Random Babbleness: Finances

This topic comes up every so often with random friends. Bottom line? I don't do them. At all. My checking account always has $100.00 in it. Never more. Never less. In fact, my Debit/ATM card has been inactive since some time in 2008 and I didn't know this fact until a few months ago when I went in to use their penny arcade (Commerce, now TD, is the only bank you don't have to roll your own stupid change). Before I got married, I had no problems paying my own bills and at one point, doing it for a living for people who made way more than I did. I didn't have anyone to shove it off to. I, gratefully, do now (thank you, husband!). We also don't do bills together because it wouldn't work. Husband does things online and in his head. I don't do estimates. I need it hand-written in record and when my statement comes in, I need to know that it matches up exactly as I have it written down. If there's even a penny off, I will go through an "X" amount of weeks'/months' worth of statements to find that discrepancy. Really. A whole penny. It's obviously not the value. Why then? Easily explained. I'm crazy. I need things to be exact. If we were to manage this together, I would fight with him. He's also too controlled in his own way of managing so if I were to take over, he would hate me and we would fight. Besides that, he's a (sort of) CPA. Score! However, I do squirrel away every dollar that comes my way on the side. When I say every dollar, I mean it in the literal sense. At the end of the day, from wherever I've been, I collect all singles and put it away. I also steal them out of husband's wallet. He can obviously tell that he never has any change to buy a $2 cup of coffee without breaking a twenty so it's no secret that I do this. At the end of the month, I deposit it for my daughter. Anything of monetary value, I save for her. It's almost an obsession. Long story short, growing up, my parents didn't have that option. They were too busy making the rent on time. I know they must have wanted this for me. Why doesn't it get shared? Because there's always a possibility that if it is accounted for, there's always somewhere else it "needs" to go. This way, it doesn't exist. Maybe it can be her college fund. Don't need it? Great! Maybe it can be her first car. She bought her own? Maybe it can go to her wedding, her IRA, her retirement. Maybe *knock on a big fat chunk of wood* she may really need it one day. And it will be there for her. Okay, fine, it's a bunch of singles so it isn't much because she's all of 7 and a half months young, but here and there funds do find their way to me (again, thank you husband) and that also gets squirreled away. What happens to kid #2, #3, and however many I do end up having? I'm assuming those singles and random funds will have to be shared, but right now, it's all about her (sorry future children). I should be (am) truly grateful that I can even have an obsession like this. Call it what you will because everyone, including myself, have a theory as to why security of any kind is top priority for me above most else. The reason doesn't matter so much. The important thing is, I know that I am building something for her in my own little way to give her that (and every other) type of security and that makes me happy. It's almost like I'm giving her what I know my parents wanted to give me and couldn't so it's two-fold. I'm doing it for them as much as I am doing it for her. So the big stuff like food, rent, car, diapers, formula, and my daily 7-Eleven iced coffee funds fall on the husband and while I don't verbally thank him nearly as much as I should, I (hopefully) think he knows that I do. If you are reading this, which you probably are not because you don't do the reading stuff, Thank You, Husband. I forgive you for leaving your socks on the staircase for me to slip on and almost fall on my face. ;)

"Mommy, what is that on my head? Why do you keep putting it there?"