To hold my breath whenever I go online to check our bank balance!

[Teachermumof3]

Whilst waiting to see how much/little money there is in there! I also put off doing it! It's ever as bad as I think, but somehow I dread doing it!

Please tell my I'm not alone...?

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

No definitely not alone. I close my eyes!

[nethunsreject]

I'm afraid I'm one of those pain in the arse folks who knows what's there. Comes from being skint and not wanting to be in debt again. But no, you will not be alone.

[poorbuthappy]

I am usually half way through s bottle of red when I check mine!!

[wicketkeeper]

Yup, it's never easy. My DH has now arranged for the current balance to be texted to his mobile every Monday - somehow this is a more painless way of doing it and works for us. We go through times when there's lots of money in the account, and then checking it is no problem. But then we go through times when there's not so much (we're self-employed so money comes in fits and starts), then it's much harder - which of course is exactly when we should be micro-managing it.

[Backtobedlam]

I do this all the time....even when I KNOW exactly how much is there, checked the day before etc. Just in case there's been some freak incident and suddenly all my money has gone. For some strange reason I never hold my breath when checking at the cash point, only online!

[cryhavoc]

I do this too. I work freelance, so there is no cushion of regular salary payments. I am much better now than I used to be though, I have an app on my phone for checking it.
There was a time when I would just take money out until the cashpoint said no.

[FetchezLaVache]

I hate it too. DH thinks I'm being a bit pathetic, but I really hate that heart-sinking feeling when you can see that nothing's gone in (again) and you are going to have to copper up just to buy milk. I mentally cross myself too. And I'm not even a Catholic.

[MorallyBankrupt]

Oh I do this, even though I know to the penny how much should be in my account...

The joint account is much much more stressful, as DH isn't exactly as careful with money as I'd like!

[CherylWillBounceBack]

One thing I've found works for me is to run two accounts. One for direct debits/standing orders that are consistent month to month, and the other for day to day/variable expenses such as credit cards.

I've set up a standing order to bung slightly more than the amount I know will cover the known monthly expenses in at the start of each month. I now rarely look at this account.

This allows me to keep a much tighter check on the day to day and variable ones and see where the money is really going. Cuts out having to sift through a load of the same stuff each month.

[mankymink]

I loathe checking my account online. Absolutely loathe it. The last 7 months I've been on Maternity Allowance have been the worst of my life, as I never quite managed to get my Direct Debit dates in line with the payments, so I have gotten used to being charged up to the eyeballs.

But back to work next Monday and back to a monthly salary, thank god. Although once DP's contract runs out at the end of September we will be back to the "how much money don't we have this week" malarkey. It is so depressing!