Bill Paying and Timing

[marla]

I would love to pay off all my bills when they first come in, but I get paid 2 times a month. Sometimes there isn't enough money in my checking account to pay off the bill when it arrives. Then I put it aside and sometime accidently forget about it. How can I solve this problem?

[sdc2027]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I write mine on the calendar- a nice size wall calender helps and then also write down when you get paid with a little $ sign or something. When you get paid the 1st time in the month- figure out all the bills owed up to the 2nd time you get paid for the month- when the 2nd time you get paid for the month, figure out what is owed up to the 1st of the next month- write them all down.
Keeping track will allow you to not rely on that memory.

[kelijene]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

Bills paid late used to be a regular occurrence in our home, until we needed to tighten our budget dramatically. We estimated the cost of the bills for a whole year and then divide it by the # times salary is paid per year.
This is how much per pay you need to have aside for bills.
You can either put this amount aside into another account and just pay bills from that account, or, what we did, because our budget was tight and I didn't want to stuff up, was to make monthly payments towards all our bills whether due or not. (our pay is monthly). We've been doing this for over 12 months now, and not had one bill late. Often times we find that one bill needs a little more money paid and one a little less, I just adjust the portions for the month, but so far it has averaged out pretty right.

[LuxLiving]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

Try Jesse's 'You Need A Budget'. Throw a .com after that and I think you'll have these bumps smoothed out in no time! No, I'm not affiliated, just a well satisfied customer!

-LuxLivingFrugalis

[Kris10Leigh]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I think Kelijene's advice is good. We do exactly this and no longer owe late fees. The only difference is, we have everything either automatically deducted from that checking account or automatically paid out. I love it! We do have two accounts- one for bills only and one for living expenses.

[gotalkmoney]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I have most of my bills deducted directly from my savings account. I never touch the money in that account. This way, I'm able to budget my money in that account, so I'm not short, etc.

If I don't have the bill deducted, I will simply throw a reminder on my cell phone schedule and it will go off until I pay it, this really helps since I tend to forget a lot

[Ima saver]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I keep mine all written down. I pay all the bills due the 10-15th plus my car about the 6th of the month. Then I pay bills due the 25th-30th, about the 2oth of the month. Sinc e I always have the full amount tucked away in each envelope, it is no hassel.

[greedy4chips]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

A couple ideas to try

1. Find something you do everyday like take medication, brush teeth and put the bills there in order of due date.

2. Use Yahoo Calendar with an email notification you set to announce when something is due, say 5 days in advance it emails you with the alert...bad idea unless you check your yahoo email each day!

3. Use a desktop calendar software that you can set similar alerts in.

I hate the writing notes on a calendar, because I never check it on a regular basis.

[LuxLiving]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

Ohhhh-yeah Greedy that's good practical advice. I used to mark the date a bill needed to be mailed out by by subtracting 10 days for delivery time - so if was due on the 15th it got a 5th written on the upper right corner of the payment envelope as soon as I opened it and then it got leaned right in front of my monitor (behind the keyboard) in numerical order. With it there I saw it daily until on the 5th I slapped a stamp over the number and walked it to the mailbox. And so on... due on the 1st it usually got mailed out on the 20th of the preceding month, etc., etc. etc. Nowdays most all of mine are automated so tis easier and I just sit down on the 1st and pay everything else that needs paying for the month and viola I'm done for the month.

-LuxLivingFrugalis

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

We worked hard to have enough in the account to cover half a months bills without a check, so we don't care if the bill comes before the check..that and all ours are automatically deducted...so they can't be late. I would like the whole month sitting there, but for now half is good enough. (we get paid twice a month)

[Dido]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I solved all my late bill paying problems by getting online bill pay with my checking account. There was a small fee when I started but now my bank offers the service free, as more and more banks are. I have my paychecks direct deposited, and I know when they are coming in, and I can schedule bill payments ahead of time and the bank makes sure the checks go out when they need to. So, I might have a $150 gas bill that comes today, but don't get a paycheck until next Friday the 25th. Today when I have the bill in hand, I can schedule that $150 to be sent to the gas company on the 25th. I deal with it today, then forget it. Actually, you can set billpay up to be automatic. I know *about* what each of my bills is, so I set it up that all the montly bills are automatically paid and I go in and adjust the amounts when necessary. I avoid both late payments and postage paying my bills this way!

[getforfree]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

We usually have enough money in our checking, so I pay my bills as soon as I get it. I just have to be careful if I just paid mortgage and withdrawed some money, not to pay any until the paycheck will come in. I have 2 bills that are taken automatically, and I usually write them into my checkbook as soon as I get it, to make sure, that I don't take too much money out.

As of late payments and stuff, we never had any. Except one time we paid one car registration a few days later, because we didn't get the bill, and lucky for us, I look at our registration and noticed that it's due. It cost us like $13 or something extra because of just a few days.

If I would pay my mortgage payment late, they would charge me extra $60 for a late fee.

Late fees cost too much. Most of the times it's cheaper to borrow and pay interest, than paying a late fee.

[autoxer]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I don't keep much money in my checking account, because I want to use as much as I can toward getting out of debt. I pay my bills as soon as my paycheck gets deposited. I use a calendar to schedule which bills get paid which weeks, but it is pretty much the same each month. The first friday, I pay the rent, the third friday I pay the car note and the other two paychecks go mostly toward getting out of debt.

Another option would be to schedule an online payment as soon as the bill arrives, but schedule it to occur with the next paycheck. The online bill pay won't forget it.

[Diolla]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

Some bills will let you adjust the due dates, you just have to call the company and say 'the due date of xx doesn't work well with my budget I would prefer a due date around the xx day of the month'. I set mine up so that they are all due near the first and then put away 1/2 each payday. I had to use a little savings to get it set but now it is working fine.

BTW the first bill after you move the date can be larger or smaller than usual.

[rduell]

Re: Bill Paying and Timing

I have bill reminders set up in my Quicken program. I have it remind me 10 days ahead of the due date for those that I send through the mail and 5 days ahead for those that I pay online or in person. This works well for me since I log into Quicken every day anyway.