BILLS, bills, bills

Okay, he's the situation:

Last night we went to MIL house and she handed me all DH bills.

I am trying to find a good method to organize our bills so that they are paid on time.

We have credit card bills
Car loans
Boat loan
Car Insurance Info
Health Insurance
etc.

Any ideas would be very helpful.

I suggest HIGHLY this from Lillian Vernon:


You can get it with your monogram too!

Link

It's lovely being hte money manager, isn't it??

Ok, this is what I do, and it really depends on how you guys get paid, but I stagger things throughout the month.

We pay rent, car insurance and the gym on the first of the month.

Then we get paid again on the 15th and I pay the student loans, the car payment, all utilities (inc cell phone) and the credit card bills.

I've found this is the best way for us. I have a big folder separated into each account and I just pay everything then.

HTH!

Before I took over DH bills, I wrote all my bills on a calender and paid then the Friday before there due (I get paid every Friday).

I like the idea of the 'Vernon', because it is very visual!

Thanks ladies.

I created an excel spreadsheet that lists all of our bills and their due date. DH and I get paid every two weeks, on the same Friday. I've spaced out our bills so that I only have to pay them twice a month. Whenever it comes time to pay the bills again, I look at my spreadsheet and see what's due next. As long as it's due sometime between paycheck #1 and paycheck #2, it gets paid. I pay all of my bills online through my bank, so I always leave an extra couple of days for transit time. So far it's worked very well.

It helps me organize the bills that we have and see how much we owe overall. I like seeing it all together.

I've also called some of my credit card companies to change the due dates/billing cycles in order to space out our bills throught the month. They are usually pretty accomodating because they all want to get paid!

I think you can use your bank to pay recurring bills like the boat loan and rent.

Have you set up a budget so you know how much you have and where the money is going? Here is a rough breakdown of my old one (by %)

Mortgage or Rent 26.7%
Cable TV/Phone/Internet.TIVO/AOL 3%
Cell Telephone 1.0%
Groceries,Toiletries, Household Products 4.5%
Eating Out 10.0%
Gifts 3.0%
Tuition (masters program) 4%
Beauty 3.0%
Tip Fund (for holiday tips)0.7%
'mad money' 14 %
Vacation savings 6%
Gym + Personal Training 6.%
Laundry/Dry Cleaning 3.0%

All good suggestions. The only thing I have to add is planning ahead to pay bills like car insurance in full upon policy renewal. Then you're not bothered with a bill for 6 months/1 year and you save money by not paying for installments.

Also, wherever possible, have the company take the money directly out of your checking account. That's the way my car payment is done, and I've never had a late payment.

I only pay our rent by check. And I always forget to send it before the 1st.

No real system here! DH & I put a certain amount of money away each week to cover the bills. My DH handles the mortgage(makes sure that is paid on time). I pay the rest of the bills when they come in!

The only exceptions
1) my car bill is due the 25th of the month, I pay it the week before.
2) DH's car bill is due the 11th of the month, we pay it the 1st
3) Car insurance is due the 10th of the month, we pay it the 5th

I am the money manager in our house too.

I have an excel spreadsheet with all the bills listed to make sure they all get paid. I have a lot of e-bills (no paper)

Mortgage for where we stay is an automatic deduction from checking

Maitenance fee and parking space are paid on-line (bill is delivered to the apartment onthe last day of each month)

Rental mortgages are paid on the 9th of the month after rent checks clear

I use Amex for everything else possible i.e. cell phone bill is charged to Amex automatically as is Time Warner bill, AT&T home phone bill, all groceries, all gas (unless DH fills up with cash)

Con Ed is paid when it arrives

Student loans are on auto deduct linked to my checking account.

Car insurance is paid every 6 months

Jewelry insurance is paid yearly