Comments on: What do YOU do to remember to pay the bills?

By: MilkAddict

MilkAddict — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:30:42 +0000

I agree!
I had some problems sometimes remembering to pay bills on time (especially if you have loans or recurring payments..) and I found a quite nice little application called Chronicle to help with it! I also wrote a little review here if you are interested http://www.milkaddict.com/?p=68
cheers

By: Marguerite

Marguerite — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:14:01 +0000

Wow, what a wonderful discussion. I’ve been a “work in progress” for many many yrs and at this point I’m one $35.75 pmt AWAY from NO credit card payments! I absolutely can’t believe it. I will be starting on Student loans in the next yr but that DOABLE- good luck all
Marguerite

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:48:41 +0000

@Lori – Knowing that you’re visual makes it so much easier to work *with* that strength. I sometime suspect that the act of writing it down gives us “body memory” that a task is coming up, rather than having do remember it in our brains. Either way, it sounds lieka great system for you – and that’s what matters!

@Sally – Ah! Very cool! So, for you, having a “date” with yourself every Monday night is the way you remember. Hmm.. That’s an interesting idea I might like to try myself!

By: Sally Evans

Sally Evans — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:50:50 +0000

Jennifer,
You asked how I remember to pay the bills once a week. I try to do it the same day each week so it is a habit. Usually Monday evenings.

Sometimes it gets put off until the next evening …or the next if things are busy but I leave the folder out to remind me I need to do it!

By: Lori Paximadis

Lori Paximadis — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:10:40 +0000

I’m an old-fashioned pen-and-paper calendar person; I have to see it in front of me for it to get done and I have to be able to take it with me. So, since my bills are due at the same time every month, I just make entries for certain days of the month all year when I get a new calendar, and it gets done because my daily routine is to check my calendar first thing every morning when I plan my day.

Any nonregular bills get dropped in the bill basket and are dealt with during my weekly Quicken update/reconciliation bonanza. Keeping everything in a desingated place is key to not losing track for me.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:47:09 +0000

@jo – Love this. I will have to see if my back allows scheduling payments. What a great idea.

@Sally and Deb – I’m curious how you remember to do it weekly? Is there a day or time you do it regularly?

@Margaret – Cool!

@Darcy – (laughing) Yes. It sounds like our systems are really similar. I have low-grade paranoia that something may get forgotten. Interesting!

@Allie – I didn’t know you were also a Backpack devotee! Interesting system – sounds like it works!

@Grace – That’s a good point. If they’re all due on the same day, there’s no worrying about if something’s been missed. There’s always the cash flow issue that goes with it, but it sounds great. Hmm…

@Lisa – Agreed. Electronic payments are great – but they’re easy to forget (even when you’ve paid!). I’d be interested to know what happens if you go back to the more visual/tactile system.

By: Lisa Wood

Lisa Wood — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:58:24 +0000

I pay a lot of my bills online – but it’s easy to forget about them when their on auto-pay. The best system I ever had was a simple grid that I made on a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. I listed all my bills down the side and the months of the year across the top. Every time I paid a bill I filled in the appropriate spot in the grid.

I’ve often thought of going back to that system – because I’m so visual, and because it WORKED. As great and convenient as technology is, sometimes I need something right in front of me.

By: Grace

Grace — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Well, to start with, I pay all my bills at once. Any of them that weren’t due then, I called up and had them change the due date. (Yes, you can do that. Sometimes they charge – and then I throw a hissy fit and refuse to pay the charge, and sometimes they’ll change it anyway, and sometimes I just have to deal with its being out of calendar sequence.)

I go for electronic billing as much as possible – and yes, that led to some expensive OOPSes. So now I have a spreadsheet that I open up every month and use as a checklist. Yep, paid the water bill (ouch). Yep, downloaded and paid the phone bill. Yep… You get the idea.

So I sit down with Quicken, my spreadsheet, and my online bank billpaying system once a month for about 45 minutes, and I’m DONE. Yay!
Grace´s last blog ..Manufacturing authenticity

By: Allie

Allie — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:58:33 +0000

Like many other commenters, I use online banking and ebills for a lot of my bill paying. Scheduling bills through online banking is really similar to your Google Calendar approach; they are assigned to a certain day, and that’s when they’re paid. But for bills that are more, shall we say, demanding (like the cable company billed me the wrong amount and I have to spend 45 minutes on the phone with them to find out the *actual* amount), I schedule a reminder in one of my GTD systems — either Backpack (http://www.backpackit.com) or Things (http://culturedcode.com/things/). Backpack reminders, specifically, can text message or email me on a schedule so that I don’t have to check my calendar to see them.

By: Darcy

Darcy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:10:50 +0000

I get most of my bill reminders emailed to me, and I set follow up flags with alarms on those emails and/or don’t file them so I see them every day until I pay the bill, and I also set appts on my calendar with email reminders for other bills. I have a couple things on auto payment but those worry me because what if my balance gets too low. But I’m with you on needing multiple reminders.
Darcy´s last blog ..Book: Jacquard’s Web