I am (as of this week) now in credit with the phone, and nearly in credit with my power (having been $200-300 behind last year). I pay every monthly bill weekly (I get paid weekly, used to pay fortnightly when the money came in then). I worked out the average that I was paying each month (I also have a toll-bar so my phone acc is always the same), then divided it by 4. I then set up my automatic payments so that $20/week goes on the phone (my bill is about $70/month), $30 goes for power, and so forth. I also paid my hire purchases like this when I had them. Because some months have 5 Thursdays (or whatever day) in them the company gets an extra payment that month which helps to put you in credit. Also like with my ph acc, I rounded the average UP to help put me in credit. That way if I have extra costs I can skip a payment for a week and not worry about it. It means that I know exactly how much goes out bills every week, I have all my bills automatically paid and I can pay for the other stuff (e.g. car repairs, school fees etc) as they come in. The only 'glitch' I have in 'my' system is that no matter how much I have pleaded I can only pay my home and car insurance by direct credit fortnightly. I just budget that into my totals each week so I know that even if I mix up the weeks it is still accounted for. One other tip- I always go for automatic payments over direct credit. That way YOU have the power to change anything about it that you want e.g. skip a week, change the day or amount etc. With direct credit the company has all the power and you have none .
Good luck and I hope you can find a system that will work well for you.