Get Organized Paying Bills Tips | Become More Organized Week 3

JenniferW777

Many of us want to become more organized paying bills.  This week I will go over a simple technique that works to help keep me organized paying bills, so I know everything is paid on time every month.

If you read last week, I got my family to buy into my crazy idea to become a more organized household all together.  Things are going great I am still leading by example showing my family, mom is serious about living a more organized life together as a family.

This week I wanted to focus on how to get more organized paying bills.  Bills are something we look forward to each month right?  Okay, not look forward to have to do every month.  Being organized paying bills is important, it can keep from getting late notices, things being shut off, or effecting a hard earned credit score.  Paying bills organized, helps be on time every month so there is no need to worry about later notices.

Get more organized paying bills by having a system, something that works for your lifestyle each month so you know what has been paid, how much and when.

The first step to becoming a more organized bill payer is gathering all of bills.  Every time you receive a bill, be sure to have a designated area to place them, this makes it easier to know what needs to be paid.  Sometimes we get busy, toss the envelope on the table, counter, or dresser and don’t take extra time to place every bill you receive in a designated place.  This habit will help make sure that payments are sent on time.

Prioritize, do have several payments to make?  Something that helps me prioritize my bills from month to month is to have a dreaded bill notebook.  This just works for me.  I write all my payment information down for the month, due dates and amount due.  When I get ready to send a payment, I pull out my dreaded bill notebook.  My designated bill place is my notebook, everything is together and kept in my purse.  I am not always at home when I pay bills, so this works for my lifestyle.  After I pay a bill I highlight or drawn a line through them, so I know it is paid.  My bill notebook looks something like this;

May

  • Car Payment                                          1st                                           $545.23
  • House Payment                                   5th                                           $1232.11
  • Electric                                                         24th                                         $65.11

When I look at my dreaded bill notebook, I know my my car and house payments have been paid for May but I need to pay my electric.  I used to use a notebook to keep track of my bills, then I fell off the wagon, bills became more stressful to pay every month.

If a notebook doesn’t work for you there is many other ways to go about it such as, using a spreadsheet on a computer, pulling out your bills from a designated place or whatever works best for your lifestyle.

Next, make sure you know what bills will be paid with what paycheck.  If you’re like many people when you paycheck comes in there is a bill that must be paid.  Know a head of time what bill is going to be paid with what check.  This is especially helpful if you’re paying a large amount, such as a house payment.  However, small payments add up as well.  It is best to know what is getting paid when.

How do you pay your bills?  If you don’t use online bill pay, give it a shot.  This is an easy and fast way to pay your bills.  Not only is it faster, but most payments are received faster and it helps protect checking account numbers, one of the perks of technology.  Online bill pay automatically drafts money from your designated checking account to pay your bill.  Some people like to set it up where so their payments are automatically paid each month, they never have to login, schedule their payment it’s called a recurring payment.  Others, like myself  login to their online bill pay once a month and pay them manually.  Either way works, whatever you feel comfortable with is what you should do.

I say bill pay is so much faster is because you only login once to set up your payment information such as company name, address, account number, etc.  From that point forward unless something changes all you have to do is login once a month, input payment amount and schedule the date for your payment to be sent.  It saves so much time,  it’s a more efficient sending payments.

When you become more organized paying bills it just feels good, there is so much less stress.  I love my dreaded bill notebook, I think I like it so much because it feels good to mark them paid.

Most of us at one point or another need to budget our spending or would simply like to know what all we spend money on.  If you’re an organized bill payer, you know how much payments are each month, so you know how much extra money you have for other things such as family vacations and fun stuff.  Knowing bills are paid on time is a good feeling.

Becoming more organize paying bills is worth the effort and it is a rewarding feeling to never have to worry about paying late fees and always being on track with your finances.  After learning about simple bill paying organization systems your can devise your own technique that help make life even easier.

This system may not be what works for your lifestyle and by no means am I saying follow my technique, but finding what works for and sticking with it will make your life less stressful, allow time for fun, and possibly save money in late fees.  What organizational skills do you use?