Oh, help -- can anyone help me? I am lost in an eddy of the space-time continuum in which addition is not commutative.
I have a confession: I am a checkbook obsessive. I will spend an hour searching for a nine-cent error. You can tell me all you want to about the value of my time being higher than that, but I get an absurd amount of satisfaction out of tidy rows of numbers, all of them RIGHT. Conversely, if one (or, horrors, more) is wrong, then something is deeply wrong in my little world.
Tell me tomorrow if you think that's whacked. The acoustics are too bad here in my eddy for me to hear you today.
The bank and I agree that the last time I balanced the checkbook, we were square. We also agree on amounts deposited, checks cleared, and electronic transactions. So if I go back to my last balance and add the deposits and subtract the withdrawals and remove the transactions that haven't cleared yet from consideration, I should get the same number as the bank, right? Right???
Euclid help me, it's not working. I have added up and down and sideways. I have combed through my entries for errors. No dice. There is a stubborn $24.92 difference between my bottom line and the bank's. Aaaarrrggghhhhh.
I decided that there was a maniacal little gremlin in my calculator, cackling away as he spat out the wrong numbers. I decided to use the calculator that lives in the computer instead. But I also decided to share the woe before I tried again to paddle out of my eddy. Any fellow obsessives out there? Please send chocolate.
Sending virtual chocolate because that would drive me NUTS. I get upset when it doesn't all add up like it should. It's just not right!!
Posted by: mary | July 16, 2008 at 01:22 PM
Spooky -- the same thing happened to us this month. My husband is the obsessive one, but we're both extremely bothered by this mystery $20 that we say we should have but the bank says we shouldn't. I don't know if it's better or worse that it's a nice round number, but we've done the math by hand, calculator, and spreadsheet more times than we can count. Crazy.
I feel your pain!!
Posted by: Julie | July 16, 2008 at 02:23 PM
Once long ago when I was a church treasurer I got laughed at for apologizing for a monthly financial statement that was off by a penny. I feel for you! Sending virtual Callebaut or Lindt, your choice.
(By the way, I finally tracked that sucker down.;-D )
Posted by: Salome Ellen | July 16, 2008 at 04:07 PM
Last time that happened to me, I had written the wrong amount in the amount paid. So my math was right, but I was working with the wrong number. It's easier to be have one digit wrong than $24.92 though, so that's unlikely to be your problem today. It drives me crazy when I can't make them balance. Is there a transaction that the bank has factored into the balance but hasn't put into its list of deposits/withdrawals? I often have a one day delay when the bank says my balance is $X, but it has factored in a paycheck that arrived that day without listing it yet. That doesn't happen on the monthly statements, just the online listing. I wish my bank would keep track of the balance with every deposit/credit, but it only gives a total at the top and says how much has been added and removed with each transaction.
Posted by: Amy F | July 16, 2008 at 10:22 PM
Fellow obsessive, though I have gotten better (or worse, depending on the perspective) at convincing myself not to search out the missing pennies.
Good luck. $24.92 sounds like it might be two errors: an even $25 and a naughty 8 cents.
Posted by: luolin | July 16, 2008 at 11:06 PM