Money Matters Monday: A Guest Post on Organizing your Bills

Welcome Money Matters Monday Readers! :) Today I have Katie from Building a house of Love guest posting! :) Katie is a teacher from Arkansas. Here is how she organizes her Bills!

 

I recently posted about how I {attempt to} stay organized. I thought it might be beneficial for some of you if I went into detail about my Bills Binder.

Let me say this again… this was NOT my idea. I found it somewhere online. I have NO idea where. If you are reading this and this is your idea PLEASE let me know so I can give you credit! ;)


For the longest time I had no real system for keeping up with the bills. It was chaotic. I did have a filing system for paid bills but I ended up creating piles of paid bills that needed to be filed instead of actually filing them.


This is my Bills Binder. :)





Here is what I used for this organizational tool…


2 inch binder


2 pkgs of dividers with write on tabs


1-5 clear sheet protectors


1 fine point Sharpie marker


1 -3 hole punch





The Bills Binder is such a simple method…it’s quick and efficient!


Now you don’t have to be as specific as I am with the dividers but it works for me. I don’t look for the word electricity…I look for the name of the company because it’s what is in my hand at the moment. :)


When bills arrive, I open them up and stick them in the front pocket of the binder labeled “Need to pay”.


As each bill is paid, I sometimes write paid or the conformation number and sometimes I don’t. It just depends on my mood. hahaha.Then I punch the bill with the hole punch and put it in the right section. I then cross the bill off of the calendar so I know it’s paid!


And then I put the binder away.


That's it.


No filing. None. Nada.


During tax time,  I clean out the binder and keep a years worth of paid bills in a filing box. Just to be safe. I have that fear that a company will turn around and say I never paid something. I’m a dork.


Beyond the dividers I keep a few clear sheet protectors and I put random things in there that I need to keep up with. Classroom purchase receipts. Large item purchase receipts. Voters registration card. Etc.


In the very back pocket of the binder I keep our personal property tax documents and assessing documents. That honestly helps me to remember to assess and pay those darn taxes!


And I like the simplicity of the calendar pages in the front for tracking. It seriously makes it all super easy. I love to have a monthly lay out view.


I’m sure you can find printable calendar pages online that are similar to mine. I said in a previous post that I just make a copy of the calendar that I keep on my fridge. (I found our “family” calendar that it on the fridge at Wal Mart!)


I hope if you hate filing, like me, you find this method a little more helpful in rounding up those pesky bills. Also, if you have a personality like mine then this binder will make you happy. If you don’t have a personality like mine…then this binder might help you get organized and you may hate it but I really hope that it’s beneficial for you like it is for me!


**Also, just in case you thought I wasn’t aware…YES, I realized that I did not blur my company bill names. I know maybe that’s too much info out there but honestly, they are mainly student loan companies and BLESS YOU if you don’t owe them any money. Just don’t try to stalk me. ;)**

How do you organize your bills? Is it working? Do you have any questions about my system? Do you have any suggestions for my system?? I love to get feedback!

Thanks for the guest post Katie! :) Does anyone have any tips of the trade? How do you manage your bills?