Problem 1: a consistent bill-paying schedule. I’m really haphazard with checking my mail every day and my house is a paper explosion on the best days. Also my debts require that I return the statement that comes in the mail with my payment and I hate it: it means that if for whatever reason, I can’t put my hands on the actual statement, I can’t pay it right then.
Also, my payments come due at different times in the month, but I pay all my bills at payday. So there are some that come early, and others that come late. I don’t know if I can make phone payments, and I’m leery of auto-debits from my bank accounts. I’ve heard horror stories about how inadvertent multiple payments send an account bouncing all over the city, incurring steep fees.
But honestly, I’m a super-disorganized person, mentally and physically, so keeping track of stuff like this is definitely not my strong point. I always say I’m just going to buckle down and be more disciplined, but I think I also need to make my situation a little easier.
When I had more debts, and no real payment plan for any of them, I drafted letters that I had saved (on disk). The letters had my account information, plus a comment about how much was being sent each month. I liked having the letters saved on computer, because I can find the computer a lot easier than I could find the letters from my creditors. But I didn’t like having to wait until I got to a computer and printer (I don’t have one at home).
So I made a set of coupons and labels for each of my bills. They won’t have the current balance, but my debt payments are the same each month and my utilities are pretty constant each time. I can keep the coupons, labels, envelopes and stamps in a folder at home, and then all I need to do is transfer money from my checking account into my bill paying account each payday. This is easy for me, because I can do it by ATM.
I’ll have to get on a different schedule though: all the bills will have to be paid early, instead of near on time. It will take a small removal of $$ from the E-fund to do this, but I’ll be able to replace it by the end of the month. Of course, this comes on the heels of the deposit I made to the e-fund just a few days ago. 
Potential Pitfalls
July 29th, 2007 at 04:49 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 05:51 pm 1185731480
July 29th, 2007 at 07:43 pm 1185738230
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I also have numerous bills that either automatically draw from my checking account or get charged to my rewards credit card. That's the best option because then I rack up reward points for a bunch of household bills that I'd be paying anyway, like our local, long distance and cell phones, alarm company, cable bill, Netflix membership, auto insurance and others.
July 30th, 2007 at 01:48 pm 1185803299