Hate not being in total control............

I do my banking mainly online.  Despite seeing everything online I also complete my own cheque register with all the deposits and withdrawals as well; just to be doubly sure, I know total control freak.

I know when money is being taken out and when money goes into our accounts and I like it that way.  I have however got two withdrawals coming out of our account that I don't know exactly when and I have only a vague idea of how much and it's annoying the *rap out of me.

One is the discharge fee for when our mortgage finishes this week, I know it's around $320-ish but neither know when or exactly how much.  The other is our updated life insurance which is also in the $300+ mark but again I have no idea when?  That's between $650 to $700 I need to have available in our chequing account and I do not know when it will be taken out of our account.

I try to keep the bare minimum in there as if I know its there I am tempted to spend it.  Plus as I keep telling everyone we may be "house rich," but we are money poor so money is budgeted to wherever at every point of the month. (SIGH) things should get back to normal in the next couple of weeks, until then though, I am not in total control and it sucks...........

Thifty Thursday

It's Thursday so it must be "Thrifty Thursday," then.......

One thing I do on a weekly basis and have done for many years and have mentioned on my blog before, is put money aside each week for various things.  I put $20 a week in a birthday box and $20 per week in a Christmas box.  So when a birthday comes around, I just take whatever I need out of the box to pay for it.  Again with the Christmas box, as it is much easier putting $20 a week away, than having to come up with $500 or $1,000 at Christmas time to pay for everything.

I also have been putting $50 a week away in another box, that changes its name depending on what I need money for.  This year it is for the wedding; other years it's been for our vacation, and other times it has come in really handy when paying workmen by cash!!!

I do my banking online, and discovered we were charged services charges on our chequing account?  So I spoke to the bank on Tuesday and it seems the bank has decided to up the minimum amount of money we "have" to keep in our chequing account so we don't pay service fees.  So I now have to keep an extra $500 in there at all times.

It however is easier and cheaper keeping the minimum balance in the account than paying the $14.95 a month on service charges.  Plus I can't earn that in interest anywhere else.  So if you like me do online banking, make sure you read any messages when you go onto the site and not ignore them like I normally do!!!!  I was lucky the lady in the bank reversed the fees and will do the same for me during the month of September.  After that though I will have to have the minimum in there.

I also subscribe to three magazines which I pay for on a monthly basis through my MasterCard.  For a while now I haven't been receiving Harrowsmith Country Life, but have been charged for it.  Finally got around to calling the "red and white company!!" and discovered that Harrowsmith Country Life magazine is no longer in business, but the "red and white company," is still charging me for it.  So of course I asked them for my money back!!  Even had to argue about that as they were not going to give me as much back as I wanted!!

I wonder how long they were going to charge me for a magazine I wasn't receiving????

For more Thrifty Thursday participants please pop over to Angela's site.