How do you keep track of your bills?

[dabuddha]

I've been trying to find ways to organize different aspects of my life better and one of the things I've always had issues with was paying bills. Not with being late but I've been trying to find a system to keep track of what bills are due when.

The reason this is even an issue is because a few times, I've received a bill when it was past the due date or never received it at all. It doesn't happen frequently and I have let the post office know but it's still a big hassle to deal with.

I was hoping there was some kind of software where I can enter every one of my payees (gas company, electric, mortgage, various credit cards, etc) and that I can get reminders that a bill is coming up due so I can make sure I get the actual bill.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated

 

[dn7309]

I use Mint.com and its app

 

[Humpy]

Does your bank not offer this service you want?

 

[lxskllr]

In my head. I don't coexist well with rigid organization. It ends up being more work, for little benefit.

 

[Mixolydian]

I don't.

 

[boomerang]

Huh? I have everything set up to autopay and many can be and are set up to email me reminders when the bill is available and when it's due, etc. I download those invoices I wish to retain. I only have to pay for garbage pickup manually and I pay a year in advance.

I quit relying on the Post Office decades ago. Get into the modern age. Email, downloads and autopay.

 

[RockinZ28]

I do all bills except credit cards with auto payments. Really got tired of logging in every month and paying bills or writing checks. Set everything up to auto pay when I bought my house in April. I receive no paper statements on anything, just go in the shredder anyway.

Credit cards, I called the issuers or changed it online to set the due date to the same day on all of them. Easy to remember on the 14th I need to make sure all the statement balances are paid.

I use Mint.com to consolidate everything into one place, so I don't have to log onto multiple sites just to view a balance. It should do everything you want with bill reminders etc.

 

[dabuddha]

I do use bill pay for all of my bills. I just like being in control of when the bills go out (hence the no auto pay)

 

[highland145]

auto pay gas, elec, insurance, water.
visa/bank accounts...I check daily and xfer funds as needed.
otherwise I get a bill.


edit: auto pay wouldn't be an option is $$ is tight.

 

[dabuddha]

That's the other thing about my current setup. I have most of my paycheck going into my savings account and I then transfer whatever I need for bills into my checking account. Really has helped me out with saving up my money

 

[purbeast0]

i just use my head. i get emails when new bills are due then usually pay all of them at once when i'm sitting down at the computer. takes like 5 minutes.

mortgage, car insurance, student loans, and car payments are all auto though.

gas, water, electricity, cell phones, and cable is all what i have to do manually. i could set it to auto pay, but i prefer not to.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Are you saying that you don't receive paper bills? If I didn't use auto-pay for all of my monthly bills, I'd try to make sure I received bills in the mail.

 

[Paratus]

I leave them in my wife's purse.


Oh you said "bills".:$:whiste:

She pays them on the 1st and the 15th and I file them.

 

[Carson Dyle]

She pays them on the 1st and the 15th and I file them.

It's been so long since I've manually paid bills, that I'd almost forgotten how it works.

You don't need to know that the gas bill comes between the 19th and the 22nd, or that the electric bill normally comes around the 5th of the month. They all give you several weeks to pay. So just handle it like they do.... deal with the monthly bills on the 1st and the 15th and none of them should go unpaid or overdue.

 

[Pulsar]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but putting all your bills on autopay works really well.

 

[Kaido]

I use a simple manual system:

1. Spreadsheet list of bills (ordered by due date, the amount, website link, login info, etc.)
2. Spreadsheet list of money made & spent daily, with a little auto-calculation formula for the total after each transaction (one spreadsheet per year, one worksheet per month)
3. Review bills & fill in spreadsheet daily (>5 minutes)

I tried Mint etc. but never really cared for them. If you put the spreadsheets on Google Docs, you can do it all from your smartphone. Once you get into the habit of it, it's super easy (only takes a minute or two before bed) & you always know how much you have available.

 

[Paratus]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but putting all your bills on autopay works really well.

Personally, we'd rather control when the money goes out of the account. If the autopay accepts credit cards then that's fine. I can contest it when they inevitably screw up the charge.

 

[PenguinPower]

My assistant takes care of them.

 

[highland145]

Personally, we'd rather control when the money goes out of the account. If the autopay accepts credit cards then that's fine. I can contest it when they inevitably screw up the charge.

For me, it's the last day before it's late. Just seems to be the norm.

My assistant takes care of them.

Win.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I keep all unpaid bills in sight on a centrally located table. As I pay them, I put them away.

 

[Jumpem]

An Excel spreadsheet with worksheets for Bills, Debts, Savings, Checking, Retirement, Monthly Actuals, and a few estimated budgets for future years.

 

[highland145]

I keep all unpaid bills in sight on a centrally located table. As I pay them, I put them away.

You can't run a business like this. You MUST use quick books.

 

[edro]

Google Drive Spreadsheet
All checking autopays and auto-deposits are listed in chronological order.
All credit card auto-pays are in a separate table, same order.

 

[kranky]

I don't do autopay (unless it can go on a credit card), but I use Quicken + my bank's billpay. Quicken has the reminders, I schedule the payment through the bank, download transactions and reconcile accounts in Quicken.

 

[rh71]

Paper bills sent to my house and I verify the due date which is then entered in Google Calendar with automated email reminders. Since most bills are monthly I just had to enter it once and move dates if the dates are different for the month.

I don't like autopay that take from my bank account because of the potential for overdrafting (we use a joint account that only has a small buffer). I only autopay on bills that allow me to charge via credit card (ie. VZW and FIOS).