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She's going to kill me when she sees this, but I just wouldn't be doing my job as a personal finance blogger if I didn't talk about this today ;) She's completely off her rocker!

Here's the deal. You know how we're living with my mother-in-law (her mom) right now? Well, as part of her agreeing to let us stay there, she kindly asked that my dear wife finally clean out her old room growing up that's been left pretty much frozen in time all these years. So every night she's been sorting through it all and figuring out what to keep, what to donate, and what to finally trash. Which she's doing a most excellent job of so far, I must add.

That's the good part.

In the middle of all this sorting, however, she has come across something that I cannot for the life of me comprehend every time I try, despite her many efforts to explain to me. Now maybe I love money too much and it's just the obsessive part of me that can't imagine how this stuff can go un-tracked after all these years, but regardless I find it completely unacceptable :)

Guess what she's been finding in all these long forgotten hoards in her bedroom?? MONEY!!! Cold hard freakin' cash, just laying around as if no one cares for them – what the heck??? And do you know what else she just came across which is WORSE?? An old paycheck that was never cashed!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!

Here's what she's found so far, and she's only on Day #3:

A $20 bill inside an old Christmas card.
A crisp $50 bill (!!!) inside a graduation card.
An un-cashed paycheck circa 2004 for, no joke, $350.00 !! Who does that???

Now obviously all GREAT things to come across in a room cleanup (makes YOU wanna go through your $hit too, right?), but it really makes me think twice as to what else is going unchecked in that little world of hers ;) If you're leaving behind money during one of the poorer times of your life (after schooling), what are you doing now that you have a decent amount stashed away? Haha… Should I be checking through all our boxes we just packed up for yummy crisp bills long forgotten since our marriage as well??

Oh man, what a girl… She sure does make my life more interesting though, I'll give her that ;) And realistically we've all made similar mistakes too over time, just probably not at THAT level, haha… Who doesn't miss $400???

So the lesson for today is:

KNOW where all your money is and cash your darn paychecks!
Take some time and clean up a few piles of junk this week as you never know *what* you may find buried away. Though if you're on this blog you probably enjoy money more than my wife, so you probably won't get as sexy of a surprise stashed away there ;)

Anyone have similar stories they'd like to report today? I'm sure my wife would appreciate them so she can rub it in my face that everyone else does the same thing, haha… I've been known to leave $20 bills in my pockets or jackets and stuff like that, but never paychecks worth hundreds of dollars!! I don't think I'll be able to let her live that one down for quite some time ;)

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PS: Remember that time we talked about claiming your long lost money? Well now we know why something popped up for the Mrs. there – the company's still holding her money!! So there's a decent chance we'll be able to get her$350 back to its rightful home in the near future, haha… wish us luck!

(Photo by minds-eye)

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!