#2, got any April fool’s shenanigans up your sleeve? No? Me neither.
Ok,
Last month (March):
Balance: $129,567.68
Years left: 11.58333333
P = $694.06 , I =$520.34, Escrow = 591.95
This month (April):
Balance: $128,172.50
Years left: 11.41666667
P = $701.53, I =$512.87, Escrow = 591.95
Slow and steady this month, with a $693.65 prepayment. One month’s interest savings of, uh, $2.75. Woo, I guess.
Saving for summer is moving along… This month, depending on the tax damage, we should be at 4 months expenditures. We’ll need more on top of that if we want to pre-pay school tuition in August/September (thus avoiding the 10% tuition insurance) or better yet, prepay by June and get a 5% discount. Also we may still be paying for summer activities and 529 plans for the relative’s girls. Don’t know for sure yet.
I don’t write my checks correctly. It isn’t because I don’t know how to write checks correctly… but I just don’t like to do the “39/100–” I prefer writing “… dollars and thirty nine cents.” Something about me feels like I ought to write words on the word line and numbers in the numbers box and never the twain mix. Though I do not like the way it says dollars twice when I do that. The bank cashes them anyway. (#2 thinks #1 is weird.)
In my history of math class in college we learned that that second line on the check writing was because early on they thought checks were shady business and somehow being forced to slow down and write that extra line made them less evil juju. So not that if you have crappy number writing skills the words should make it clear, though I do think that’s a side-benefit. I share this because it means there really is no rational historical explanation for me not writing out the pennies in fraction format like I’m supposed to. I’m just a little OCD here and there.
Who did you learn how to write checks from? Do you do it the way you’re supposed to?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
April 1, 2011 at 6:25 am
I had to teach my oldest son how to write a check a couple of years ago. I don’t know if someone else taught me or if I just figured it out. Anyway, it quite surprised me that he couldn’t figure out what to do and where to put everything just by looking at it. But it’s one of those things that you’ve never done much of if you’re in your 20’s I guess.
Kind of reminds me of the first time I used an ATM machine back in the day. I still remember not being sure what to push. :-)
April 1, 2011 at 6:29 am
We had lessons in fifth grade (part of how to write out decimals– the ONLY thing I learned in fifth grade was how to write a check, well that and that middle school SUCKS) and 7th grade. Plus I saw a lot of my mom’s checks. Not just so I could forge her signature (with her permission, of course).
April 1, 2011 at 6:55 am
I learned from my high school boyfriend who learned from a class he took in vocational school.
April 1, 2011 at 7:04 am
High school boyfriends are so useful. Mine taught me how to drive stick. (GAH, I cannot think of a way to say that that doesn’t sound wrong. In a car. Manual transmission. Literally.)
April 1, 2011 at 7:59 am
I learned either from watching my mom or from reading the directions that came on the check register. I definitely learned how to use a check register (2 ways) by reading the directions on the check register. I clearly remember this my first year in college. I also learned to do laundry by reading the inside of the lid on the washer and by reading the detergent box. As a result, I have this feeling that even if they don’t teach you financial and living skills at school, so long as they teach you reading and math, you can take care of the rest yourself.
I do write checks the way you’re supposed to. I’ve heard that when the numbers and words don’t match, they go with the words. I do, instead of a straight line, make a wavy line at the end of the words.
I don’t use check registers the way I’m supposed to. I use one of the columns (with negative numbers) for my credit cards and then the far right column has the total of the positive amount in my checking account plus the negative amount from my credit cards.
April 1, 2011 at 8:08 am
Good point. The art of reading instructions is a very important one. And very easy to forget that we have that ability.
My first checkbook register didn’t come with instructions, so I was going through the register twice as fast as I should have been. (Learning how to use it back in 7th grade didn’t stick!) After changing banks, I got instructions with my new register and realized the “correct” way is a lot more efficient, so I switched over.
April 1, 2011 at 8:38 am
I doubt I’m doing it the way you’re doing it; I use two lines per transaction. But I recently learned that I can get free check registers from my credit union whenever I want.
April 1, 2011 at 8:46 am
hee, free check registers = moral hazard!
April 1, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Wow, a checkbook register! To be honest, I’ve never used one. When I was 16, I made an Excel spreadsheet to track my bank accounts and then when things got more complicated around 20, I wrote a software application to do it myself.
I seem to collect checkbook registers though and my mom still uses them, so I give all of mine to her.
April 1, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Now that you can actually have spreadsheets and other applications with you, you can make the entries as you’re making your payment, just like the the olden days. Then things don’t get forgotten and nothing goes bouncy-bounce.
(I don’t have such a device. I had one for a while and loved, loved, loved it. But rain and PDA’s do not mix, and I insist on going out in the rain, and they don’t make my favorite one anymore, and the exciting new phones are better on letting you access other people’s cool stuff and not so much your own cool stuff, plus they’re so pricy, so I’m doing paper again for a while.)
-Old fart
April 1, 2011 at 5:58 pm
We don’t have PDAs either. We are all old farts together.
April 1, 2011 at 8:23 pm
I covet Moleskine more than any mobile.
April 1, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Moleskine is awesome. I do wish they had exactly what I wanted instead of almost what I want, because they’re totally sweet, and could so easily be perfect.
April 1, 2011 at 8:15 am
I haven’t written a check in years, but I used to write “thirty dollars and fifteen pennies”. The bank never seemed to give a flying f***e. I also always endorse checks for deposit below the line that says, “Do Not Write, Stamp Or Sign Below This Line: Reserved For Financial Institution Use”. F***e those bank motherf***ers and their micromanaging dumshitte f***en rules. They can kisse my motherf***en asse!
April 1, 2011 at 2:03 pm
hahahahahaha! Stick it to the man, CPP.
April 1, 2011 at 8:26 am
I can’t remember how I learned to write a check. I rarely have to write checks anymore (paying the dogwalker is one of the few exceptions), but when I do write checks out I use the same format most people do with a fraction.
As for April Foolery: search Helvetica in Google.
P.S. My high school boyfriend also taught me to drive manual transmission. :-) That’s a very useful skill!
April 1, 2011 at 8:27 am
Helvetica– very cute!
April 1, 2011 at 8:42 am
I am an avid typography enthusiast, and I can’t figure out the joke. Can someone please explain?
April 1, 2011 at 8:44 am
Maybe try a different web-browser if it doesn’t work?
April 1, 2011 at 8:50 am
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
(Yeah, I have Firefox set to use my own typeface choices on all Web sites.)
April 1, 2011 at 1:44 pm
My high school boyfriend’s older brother tried to teach me how, but I failed miserably. I still just drive automatics.
April 1, 2011 at 9:38 am
I don’t remember learning to write American checks (from my mom? at the bank when I got my first checking account, in my mid-teens?), but when I lived in France (in my 20s), checks were “upside-down” compared to what I was used to, and I had to be shown how to fill them out, by a young bank employee who seemed to think I was pretty backwards. This is the problem with a literary education. I could discuss Proust in fluent, educated French, but the vocabulary of everyday activities was all new to me (and I never did acquire any ability in slang).
April 1, 2011 at 9:58 am
I got in trouble in Spain for using the command form instead of the conditional when asking people to do things like pass the salt. The command form is really difficult to master too, the conditional just adds “ia”, but culturally the difference is between saying “Pass me the salt, damn it (and kneel before Zod while you’re at it) please” and “Could you please pass the salt.”
They don’t teach these things in school.
April 1, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Really? I remember my French profs in university teaching us to use the conditional instead of the imperative. Then again, I took third and fourth year French translation in addition to many other grammar, writing, literature, and phonetics courses…
April 1, 2011 at 2:22 pm
I made it up to Spanish 303. I did take conversational, but that’s it. No electives.
April 1, 2011 at 6:54 pm
I think they’re virtually obsolete here. (Maybe businesses still need checkbooks, though.) I do remember my parents writing them out for school fees and such when I was younger.
April 1, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Everytime I frequent a business that is cash or check only I do a double-take. I’ve noticed some geographic areas can result in whiplash.
April 7, 2011 at 4:31 am
I learned by watching my mom. And then there was a single page in a book that showed how in High School. I write them as I was taught – no other way. But to be honest, I dont write many of them. Most my bills are paid online.