1. Put All Your Biils Together, and Keep Them Together! As soon as your mail arrives, pay them immediately so this way you know immediately how much money you still have, or at your designated mail sorting time but it’s betetr to pay them right now, then separate your pending bills from all of your other mail. When done sorting, immediately place your pending bills in an envelope, pocket folder or Pending Bills basket. Update your money information immediately and then see where you need more money to another bill.
2. Put All Your Bills Together And Not In Separated Places Whatever you do, don’t put your utility bill in one folder, your car insurance bill in another folder and your membership dues bill in another, instead group them by categories, all insurance together, all taxes together, etc. All pending bills should be together in an envelope, pocket folder or basket so they can be paid without having to search 10 different places to find them. You will see it’s easier to keep them this way.
7. Organize Your Checks And Bank Account. Every month you will receive checking account statement, and possibly cancelled checks, from your bank. Immediately place them in a folder until your designated monthly date rolls around to reconcile your checking account. Then, keep your statements and cancelled checks all together in a folder for the year, if you can make it for the month, the year is just too long. You may need to retrieve them later for your accountant when tax season rolls around.
8. Cancel the cridit cards you don’t need anymore. The more credit cards you have, the more difficult it is going to be to keep them organized, and the longer it’s going to take you to pay your bills. Whenever possible, condense your many credit cards into 2 or 3 credit cards, and get rid of the rest. If you can cancel one or two more, the better since you pay less.
9. Prepare the money for the next bills ahead. For recurring bills, such as mortgage, rent or loan payments, you’ll save a lot of time preparing a bunch of envelopes for each beforehand, and you save money too since you can use that tie for tasks you would have to outsource. For example, let’s say you have to pay the rent each month. Make a year’s worth of envelopes out with your landlord’s name and mailing address, your return address and a stamp. This way, everything will be all set to go each month. You just write out a check, place it in the prepared envelope and mail. Once he arrives, there he has the money!
10. Money software can help you a lot!. If you’re paying your bills manually, you may consider purchasing inexpensive, money management software. The best in business is Microsoft Money. It’s not free and you should try it first before buying.