Let’s take it from your daily walk into the house after opening up
your mail. First thing you are going to have to do is pitch those sales bills if
you don’t want them. All they are going to do is clutter up your counter.
If there are any sales bills that you want these should go in a separate pile or
space away from your bills and things to do piles.
To organize your bills so you can just grab a stack and pay them
when you are in a hurry you are going to need a holder of some type with five
slots. The fives slots are going to stand for the four weeks in any month, and
the fifth is for bills that are going to be paid next month, next quarter or
bills that just need paid when you have the extra money.
The first slot is always going to be the bills that are paid in
the first week of the month; the second slot is for the second week and so on.
So that all sounds easy enough but how do you train yourself to really get into
the habit and do it?
First step is to only open the mail when you have about five
minutes to review it. Opening all the mail, throwing away those credit card
applications, sales bills, and the envelopes and trash that come in all the
bills that you get. This is really rather easy but it is an important step
in keeping your little bill space organized and ready to bill payment.
Another thing that you are going to have to quickly sort out is
the due date. Most all the bills you get are going to be due within the next two
to three weeks. Making sure that you put them in the right slot is going to
ensure that they are going to get paid on time. Again this only takes about ten
seconds for each bill - so be sure to do it!
What are going to do with receipts, mail and offers that you want
to read over later? Put them in a totally different section of your deck,
counter, and cupboard or where ever you keep your mail, this is how your
organized bill section is going to work out so much better for you.
You are also going to come across bills that are due in a few
months like taxes, trash, insurance and other quarterly type bills. These bills
are going to go in the back slot, the slot where bills that get paid just once
in a while will go. You can look back over these bills when you are paying bills
and have a few minutes.
Now making time to pay your bills is going to be another matter.
If you can find fifteen minutes to write out check and envelopes maybe on a
Sunday evening or Monday morning you will just need to make it a habit. After
doing it a few weeks in a row you are going to find yourself on a
better-organized way to keeping your bills paid on time!
