Creating personal data/special folders

Mayayana wrote:
| I'm mildly amused. :-) Are we still talking about adding some numbers
and
| then subtracting that total from another number, or is there more
involved?
|
| Yes, more is involved. I match every transaction on the statement (which
| stretches over several pages) with my own records. Recent transactions
| will be missing from the statement and have to held over for the next
| one, and obviously the two balances will differ.

I do that as well. I have a slip of paper in a draw.
When it gets full I tape a new piece at the bottom.
After making charge purchases, I fire up my trusty
penta-digit computer, feed it a ball point pen, and
write down the price, store and purpose of for the
item. I daresay that firing up the penta-digit also takes
about 1 second, from start to having pen in hand.

My list doubles for my business purchases,
so I like to record customer names under the "purpose"
column in that case. The nice thing about my
penta-digit is that it can easily handle multi-defined
columns and creative notes in margins, which most
database-type tools choke on.

When I get my credit card bill I then fire up the
old penta-digit once again. It write a small check mark
next to each item that matches the purchase list.
Brilliant, don't you think? Best of all, aside from providing
3 meals a day (which I'd eat anyway) my penta-digit
only requires a pen from Staples once every few years.
So it's nearly cost-free and never requires buying
"upgrades".

I do use one "non-organic" machine for my extensive
recordkeeing, however. It's a solar powered, Texas
Instruments calculator that I bought at CVS drugstore
in May of 1985, for $10. I remember the date because
I bought it for my then-new business. To this day I
still don't use a computer for my business, except for
graphics and printing: receipts, business cards, images
of design ideas sent to customers via email, etc. My
business records and receipts are mainly on paper. If
I send a bill it's a PDF created in Libre Office. If I give
people a bill on the job I do it using a sheet of carbon
paper, so that we both have a copy. (I've also had the
same pack of carbon paper for years. Just because new
technology is available that doesn't necessarily mean it's
better.)

Very nice. I used to do things that way, but the computer does it so
much better. No new pens required either, and as for upgrades, the last
was in about 1995.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England