Do Not Forget to Pay Those Bills On-time!

It is best to pay your bills when they are received to prevent forgetting them.  However, if not paying bills because of a cash-flow issue, then you may need a method to keep up with them. Try filing the bills in an appropriately marked baskets, bins, or folders.  An option for labeling and categorizing is to divide bill paying into two categories:

1. First code or mark the preferred storage as the bills to pay by mid-month or the 15^th.  These you will process during the first week of each month in order to avoid late fees or added interest. 
2. The other is those due by the end of month or the 30^th.  Those will be processed early in the third week of each month. 

Calculating and Paying Bills

If you are deciding to manually pay bills, be sure to select a particular day during the processing week to review and pay your bills.  Also, you should have everything you need on hand when paying the bills: such as a calculator, your checkbook, pens, postage, and of course envelopes.  

To reduce bill paying time and paperwork, you may prefer to utilize on-line bill payment where bill reviewing and paying is done without checks and postage.  This method allows you to set-up payment as soon as the bill arrives by selecting a date to pay just before the due date on the bill.  This on-line process simply transfers money from your bank account towards the appropriate bill on your selected date.  Another option to cut out the time for review and still not mess with checks or postage is to set up automatic electronic payment where available.  With this method, you need to keep very few receipts (except for tax reasons) as your bank statement becomes your record of all or most paid bills.