Learn how to organize monthly bills – tips and tricks to allow you to stay organized, reduce time spent on bills and eliminate any of those pesky late charges.
One of the joys of being an independent adult is the monotony of paying your bills every month. This is one of the least fun parts of “adulting”.
But paying bills is a fact of life that’s never going away. For many of us, this monthly burden can cause a lot of stress and anxiety.
More than a quarter of Americans admit to worrying about money constantly. This is a concerning statistic.
What many people need is a few good habits to help them get on top of their finances.
Fortunately, there are plenty of tricks you can use to feel organized when it comes to monthly bills.
Organize Your Bills in A Binder
A simple way of helping you feel in control of your monthly bills is to stash all your bills in a binder or folder. While this might sound very simplistic, it can be very effective.
Having everything in one spot allows you to keep track of all those loose bits of paper that so easily get lost, especially when you need them most!
By storing bills in a binder, you know exactly where to look when you need them.
You can go one step further and use dividers to separate your bills into categories. For example, one category might be bills relating to utilities, another could be for bills for your car.
With this system you will spend even less time searching through endless pieces of paper to find the bill you are looking for!
This method is also helpful as part of the cash envelope system for budgeting.
Go Paperless for Easy Organization
Another great option for organizing your monthly bills is to consider going paperless with your bills.
Going paperless means that instead of receiving a piece of paper in the post every month telling you how much you owe, you will get an email or other online notification instead.
Many service providers allow you to choose paperless bills, as it saves paper and money too.
By reducing our demand for paper, we are helping the environment, and preventing a mess of paper piling up at home!
Another great thing about going paperless is that whenever you need to access a bill, it will be waiting for you online.
Simply log in to your account for the service in question, and every bill will be there for you to download as required.
And you usually will get an electronic receipt showing that you paid your bill online and you can file that electronically in its own folder.
As such, the chaotic scramble around every drawer and desk in your house looking for a long-lost bill can be a thing of the past! Just make sure to know your account passwords!
Set Up Auto-Pay
When it comes to paying bills on time, technology really can be our best friend. Not only can we get our bills sent to us electronically, but we can also pay automatically.
One of the best ways of easily organizing your monthly bills is to set up automatic payments.
If you find yourself constantly forgetting to pay bills until you receive a bill for a late fee, this is a top tip for you!
Take an afternoon to go through each of your monthly expenses and set up automatic payments. This process itself may take an hour or two, but it will be worth it in the long run.
You will feel the weight lift from your shoulders as bills are magically paid on time every month, without you having to lift a finger!
This tip is worth its weight in gold. By setting up automatic payments, there will be no more late fees for you.
Knowing that all your bills are being paid on time, and you won’t have to waste any more money on those late fees is a fantastic feeling.
The peace of mind that comes from implementing this tip is just one reason why you should organize your monthly bills.
There can be just one drawback with automatic payments. You need to make sure that there is always enough money in your account to cover your automatic payments.
The last thing you want is an auto payment that causes an overdraft fee because you don’t have enough money in your account. But if you’re doing paycheck budgeting, this shouldn’t be a problem for you.
If you are worried about falling victim to this, you might want to choose an alternative method of organizing your monthly bills.
Put A Bill Pay Day on Your Calendar
An option that is really worth trying is setting aside one day a month when you pay all your bills.
This can save you a lot of time in the long run, as you can dedicate an hour or so to getting this boring task out of the way, freeing up more time for more enjoyable activities!
To make this activity as painless as possible, choose a day that is right after your payday.
For instance, I get paid on the 15th and 30th, so I pay my bills on the 16th and the 1st of the month.
I make a point of organizing my monthly bills and paying my bills right away because if I don’t, sometimes it’s so easy for that cash to disappear very quickly!
I want to make sure I pay everything right away before that happens.
By doing this, you will ensure that there is enough money in your account to cover all your expenses.
Then, once the month’s bills are paid and money is put in savings, it’s really easy to see how much you have left to play with until the next payday.
Of course, some money will go into the grocery budget and some into the gas budget, and some towards other essentials, but you will be able to see how much you have left after everything is paid!
What a great feeling!
Create A Spreadsheet
Whenever the topic of finances is brought up, the first piece of advice lots of people give is to use a spreadsheet.
While this tip might sound very boring, using a spreadsheet to keep track of your monthly bills is a very good idea.
I like to use different colors for my different bill categories to make things really easy. So, for instance all car related bills are blue, all grocery and restaurant bills are green, and so on.
Many people find themselves paying for services they no longer use or need.
However, if you are not in the habit of checking your accounts frequently, it can be hard to spot a charge that’s paying for something you no longer need. I recently found that I was still paying for a few small subscriptions I no longer wanted.
By carefully going through all your debits, you may find several monthly bills that you can cancel.
This could save you a lot of money! Additionally, if money is a little tight, writing down all your monthly bills in an easy-to-read format can help you decide where you can cut back.
For example, you might see that you are paying for several streaming services, when perhaps you could live very happily with just one.
Cancelling subscriptions and other such things that you can live without is a good way to free up some extra cash each month for more important things.
That extra money could also be put towards a saving goal, such as for a car or a deposit for a new house.
When it comes to money, you need to be super organized so you’re not throwing money away each month! By cutting back on unnecessary monthly spending you could save a lot of money quite quickly.
Try A Budgeting App
However, if spreadsheets just aren’t for you, think about using a budgeting app. There are lots of them out there now, and they all do roughly the same thing.
You can take a look at some of the more popular apps like Personal Capital (my favorite), Mint and YNAB to see what you like and what you’ll actually use! You may want to read Mint vs. Quicken.
This is important. You have to choose a budget app that you find easy and painless to use so you actually use it.
Entering your monthly expenses in the app takes seconds, so there is no excuse not to follow through. And it really will help you in organizing your monthly bills!
The app will show you how much you are spending each month, and some even notify you when a bill is due to be paid, helping you avoid those annoying late fees.
With this piece of technology in the palm of your hand, it has never been easier or quicker to organize your monthly bills.
In Conclusion
So, depending on your personal preferences, use one or a combination of these tips to better organize your monthly bills.
With such a range of options, it is easier than ever before to keep on top of your finances.
Hopefully these methods will help to save you some money and time too.
By giving you some more money in your pocket and some more free time, organizing your monthly bills could be the best thing you do this month!
How do you organize and pay your bills? Comment below and let us know!
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