Bills!  Ugh! 

No one wants to think about bills, but paying them is a simple fact of life.  Well, it is if you plan on being a homeowner, anyway.  So, since you know you are going to have to pay them, you might as well work out a system that will help you keep on track and get those bills paid on time.

I have plenty of friends who never seem to have the money they need when it comes time to pay their bills. They don’t understand, they say, because they make enough money each year to pay their bills.  Yet, their bills are always getting paid late.

When you take a closer look at this situation, you invariably find that the main problem is poor budgeting.  Taking time to make a plan for bill payment will really go a long way toward making sure you have your bills paid on time.  Everyone will have his or her own method of budgeting for bills, but I thought I would share mine.

I am a fan of keeping a small purse calendar with me everywhere I go.  I like to purchase the calendars that have the whole week spread over two pages, with three days on the left side and four days on the right side.  I like the ones with lines in them because it gives me a place to write important information for each day.

After I get my new calendar for the year, I go through and write down my paydays and my husband’s paydays for the entire year.  Then, I write down all of my bills and when they are due and try to get them organized in some way.  Once I have determined which ones I can cover with which paycheck, I pencil those into my calendar as well. 

By writing the bills into my calendar along with the paycheck that will be paying those bills, I can make sure I leave the money in my checking account so those bills will be paid once the bill arrives.  This method works out much better than waiting for the bill to arrive and then hoping one of us will get paid in time to cover the amount of the bill.  After all, it is when you fly by the seat of your pants like this that other emergencies come up and you find yourself unable to pay the bill.

To further help avoid the “oh crap, the emergency took all of our money problem,” I also plan on paying the bills well before they are due.  By getting ahead of the bills in such a way, I am never scrambling for the money when it comes time to pay the bills.

I realize that this method may not work for everyone.  My husband and I are fortunate to receive a regular paycheck every two weeks and on alternating schedules, so we have a paycheck coming in each week.  Some people, however, may not have a consistent amount of pay coming in each week.  Obviously, this can make budgeting a bit more difficult.  Still, by being aware of when your bills need to be paid and putting it on a calendar to remind you, it just might help you be sure to have enough funds to cover the bills when they arrive.