Struggling to get on top of your bills? Here are 7 proven tips to organize your bills effortlessly.
You might not consider yourself to be an organized person, but your finances are the last place you want to be disorganized.
Having too little cash at the end of the month is a challenge, but overdraft fees and late fees every month are an even bigger concern. By getting your bills organized will dramatically cut down on the likelihood of these things happening.
Follow these 7 proven tips to organize bills, so you will never have to worry about missing a single payment.
1. Look at your budget every month.
Ensure that your budget is accurate. No two months are ever the same, so be sure your budget reflects reality for the upcoming month. For example, electricity bills can be much higher in the summer if you use air conditioning or in the winter if you have the heat turned up.
Related read: 10 Ways to Reduce Your Energy Bill
Also be sure to account for those special one-off spends such as special birthdays, a new car, holidays, and etc.
- If you don’t have a budget, make one now! There is an unlimited number of resources available to make the job a lot easier.
- A good budgeting app can also do that for you. (see #2)
Budgets are critical. Your budget is your key to having your money work for you!
2. Utilize financial apps.
There are so many apps available now that can really help you to get organised, track your spending and bills, and help with budgeting. Many programs are FREE.
- There are many good free budgeting apps out there. Emma is the best that I came across. It links up all my bills and helps me set the budget based on my spending history. It also gives suggestions on where I can save.
- You might actually find working with your money to be enjoyable when you can have all the information in one place accessible from your phone. It’s a whole different experience than laboring over your hand-written figures on paper.
3. Keep all your bills in one place.
- Avoid leaving some of them on the kitchen counter, some in the junk drawer, and some on the desk. Having one specific location for all your bills will ensure that nothing gets lost, and it’ll also gives you the best chance to ensure that everything gets paid on time.
- Store your bills close to where you normally sit and pay them. Keep them out in the open where you can see them regularly.
- When you’re done paying them, retain any records you need and shred everything else to protect yourself from identity theft.
- Alternatively, why not go paperless for your monthly bills or even go one step further, set up direct debit payment for auto payment. You will never have to stress about missing your bills and electronic records are much easier to track, not to mention you are contributing to the environment.
4. Plan a week in advance.
Each week, spend 10-15 minutes on the bills that are due for the next week. Make adjustments to your spending if needed.
If you don’t have a direct debit set up to automatically pay your bills, choose a day and make a habit of paying your bills on that same day each week.
Paying bills directly after pay day is often a good option, as you then know what money you will have left for the rest of the month.
Developing good habits is a big part of staying organised.
5. Make a checklist of your bills.
This should include all your recurring bills. Then, when the bill arrives, you can note the day it arrived, the amount due, the date it’s due, and the day you actually paid it.
Any non-recurring bills can be added to the checklist when they arrive.
Personally, I prefer the budgeting app to keep track of all my bills at a glance especially if all bills are electronic.
6. Communicate regularly with anyone who shares your account(s).
For a family setting, whoever pays the bills needs to know what the other person is doing with the account. Develop a system to ensure that the bill payer is kept in the loop at all times.
- Financial matters can be a source of stress in relationships, so work out an effective system before it becomes a challenge.
7. Have two accounts.
Mishaps are a lot less likely to happen if you have one account that is only used to pay bills. Use a separate account for everything else.
Getting your finances well organized is a pretty simple task once you set up a system that works for you. Anytime you can eliminate financial clutter in your life, your mental stress goes down and things seem to go more smoothly as well.
Related read: Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps to be Debt Free [UK Take]
Final thoughts on 7 Tips to Organize your Bills Effortlessly
These 7 tips to organize your bills will provide a great foundation to get on top of your monthly bills. It will also help to avoid unnecessary late fees and overdraft fees.
Regardless of how you’ve handled your finances in the past, you can put these tips into action today and make your future financial organizing effortless and beneficial.
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These are great tips to organize your finances better, and there is no excuse for anyone not to have a budget anymore, especially with all the online resources and apps available for us.
I think one should aim to live within one’s means and not have to live on credit each month as this just ends up costing you a lot more in the long run. Also having a savings account and an emergency account is imperative.
Our emergency account came in very handy last year during lockdown when none of us was earning anything. It saved us from having to borrow money to live on.
Couldn’t agree with you more, thanks for sharing!
An excellent post, thank you. Many people do not understand how to budget and are not taught when they are young.
I was lucky in that when I was young we had cash and learned to separate it out for the bills. It was real. Now though it seems that everything being digital doesn’t help to make it real.
Paying by direct debit is a good idea as power companies often give a percentage off for doing so. The drawback there is they don’t like returning overpayment. But you just have to be firm and they will.
Budgeting well means you always have enough for the unexpected things that turn up, so it’s a great idea to keep a close check on your finances. I like the way you encourage that.
Money does feel less “real” in our digital age, that’s why I think developing the habit of check-in in your finances on a regular basis can be a great way to avoid overpsending. Thanks for stopping by!
Great tips! I am truly really bad in organising my economy. Enjoyed reading this!
I’m glad these tips are helpful to get your bills abit more organised =)
I liked the ides of making a checklist of my bills. Will surely try it. Thanks for sharing 😊
A checklist is a great way to keep track of all the bills, glad you found it helpful!
Great tips, thanks for sharing! I always make sure to opt for digital bills and set a direct debit for every single bill. It’s all much easier to manage that way when it’s automated!
Totally agree. It’s really a win-win, not only you get more organised and automated with paying regular bills, but also better for the environment.