How to Make Paying Bills Less Stressful Each Month

Tuesday, November 3, 2015




It sucks but it happens EVERY MONTH.  You have to pay your bills and you start freaking out when you zero out your bank account and miscalculated. Now you don't have the simple $20 that you need for one of your bills.    

Or maybe you are freaking out because paying 3 big bills out of the same paycheck makes you feel totally broke afterwards.  

You are not alone.  Many people dread money and bills and dealing with it all together. Why do you think a lot of households have one person that even looks at the bills and figures out the payment schedule.   But it doesn't have to be like this - I promise!


See, I've developed a method to make paying bills a lot less stressful.   It works so well for me that I haven't been stressed about bills in years.    Here's what you do...


|1| Know Your Bill (or an Estimate)
If your cable bill is the same each month you already know the amount.  Your electric bill, however, can vary month to month.   I write down what my bills will be on a monthly basis. For the ones I don't know (electric) I usually overestimate by assuming they will be at their highest.   This way if I'm wrong by the time the bill comes I don't have to stress out and can easily adjust the amounts I pay. It's always better to overbudget than underbudget.  

|2| Keep a Paycheck Plan
I call it a paycheck plan but what it really is, is a piece of paper that contains the breakdown of each paycheck.  In an age where everything is digital, something about a piece of paper that I can keep with me at all times just gives me peace of mind. What I do is I take 3 pieces of paper for the next 3 months.   For each month I have 2 columns. The first column is the date of my first paycheck that month and the second column is the date of the second. I look at the dates that all my bills are due for that month and I figure out what bills will get paid from which paycheck.   I also divide up the amount of the bill and make a note to take out 1/2 from one paycheck and 1/2 from the other.  So every month I take $10 out of each paycheck to put towards my $20 half of the water bill.   It really makes it a lot easier for me and I don't get stressed AT ALL.

|3|Keep a Bill Calendar
Make a mini calendar page for each month and note which bills are due when.   Keep it somewhere that you will see it often so that you never forget to pay certain bills.

|4| Cross It Off
Once you pay a bill, cross it off the calendar.   It's like a mini reward for remembering to pay it when you get to X it out.  This can help make it more of a habit to keep track of everything better.  Plus, you never have to worry about paying twice.  

|5| Schedule Payments
If you don't want to worry about actually getting on the website and paying your bills, schedule them for which date you want them to come out of your account. You can set this up on a recurring basis or you can just do it month to month. It makes it so much less stressful when you end up having a busy day and forget to log in to pay a bill... no worries because it's already been paid automatically! I schedule all my bill payments to occur on one of the two paydays each month.  I love doing it this way.


Did you know that I offer a budget spreadsheet, debt tracker, and I have a financial book available for purchase? 



Be sure to join my Facebook group, Fixing Your Finances, to help you with your finance journey along the way.  What is the most stressful thing about paying bills for you?



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4 comments:

  1. These are great tips. I hate paying bills and I am the one who does it for the household because my husband doesn't want to be bothered. Spreadsheets however have made it a little more doable.

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