MAJOR money rant

[Karen]

Just because you deposit a check, that does not mean the money is instantly available to you. It can take a week or more for a check to clear, and until then, the bank cannot put that money in your account.

Our bank has two lines on the slip you get from the ATM: Available Balance and Ledger Balance. The Ledger Balance includes checks you have deposited, but that have not yet cleared. See if your bank will do this, and if they can give you a list of the last week's transactions.

[Suki Wingy]

My credit union is not open on the weekends, but apparently they just made a mistake last week on my parents' account also, so they are going in with me to see what happened. I've also just posted a lot of my craft supplies and some clothes I don't need for sale at a Livejournal community. My paypal is connected to my checking so hopefully that will all work.

[Laura's Babies]

I too always kept a cushion in my account. especially when I didn't make much money. Another thing I did was I would only pay my bills and not buy or do anything until my next check was in the bank. What was left from the first one, I would blow half of it on what I wanted and leave the other half in there to build up the cushion.

My thinking was, you never know what life is going to throw at you, emergencies DO happen and you better be prepared... also, I am NOT that good with math! Credit or borrowing only means you are spending money you don't have and I DON'T like paying interest.

I also would ask someone, a parent, a potential employer or someone that would be honest.. What is their first impression of you when they see you. You may need to make some changes in how you present yourself. A persons first impression of you does count a LOT! That is just how the world is.

[pitc9]

My sister does something that I've been meaning to start doing myself.

Say you go to the store and spend $26.38, deduct $27 from your check register. After a while you build up a nice cushion in your account and it's nice because it's not a big chunk all at once. It's a little over a long period of time and you don't even notice it!

[Suki Wingy]

I already do that. Sometimes if I spend something like $7.85 I'll just write $10. Somehow it still happens.

[Moesha]

Do you have monthly fees or fees for withdrawing over a certain number of times that may be taking the extra money you think is in there?