When I was growing up my dad would cash his pay check, bring it home and put divide it up by putting it in envelopes. Each envelope was to represent a bill that needed to be paid. This was one generation from putting money in a set of jars, with each jar committed to a bill.

On the other extreme I have talked to some people of the younger generations who keep a rough running total in their head. For some reason the vast majority of these people are overdrawn on their checking, for reasons they cannot understand.

In my junior and senior year of high school we had a special class on budgeting. It included a handwritten a ledger. We had to keep a running total of outgoing and incoming money. Today, I use a little easier method of tracking our family finances; it is called Quicken.

A good place for an afternoon nap.

My wife and I decide that we need to buy a new sofa before the end of the year. Our current on is past worn out. It is stained. One of the spring’s sticking into a cushion.

It has been quite a few years since our last purchase of a sofa. I felt that we need to start with the basics. Fabric, style, as well price are important consideration. Since it cost a few hundreds dollars we are going to some extensive recon before buying.

Some of the place to start will be online, local thrift stores, and furniture stores. I even put a posted a question about buying a sofa or couch on SavingAdvice.com. This will give us some ideas as to what is available. Then we will come closer to finding the perfect sofa at the perfect price.