Ah… the end of the year. The time when I like to sit back and take a moment to reflect on what I did or didn’t accomplish over the past 12 months, and think about what I’d like to try to do over the next dozen.
I sat down last Sunday afternoon and went over my finances. I finished paying the December bills, including my quarterly water bill that was actually double because I’d misplaced and then forgotten about last quarter’s bill. (Funny… I never misplace the bills I can pay online… I wish the city would get with the technology.)
Anyway, I wrote the single check for the water bill, paid everything else online and spent the rest of the holiday weekend feeling satisfied that I would be starting 2008 off on the right foot.
That feeling last until I brought the mail in yesterday and discovered the check for the water bill had bounced. WTF???
I logged into my bank account and frantically scanned the list of transactions. At first look, nothing was out of the ordinary. No strange numbers showing up. But the ending balance showed that yes, I was overdrawn. What the hell did I do??
And then it hit me. For the first time in four years, I neglected to deduct my bi-weekly mortgage payment from my checking out balance. Yep. That would do it.
So much for starting off 2008 on the right foot.
Yikes! I hate when I do something like that.