Wow, Catlady, thanks for sharing. I am a budget-holic too and found your accounting system so interesting.

I use Quicken to manage our accounts...sometimes I find it a bit tedious to enter every receipt but it is so worth it to be able to look at a chart and see where we are at. I enter all of our receipts on a weekly basis, and at that time reconcile all of our accounts to online statements. That way if there is any funky business going on, I will know about it within a week. And also, it keeps me aware of where we spend our money, and whether or not we can afford things. I never buy things that I don't already have the money set aside for, and I hate seeing negative numbers so that keeps spending in check.