I downloaded a new peice of software to try out on my PDA. It’s called Ultrasoft Money and it’s basically a portable version of Microsoft Money which is what Heather and I use to keep track of all our banking. I get really bad about keeping receipts in my wallet and such, so I thought, since I keep my receipts in my pocket for so long and don’t ever enter them into the “checkbook” I shoudl carry the checkbook with me and enter them in right away. This Ultrasoft Money think is awesome. It does everything Money needs to do in your pocket, including auto entering data and such. It makes entering receipts a piece of cake. So not only do I know exactly how much money I have, but then I can take it home and sync the PDA and it will enter all that stuff into Microsoft Money on the computer.
The only problem is that it’s $40 and I don’t have that kind of money, even though, technically, it will save my hundreds in bank fees since I’ll be more on top of my finances. Like, I last looked at my account information at home on like Saturday morning and I had $47 dollars. Since then I’ve bought two things and now have only $41, but if I wasn’t entering the data in immediately, I’d only be guessing at ammounts rather than being able to say for certain. Now when I estimate how much money I have, I often get off by $4-5 which can mean the difference between being okay or being overdrawn. When I get overdrawn, because of the delays in posting with the check card, I can often buy two or three things, thinking I’m still okay, but actually being overdrawn before the bank and I realize. Then they charge me $33 an item for being overdrawn. So really, if this software even keeps me from being overdrawn once, it’s almost paid for itself.
I’m also trying to make more and more reasons to carry my PDA with me at all times because often it would be really helpful to have it, even though I tend to forget it a lot. By finding more and more ways it can save my life, I’ll be more likely to pick it up and slip it in my pocket when I leave the house. Oh well. I guess I really should find something to do rather than just writing journal entries.