C is for Clothing and K is for Kids, or C is for Children and K is for . . .

On my various debit cards, I have letters in the signature area to denote which account the card belongs to. This is mostly necessary because all the cards from the credit union look the same and I don't want to mess things up. Saddly, mess ups do happen. When I first chose "C" for Clothing, it made perfect sense to use "K" for kids. Except, of course, for those times when I think too fast and "C" starts to mean children! Since the clothing account often has considerably less money than the kid account does, you can see where this may be a problem! I usually catch things, but have had to handle the occasional overdraft, which just makes me feel dumb and overwhelmed!

I understand that my method seems confusing, and it will take time to settle in. This is partly why I started adding accounts two at a time, until I really felt comfortable adding more. After a while, as I could see the money building up in each account, and always felt like I knew what was available to use, the confusion of the multiple accounts started to feel better than the overwhelming confusion of knowing nothing and trying to pay bills with no money every month.

Sit down for a minute and really focus in on how you feel when you don't know how much money you have, how to pay the bills, and what to say to your kids when they ask for yet another thing. It doesn't feel good, does it? Now imagine yourself knowing what you have and being able to compare that to what you need or want to spend. Even if you have a small amount, the knowledge is powerful! How much easier will it be to say to your child, "I know you want new tennis shoes, but we can't buy them today. If you can be patient, though, I know we can buy them for you in two weeks." Kids love clarity, and it doesn't get much clearer than that!

You will make mistakes, use the wrong card, forget which category has money and which one doesn't, but you will also learn how much you spend and how you spend it. That seems like a great tradeoff to me!