You Should Organize Bills to Keep Track of How and When to Pay
If you don’t take the time to organize bills the following situation may sound familiar. At the end of the month, you get several envelopes asking for money. They all come at different times so you tend to leave them on the table or counter, sometimes even unopened.
There’s no problem with wanting to pay them all at once, however, if you don’t keep track of where you put them, how do you know you have all the bills you need to pay? This results in several missing bills and possible late fees, which we all know, leads to wasted money.
Some late fees may charge up to $40 a month depending on what it is, and that’s not even considering late credit card fees! You should avoid giving this money away at all costs. Simple organization of your bills will help you keep track.
Keeping your Bills Looking Attractive and Less Business Like
Bills may not be an attractive thing to look at, but they still need to be paid. When you get your bills, first take them all out of the envelopes. You will always lose your bills if they are still in the envelope since it’ll get mixed up with junk mail. Once you have all your bills laid out, paper clip the ones with more than one page. Put them together according to the most recent payment date, so that urgent bills are always on top.
Next, get an unused napkin holder and put the bills in there. Find a designated spot to put the bills and always leave them there. Near the phone is always a good location because you will frequently be in that area. Make sure it’s at an eye-catching place as well so you’ll always be able to find your bills and know which bill you must pay first.
Remember that when you organize bills you don’t need a fancy solution. You can pin them up on a post it board or use a paperwork rack that sites beside your home computer. New bills go on the top, and paid bills on the bottom.
How do I File Bills that I’ve Already Paid?
The last step to organize bills is that after you’ve paid them, you’ll need to file them away somewhere just in case you need them for reference later, like during tax season.
Find an empty drawer around the house and get several folders. Label the folders with the appropriate month and year, and start putting away all the bills you paid in the correct folder. If you ever need to check when you paid a bill, you can always come to this drawer, and you also have a history of what has already been paid for so you don’t accidentally pay it twice.
If you want to take your organized bills one step further, you can designate different types of expenses. Once you have created separate categories for your bills, you can file them by month. If you are a home business owner this is especially useful, as when it comes tax time you can easily see how much you should be writing off as business expenses.