of the mortgage payment and one half of the car payment from all of his checks, even though those bills were paid only once a month. We never had two car payments at a time but, rather, took turns getting new cars. The "imaginery money" helped me to insure that the money would be there when needed. That little system used to drive hubby crazy because he never knew our real balance. LOL! He would never be able to understand your system Catlady!

As we have gotten older, and our expenses have gone down, we don't really operate on a budget. If we want to buy a "big ticket" item we discuss it first. Other than that we pretty much just spend carefully. Almost forgot.... hubby does put everything in Quicken though.