How Do You Manage To Pay All Your Bills On Time?

[staceyy]

Have you mastered paying all your bills on time each month? Please share your strategies.

[ecgsmama]

All of my bills come out of my checking account automatically on the due date. That is, my mortgage, electric, phone, truck, and life insurance payments are all paid this way.

The only "bills" I write a check for each month are my credit card (groceries and gas - use for bonus points to WDW - pay off every month), babysitter, and church.

Money to our IRAs and TAP 529 accounts also come out automatically every month. I really just monitor my checking account statement once or twice a month to make sure nothing unexpected has occured.

Amazingly, b/c it is the only date I HAVE to remember - I usually cut pretty close to the due date for my credit card. Though I do have that setup to pay online, so it doesn't take long at all.

Maybe automatic withdrawals and/or online payments will work for you. Good luck!

[AmyBoz]

I pay each bill when it comes in. That's my strategy for when we have money in savings or checking.

When we don't have money, I put the bills inside the checkbook, in order of when they are due. When a paycheck comes in, I have to open the checkbook to record it, and I see the first bill that is there. If I can cover it, I pay it.

[pammy]

We get paid every other week. I have a specific slot for utilities bills, and one slot for loan payments. During the two week period if any bill comes in I put it in my utility slot. When I sit down every other week to pay bills I take all from the utility slot and the loan payment slot. I'm usually able to cover every bill, and nothing is late (maybe once in 6 months am I charged a late fee paying this way). I see what the date is and make the appropriate bank loan payments, which I'm usually early making these payments. I only have to mess with it once every two weeks and in the few years I've been doing it this way I've never recieved a cut off notice. Is working good for us so far.

[Michelle]

I have an Excel spreadsheet on which I keep track of what is due and when. We get paid every week, so I can usually sit down at the beginning of the month and pay most of them.

I have a some taken out automatically:

*life insurance
*car insurance
*phone
*cable

Most of the rest I pay online, but I do still write a few checks.

[pkellyc]

I sit down twice a month too and pay everything over the computer. The 2nd week in the month I pay all my bills car payments, insurance, lights, cc's ect. The last week I pay my mortgage. The only checks I write out are my water/sewer bill every three months along with my auto taxes once a year.

Here is one thing I have done over the years. Everytime I get a credit card or payment of some kind I always schedule the payments for the end of the month. This way they are never late with my 2nd week of the month payment method. If you do this with a cc or a car payment it must be prearranged at the time of the account opening or with no balance on your credit cards. This also gives me some leeway so I don't have to pay the bills on an exact day every month.

I do not like to have things automatically taken out. It's a control issue I have. I always thought if a disaster happened I would end up paying late fees and overdraft fees. But that's my phobia. If your comfortable with automatic withdrawal it does seem like the easiest way to go. If not try my way I am never late.

[sunshine]

We long ago, calculated the cost of ALL our bills (even the yearly ones) and figured out how much we need to take from each pay check to cover the bills.

So each payday, money goes into accounts for each bill. . . house payment, car payment, car insurance, car license, malpractice insurance, life insurance, property taxes, Christmas gifts, electricity, phone, cell phones, clothing, groceries. . . . and so on. . . . .

So each time I get a bill, I just write the check

[sarathom]

I have Quicken on my computer so I record everything there. Payday is every two weeks, so every payday, I sit down and write in all the payments that automatically come out for that pay period (insurance, rent, RRSPs, Education fund, etc.). I keep all incoming bills in a file folder labelled "Unpaid Bills". I take out any bill that is due in that pay period and pay them online. anything left over is used for groceries, household miscellaneous etc. I started debiting everything so that once the money is gone, it's gone!

[Mamaw]

I know the due dates of all my bills. We get paid every 2 weeks so I know which bills need paid on which pay period to be certain everything is on time. And since I have a budget for these bills each month, I can be certain there is enough cash in the account to cover everything.

[Sara Noel]

We're paid monthly and everything gets paid at once. Most are automatically deducted.

[SHOPGIRL]

I have all my bills set up to be paid online. My house payment is automatically deducted from my account. With all of my credit card bills, I have a little over the minimum payment paid automatically. My electric bill and gas bill, I pay manually online myself. I think I probably will set up those bills to automatically be paid. It's so much easier. Often, I send extra payments to my credit cards. I never have any late charges.

[Jenna]

I pay many of my bills online (electric, gas, phone) and can set up an electronic funds transfer to correspond with pay day. I use a free bill pay service on the net, and receive a reminder e-mail when a new bill is posted.

In a notebook, I list each bill I pay on a monthly basis, and check off those that have been paid. I also make note of any irregular expenses that pop up during that month (car insurance, birthdays, et al)

My cell phone service and credit card send out reminder emails when a new bill is generated.

When I was paying down debt, I consolidated many of my smaller bills, so I would have fewer payments to track.


EDIT: I have my monthly contribution to my ROTH automatically deducted from my savings account on the same day of each month.

I prefer to make automatic payments from a SAVINGS account, rather than a checking account. Less likely to bounce a check, and I always make sure the money is in savings before that date. I made my car payments that way, and was able to get a better interest rate by setting up automatic payments.

[marym]

I use bill payer online with my bank. Its a credit union so I am not charged for each transaction. Everyday when the mail comes in I sit at the computer any set up payment for any bill that comes in that day. This takes only a few minutes to do and its worth taking the time because since doing this I have not been late once. We are paid on the 15th and 30th I pay most all of my bills this way. I have used very few checks this year. I am saving on checks and postage.

[seadream]

When a bill comes in I write down the due date on the calendar and every friday when the paychecks are in I write out checks for the bills that are due within the next 2 weeks.. I've never had a late fee as bills are paid at least 2 weeks in advance

[britbunny]

all our bills are paid by direct debit. We try to have the money come out a couple of days after DH gets paid but this isn't always possible.

Money for groceries goes from DH's account by direct debit into my account so it's easy to keep track on spending there. The only bill I pay is the tv licence which is also direct debit, I have this bill in case I ever need ID as I don't have a driving licence or anything like that.

Dh also does much of his banking online so he can always check that money has gone out when it should have - there are sometimes issues around Bank Holidays etc.