pay my bills on time

on all utilities and one loan. We switched to a cheaper cell phone provider and got a gym membership at the Y on a hardship grant, so we pay only 20 a month for physical fitness, always an investment in the present and future.

Just a bit more to put this goal in order.

Method: Keep track of bills in iCal/CheckOff. As soon as I receive one, add it with (due date – 5 days). Also make a note of it in my month-specific review file. Every Saturday, review bills I have or have not received by looking at this review file, and pay everything that’s coming up. Make a note in the file of the review date so I can ensure that the Saturday review becomes a way of life. Also keep any paper bills I receive in my little silver desk thingy so if necessary, I can check the hard copy for the month, then at the end of the month I will file all bills in one big file, each month paper-clipped together. At the end of the year, I will rubber-band the whole year together. (I’m starting from where I am: no back-filing.)

My success criteria is that I have paid bills on time and reviewed bills weekly for 6 months.

My full roster of bills:

- rent (monthly)
- electric (monthly)
- gas (monthly)
- water (monthly)
- phone/internet (monthly)
- credit card (monthly)
- S.O.’s storage space (monthly)
- bursar (intermittant)
- dental (intermittant)
- savings (monthly)

I’ll make an entry every month telling if I was late on any of my bills. After 6 months of no lateness and regular review, I will be done!

Well, I discovered a bill I forgot about, due the 18th, so now I’m minus a $39.00 late fee…this thing is now moving into priority position! Having switched to using iCal to record dates and Checkoff to record things I need to do, I’m going to start entering bills and due dates into both the second I get them, except that the due date will be minus a week so I’ll actually pay them early. This is the plan. Gearing up in 3…2…1…

and we are catching up on bills, and Hope is back. So I am re-opening this goal. Yay!

Looking forward to the end of the month when I can tackle as many as possible and have a little freedom to take one day as it comes without worry.

but I had the shingles, which sucked the energy right out of me, and then the death of my mother-in-law, which brought out all sorts of weird feelings.

So I am still behind in my bills, but am going to do this again, hopefully healthy with better results. I’m not giving up!

I am so tired of paying late charges and stressing out over bills!I am determined to change my way of bill paying, but where do I start?

Went through some of the bills whilst in the garden in the sunshine and set up payments to be made on line. Hardly had to make thousands of calls and little bartering to organise. Pretty straight forward, will have to get used to this as not much time after work. With the new bank account I don’t have to worry, when wages go in they are in the billing account, I’ve asked for a percetage of my salary to be transfered to my card account and all the bills will be paid on 1st of each month, which means I can’t overspend and I can manage my account online! Makes me happy and stress free :o)

I cancelled all the direct debits and re instated them for after we have 2 incomes coming in. However, other bills are rolling in so probably spend a lot of time this weekend either on the phone or writing letters. I long for the day when my weekends will be my own that I can enjoy instead of having to fulfil housekeeping duties when all I need to do is pay them when I get paid.

I finished my bills tonight. Things are looking up! I have a big payment to the state of California for taxes in a week or so, and then it will be smooth sailing. I am so grateful! I am going to mark this goal as met.