Bank overdraft fees are annoying. There, I've said it and it's all out there in the open. Overdraft fees are either ridiculously high ($35) or your bank uses shady tactics to make sure your account is more likely to overdraw itself so they can collect more fees, thereby making up for low overdraft fees. I hate them, you hate them, everyone hates them, but there are definitely ways to avoid getting them.
Keep a certain amount in your checking account at all times. I know, I know, this is harder to do than it sounds, but it really is the key to help make sure your account doesn't become overdrawn; that and you have a cushion in case something comes through that you forgot about. Put $100 in your account and just forget that it's there. If your account balance gets down to $103, consider yourself broke.
The next thing that you should understand is that a lot of times, banks will process your transactions, especially checks that clear, in order from the highest amount check, to the lowest amount. Each check that goes through your account after the account is considered overdrawn costs you an overdraft fee. Say you have $100 in the bank and you have 3 checks out, one for $80, one for $25, and one for $5. The check for $5 gets there first, the $25 second, and the $80 third, but the bank processes them in this order: $80, $25, and $12 for a total of $117. In this scenario, you will have 2 overdraft fees instead of just one, because if the checks go through in the order they came in, you would only have 1 because only one check caused you to overdraft. If your overdraft fees are $35 each, then the bank just made $70 on you.
Find out from your bank if you can stop your debit card from allowing you to overdraft your account when you attempt to use it. If so, you can likely stop a large amount of overdraft fees by preventing this.
Finally, if you know for a fact your checking account is going to be overdrawn due to checks that you have out or pending transactions, consider getting a payday loan instead. If you have 4 checks out and all 4 will cause your account to be overdrawn, it could be cheaper to pay the payday loan interest than pay the bank $140 in overdraft fees. Look at your own financial situation and figure out what's best for you.
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