Ironic

Have I mentioned that I am really bad at math? For this simple reason, I have never been the one in our family to handle the finances. When I say never, I mean only once.

Mike has a very complex system he uses to organize the flow of monies in and out of our account. One time when he was starting a new job and was very busy, I suggested that I take over the accounting since I was staying home with small children. We sat down at the table and he explained his system to me. He got out paper and drew numbers, dates, charts, graphs, hieroglyphs. He wrote out complicated formulas and theorems. He color coded, tabbed, and labeled. I nodded and mm hmmed.

When I sat down and opened the statement with the checkbook, I tried to recall the formula. I thought and concentrated, but all that happened was a picture of a monkey popped into my mind. One of those toy monkeys that claps his hands. It was funny.

I wrote checks and mailed them away. But the formula DID NOT work. One month later we owed the bank more than $500 in fees. Mike grabbed his charts and graphs and put them somewhere special. Someplace that I will never be able to find them.

So it is with great trepidation and out of sheer desperation that he has enlisted my help again. I am to manage the account out of which we buy family stuff, like groceries and school supplies. It makes sense because I am really the only one using that account. He manages the big expenses, like the mortgage and insurance, out of another account.

For a month he checked the account every night to make sure I had a handle on it. We decided to use a checkbook program and downloaded the free trial to make sure I could work with it. Things went great. I worked it and nothing bad happened. This week I officially took over management. I wore my best sweat pants and called a board meeting with myself. My first act as manager was to buy the checkbook program I had been using. My free trial was over, and I had successfully navigated it for a month. I called the IT guy (me) and had the program downloaded to my computer.

One problem. Buying the checkbook program overdrew my account. Ironic, no?

I haven't told Mike yet.

That monkey sure is funny.