finances....blah!

I hate dealing with bills.....I'm soooooo unorganized, there's bills all over my house. My husband..well, he's worse then I am and I am BAD with organization and bills.

Yesterday I come home and see two dang disconnect noticed on my doorknob, I check the mail and there is two more in there!! I didn't even know they had gotten so high. egh!

What it comes down to is I am horrible at math and with bills there is math involved. I've been doing math all morning get these bills organized. Basically what happens is when all our bills on the verge of disconnect (or disconnected for a day or two like my cable is now) and then we pay.

How do ya'll get organized with your bills and is there a way to manipulate the billing to where some come at the beginning of the month and the middle and end? With bi weekly pay checks it's hard to pay all at once or not be VERY late...odviously.

Coming from a very broke person as of today..

YouOMe,

Actually some companies are willing to work with you on your billing dates...others are more cast in concrete, but all you do is call the company & explain that you have a bi-weekly pay check & need to make a change in your billing date.

I also put together a calendar with folders & as my mail comes in, I open it & stick the bill in the folder for the week that I need to mail it, or take it in to be paid. At the beginning of the week, I dedicate a time to take care of all the bills for that week & schedule the ones that I have to take in. That way I know that everything is taken care of, current, & those dang late charges don't hit me.

Hope this suggestion helps some....I have actually gone to companies & asked for a change in billing date & most are very glad to help you out because they don't like the possibility of bounced checks.

I so understand your frustrations. I have my degree in accounting, but let my husband do the finances at the beginning of the marriage. He messed things up so badly, I had to go in & rescue us from doom. I have also had the horror (not honor) of being treasurer of the home owners association I lived in at out first house. Another horrid mess I had to clean up added to that homeowners that were screaming because their dues had been so messed up by the billing company that had been doing the billing. I also had the challenge of being treasurer of the management club at the company I worked at. Another complete mess that had to be cleaned up.

The key is getting a system that tells you when you have to take care of the bills & all you have to do is check it over, making sure the money is in the account when you write the bills & don't spend the money before the checks are cashed for something else....(oh yes, that detail is the most important part of paying the bills....& I have oopsed on that a few times also).

Hope things get better for you soon,
Debbie

We do a lot of bill paying online where the bank sends the money when we push a button so we don't even get a bill in the mail. Open your bills everyday and write the date they are due on the outside envelope and put them in due date order and try to do each week's set a day or two before the first day of that week. Having a budget is a must so you know what money you have and don't just buy other stuff, pretending like the monthly bills aren't going to come.

My husband is terrible with bills. I have a master list, all bills are written down on a list with amounts due and date due. I then write it on a calender. When a bill is paid, it gets crossed off. When you do it that way, you have a visual of when most of your money is going out the door and can plan ahead.

Thanks for all the good suggestions, I definitely need something visual to help remind me of my balances and due dates. I have recently been paying bills online with a credit card (prepaid loadable card of course) and it's so much easier that way. Before we'd get money orders or write checks, put them in an envelope, stamp them....and not send them out for a week or two..haha, we're so busy sometimes we forget to think.

I was at Wal Mart loading my card earlier and looked at those mini filing cabinets with all the folders and labels. I think with that and a one of those large calenders that sit on the computer desk would help me immensely...and changing billing dates.

I guess being on my own with this one would be for the best too, ya'll seem too. What's up with that anyway?...haha.

I was really bad at paying bills too - I'm just seriously disorganized so I set up all of my bills to be paid by direct withdrawl from my bank account. I still get the bills telling me how much I owe so I make sure there's money in the bank, but after that I don't have to worry about it.

Made my life a whole lot easier when I was IP this summer since I didn't have to worry about paying the bills.

--splitimage

I like having paper statements. I pay most bills online, but I use the statements as a guide. When bills come in they go in a stack on a certain place on my desk. I know where they are so I always know when I have bills due. I pretty much have it in my head what is due and when. My car ins comes out automatically on the 4th of the month, so I automatically enter that in my check register, along with a service fee I pay to the bank for online banking. I take that out automatically.

Now that I get paid every 2 weeks I take the car ins out of the first check and the bank fee out of the second one since its towards the end of the month.

When I get paid I look at the stack of bills and pay what I can. I write on the statement "paid" and deduct it from my check register, and write the confirmation if its an online or phone payment.

Once a bill is paid it goes in a plastic drawer on my little organizer thing. I'll keep the statements for 2 months and then shred them. (I used to save EVERY statement. I'm now shredding years worth of statements.)

The most important thing for me is my check register. I keep diligent account of it. I write everything down that I use my debit card or checks for. When I make a debit purchase the receipt goes in a certain place in my wallet. Every few days I balance the checkbook and check it by the bank online. I haven't overdrawn my account in years now because of this, even when I wasn't working and Grandma was giving me just enough for bills and food.

If you keep your check register balanced and pay only what you can with the money in the bank, thats the best way to go.

(I come from a family of accountants, I love this stuff. )

Oh and I almost always use a calculator. Sometimes I'll be bored at lunch and deduct receipts and if I do it by hand there's more chance of error so I use my cell phone calculator.

Keep a registry!!! Thats my biggest tip.

Most companies will work with you, to get back on track with your bills. I dont have much of a strategy. My husband and I deposit all our monies into a chequing account. Once a week, I will transfer funds via the computer, (I am paid weekly, he is paid biweekly) to our savings, Once a month I pay my truck payment, credit card, hydro and cable online. My telephone and my internet is taken directly out of the account so I dont have to worry about that.

Now if only I could get the computer to do my grocery shopping, life would be good. Seriously....I used to have difficulty too. I just had to take matters in hand and it is so nice now to not have to worry.

I pay online. All of my bills are automatic debit. All I do is when I get e-mail notification is mark the amount on the calander and on the day.

I do most of mine online. I get an email notice that tells me to pay it and then I go click on a button and its paid...otherwise, I'd get disconnected too!

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.