Take it to the bank!
Back in my college days a couple of friends and I spent one spring break painting a house. It wasn't your typical take-it-easy spring break, but we all needed a little money and for financially strapped college kids the pay off was pretty good. So we took the job. We worked hard that week and when the job was done we all got our checks and raced them to the bank. After the deposit my balance hit a semester high. I was riding high until later that week I went to the ATM to make a withdrawal and was surprised to get the dreaded "insufficient funds" message! I went to the bank to see what the problem was and after a little investigation the teller discovered the issue. The check had never been signed! It was an accidental oversight. The missing signature was not caught when I deposited the check so I assumed it had cleared but, after review, it hadn't. So there I was - back to my typical meager balance. ...