[speaker001:] I'll start in the first place I don't have a family and I don't have a budget
[speaker002:] okay I don't either neither do I it's called scraping together
[speaker001:] and it's called what
[speaker002:] scraping together
[speaker001:] yeah in my case um I I turns out that I have a pretty good job right now but I grew up in a family that was fairly poor my dad was a college teacher and a high school teacher and we weren't really destitute but we never really had a lot of money so I never really got in the habit of spending a lot of money and so now I just it turns out that I spend less than I make so I never really bother to keep a budget
[speaker002:] well I I my family was they were okay because I mean my dad uh he um was in the military and then he also had like two other jobs so we lived comfortably I'd say but
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] um I pretty well I I get paid I work for the state um I get paid like once a month so I I kind of learn to to set aside a certain amount of money it you know that I could spend each week for like lunch and all this other kind you know expenses and pay the bills with the rest of it
[speaker001:] so you don't keep actual records of what your expenses are and what your income what you income is and stuff
[speaker002:] uh well I know what my income is but uh uh my but as far as keeping records I I I have a a ledger that will uh uh how much I owe people whatever and I deduct it out of that
[speaker001:] oh so you do keep track of it
[speaker002:] yeah I I I keep I I keep track of it uh I'm not exactly accurate of it every month I mean but you know I keep up with it like once every other month or so get it caught up
[speaker001:] do you actually balance it at the end of the month
[speaker002:] uh yeah
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] I'm not real good about uh keeping track in checks and stuff like that but uh uh I always keep track of of the ledger who I pay and when and whatever and what the balance is
[speaker001:] well I just started balancing my checkbook for the first time in my life since I've had a checkbook and I'm I'm thirty two now so for I guess fourteen or fifteen years I've had a checking account but I've never actually bothered to balance it I just always made sure there was enough of money in there if I wrote out a five hundred dollar check I'd transfer five hundred dollars in
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I never actually checked to see if my balance matched the bank's and the other day I was well a couple months ago I started thinking you know I should really do that and I had just learned learned how to use Lotus on a PC and uh with Lotus it was pretty easy to set up a a little checking program so I could so it'd keep the balance for me
[speaker002:] well I work with uh I'm work with an an accounting uh section of Department of Corrections
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] in in North Carolina for the state so I I work with Lotus and DataEase a lot so I I'm real familiar with that
[speaker001:] so that comes second nature to you
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] yeah my I still haven't balanced I figure if I keep doing keep this up long enough eventually someday it'll balance and then at that point then I can try to keep it balanced
[speaker002:] well I bank with Wachavia and they have this system of of where you can call a number you can call and get all your checks and what your balance is and and what checks is cleared that month or whatever and I do that like maybe twice a month I check to see what you know what checks I've written and always write paid on it when it's paid so I get an idea you know subtract what what what I have in you know in the in my account and what I've I've written checks for that haven't been cleared or whatever so I keep up with it that way too
[speaker001:] yeah well you spend more time on it than I do that's for sure
[speaker002:] uh I wouldn't say that I just you know I just I just don't want to write bad checks
[speaker001:] does your balance match balance match the banks at the at the end of the month
[speaker002:] um for the most part yeah I I I've got a real good banker uh personal bankers I mean if if I do if I am ever overdrawn she always calls and tells me
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and tells me I need to get the money in or whatever so I say okay and I get it to her
[speaker001:] oh I don't get that I just get a letter that says we just charged you ten dollars please take care of this
[speaker002:] oh I wish I wish mine'd only charge me ten dollars or here they charge eighteen
[speaker001:] eighteen
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] oh so you get a personal call but you also get the charge
[speaker002:] well not not all the time it's it's like uh this time I I I filed electronically my taxes and uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I didn't have quite enough for my mortgage payment and um I told her and I said I'm waiting for them to file that and they said if the mortgage payment you know check gets that before that and I said but it should be you know I it should be deposited before it hits but
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and it it didn't the mortgage check hit before but she told me that if it did not to worry about it that she would just uh she she wouldn't charge me she since I let her know a head of time that I was waiting on that and whatever so but the the mortgage payment was due so
[speaker001:] yeah you like to live on the edge I see
[speaker002:] well sometimes yeah uh uh I believe in that philosophy of of praying that it don't hit the bank before the check does or deposit does if I want something bad enough I I'll do it but normally I don't do that but in case it's something that's
[speaker001:] uh-huh