Im newly divorced and having to deal with bill-paying by myself for the first time in a long time.
Do you ladies organize your bills a certain way? Do you open them right away to see the due dates? Do you keep a calendar to make sure they are not late? Also, are there any clever ideas to store them in an organized way?
Thanks ladies!

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I keep a calender and a notebook. I write down the bill, the amount, (balance remaining if it's a cc), the dute date and check number. I then go to the calender and make when I send things in, and the actual due date. After the check clears I mark that off, too. I pretty much open and pay all bills as they come in. I got myself in a bunch of trouble months back when my organization wasn't so great, and I bounced checks (pregnant brain) when I wrote a bunch and forgot to transfer money from one account to the other.

I have a tabletop 3 drawer storage thing that I got at a yard sale for $2, they sell new at Walmart for $10. i use the top drawer to hold bills I am paying ASAP, the middle one is for bills getting paid next payday and the bottom one is 2 or more weeks later.

I also use Quicken. When a bill arrives I enter the postdated payment in my ledger on Quicken using "Print Check" as the check number (so that i know it is scheduled and not paid.) When i pay it I change it to a check number or W/D to indicate it was paid. I then file the bill in the drawer thing

This has been the best system I have ever used. on payday I grab my drawer thing sit at my desk and pay the bills I have scheduled. I then move the following weeks up. It takes me all of 15 minutes to do my bills each week... plus if something comes up I can look at my checking account on Quicken and know exactly when I will have the money.

With our new bank we have free bill pay. I now use this for all of my bills. Some companies contract with our bank, so the amount can be transfered the same day, others takes one day, and the rest are actually mailed a check that is guaranteed to show up as early as 4 days after you set the payment up. So, what I do is this....

Because I am so forgetful, I come in the house and set my bills on my computer keyboard. That way, the next time I sit down to read e-mail I have to deal with them. When I sit down to work on the computer, I open up each bill, make sure it is accurate, and set up the bill payment. We get paid on the 1st and 16th of every month. For instance, our garbage bill is a "next day" company due by the end of the month, so I set up my payment for the 18th. In this way if something happens to our automatically deposited paycheck on the 16th, I can go in and change or cancel the payment.

This is what works for me. Good Luck!

I have an excel spread sheet that I have entered in all my estimated income and expenses on for the next year and a half. This allows me to estimate my credit card payments, etc!

As I get a bill I update the amount if it's not exact and then I usually get online and pay the bill at that point. I then go to my spreadsheet and BOLD the amount. When the bill is paid and shows up on my online stmt I then BOLD the Description. (hard to explain, but easy to use) If you want to PM me, I can explain further or send you a copy!

After I pay the bill I write "pd online" on the front (and the amount if not paid in full) and then I stick it in a acordian style folder I have setup with a slot for each month!

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

I use:

- Quicken
- On-line bill pay
- An excel spreadsheet
- A file drawer method
- A PO Box

All my bills are sent to the PO Box. I go pick-up the mail once a week. When I get home, I open all the bills, dispose of all the inserts / envelops, and put the statements into the top drawer of my three drawer unit.

The three drawer unit is organized this way:
- Top drawer is for bills that haven't been paid and bank statements that need to be reconciled. This drawer also ends up becoming the place where I put memos to myself on what I need to do later. For instance, if I want to use a coupon but it can't be used until next month, I'll put it in the top drawer.
- Middle drawer is for medical bills. We have a lot of medical bills and they are paid out of a different account so I keep those separate. I keep these in the middle drawer so I can match up the bills with the insurance company statement of benefits.
- Bottom drawer is for documents I need to keep on hand, long term. For instance, the renewal confirmation for my homeowner's insurance and auto insurance are in there. The handbook for my medical insurance is in there. I might also keep copies of my child's vaccination in there or my latest cholesterol test results. In short, the bottom drawer is for anything I might want to find quickly and easily but don't need often.

I try to check on all my bills on certain days of the month. My husband used to get paid twice a month - the 1st and the 15th, so I tended to check on my bills on those days. However, his paycheck has changed to every other week and I haven't developed a new system yet. I tend to check around the 5th and the 20th.

Bill Paying:

My first step is to update all my accounts on Quicken. I download new transaction data from my bank and input it to Quicken. I then reconcile all my statements.

I go then to my first on-line bill pay service, Checkfree. They are a completely free service where an electronic version of the bill is sent then Checkfree sends me an e-mail alert telling me a new bill has arrived. I keep these messages as 'unread' in my e-mail until the bill is paid. I schedule all the bills to be paid through Checkfree. It is so nice to be able to dictate a date in advance when I went the bill paid. I dig through the bill pay drawer and remove the paper statements of the bills that have been paid. Of course, I update Quicken as I'm paying the bills, too. Unfortunately, Checkfree doesn't have bill pay agreements with all my vendors.

I go then to my bank's bill pay service. This service is run by Checkfree but I don't get the option of having e-bills sent directly to the bank and I don't get e-mail alerts that a bill is due. I then pay all the bills that are left in the top drawer. Again, I can schedule in advance when I want a bill paid. For instance, I recently added my weekly church donation to this bill pay service and I can schedule my donations for months in advance. Again, I update Quicken as I'm ordering the bills to be paid.

I then do the same for my medical bills. I pay these bills when I can match the statement of benefits to the bill.

I then finish whatever correspondence or other outstanding issues I had pending in the top drawer. I also review our investment positions and the status of our budget. I might update the excel spreadsheets I use to keep track of various financial projects. For instance, I have a spreadsheet that is dedicated to annual expenses (annual life insurance renewals, etc) so I can easily calculate how much I have to set aside per month so that money is available when due. This also helps me from getting surprised when a bill arrives.

Filing:

I've tried all sorts of filing system but this is the one I'm using right now ...

When the bills are paid, I stack them ontop of the three drawer unit. This automatically puts them in a semi-chronological order. I have found over the years that I rarely need to retrieve most of the stuff I was trying to file. And if I needed a copy of a statement, most of the time, the e-copy is available at the vendor's website or on Checkfree. I rarely have o see the paper copy. As a matter of fact, I stopped writing on my paper statements things like 'paid' because I rarely saw that piece of paper again. Plus I have other methods to find out when something was paid (like a customized report off of Quicken) and I can go to my on-line bank reports to get proof of payment.

The stuff I really need goes into the third drawer. This includes anything that I'll need later for taxes like receipts or verification of charitable donations. Paystubs go into the stack, not the third drawer because I'll get a W2 at the end of the year. As long as I have the last paystub and it matches the W2, I don't worry about the paystubs in between.

Everything else goes into a box for 'shredding'. This box gets receipts that might have my cc number or debit card number on them and anything that has my name and address (address labels from magazines, catalogs, junk mail, etc). I do own a shredder but I have so much that needs to be shredded I found it better for me to just take it down to the 'We Shred It" place and pay to have them do it. I catch the 'free shredding' day whenever I can.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

I used to use a bill book it was seperated with little envelopes that you write down the due dates and amount, and stick the bill in an envelope on the front of the page....then I dediced why keep spending money on this book every year (you can only use it once) and came up with my own variation of it...

I have them in an expandable file folder ( less than $4 at Walmart...and i can use it over and over) , the folder is seperated into months...In the front of each month I have a list (original printed on the computer) with colums : due date, what, amount due, paid on and amount paid...As a bill comes in I open it take out what I need (The bill only usually, as I pay everything on line) and trash or shred the rest. I write down the due date and the name of the bill and file it in the month it is due.

Then on DH pay dates I take out that month go though it and pay what is due.

This system works for me b/c I am a list maker and NEED to have my bills organized!

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I have a simple budget in excel. I get paid twice a month and pay certain bills with each pay period. I keep the statements on my desk next to my computer and every two weeks when I get paid I pay the bills. Not really a "system" per se, but it works for me and it's easy. However, we only have a few bills, rent, home phone, cell phone, electric, internet and one credit card. Other bills like insurance and truck loan come out automatically each month from my checking account.

Wow, you ladies are very organized! Scarey to think how un-organized Ive been but gives me some really good ideas to come up with.
Thanks

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