The Absolute Easiest Way To Track, Pay & Organize Your Household Bills...No Filing Involved!

For years, I kept our household bills filed in file folders in a file box..... just like hundreds of other people.
Let me also confess that I have gone through periods in my life where bills were 'filed' in a grocery bag hanging on the back of the bedroom door.
Yep. Sad but true.
I have seen many examples of how to organize & 'file' bills around blogland lately.
But I want to share with you a different way.

 Two years ago I switched to this method...and I like it much better.

And here's another dirty little secret about me....although I love to organize... I HATE, with a capital 'H',  filing!

I like not having to go through different files to find things or put them away.
This system helps me avoid that!

Let me introduce the Household Bill Binder.

It's a simple method..... it's fast and it works.

I just get out the binder when I am ready to sit at the computer to make on-line payments with our bank.
And then I put the binder away. No filing!

***
All that is needed is a 3 or 4 inch 3-ring binder.

 A few other things are handy to have in the front...a calculator, a pen, a red pen, a pencil and eraser. I have these stored in a  3-ring pencil case in the front.

Dividers are placed inside with labels for all the types of household bills.

When bills arrive, I place them in a box on my desk. Once a week I schedule time to open them.

As I open each bill, I write down the amount due and due date on a calendar page for the current month in the front of the Household Bill Binder.

The calendar page provides a great visual of what the month looks like.

I keep the unpaid bills in a pocket at the front of the binder until it's time to pay the bills. I pay the bills on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

As each bill is paid, I write  'paid' in red pen with the amount and date, punch 3 holes in the bill and pop the paid bill into the binder in the appropriate section. I also use the red pen to cross the bill off the calendar so I know that it's paid.

Easy Peasy.

And then I put the binder away.

That's it.

No filing. None. Zilcho.

At the end of the year,  I clean out the binder, and keep only those things we need for income tax.

I store those items for a whole year in a file folder labelled with the year.

For example, everything from 2013 goes into ONE file at the end of the year.

Another thing about this method  I like is that when my husband and I want to look at and discuss bills, I just get out the binder.

 I don't have to spend time rifling around files. I just flip pages.

And I like the simplicity of the calendar pages in the front for tracking. I print off 6 months at a time to have in the front of the binder to record bills as they arrive.

{You can find free calendar pages to print HERE.}

The calendars pages can be formatted in whatever way you like.

They are the pages that I use...just simple black & white.

I hope if you hate filing, like me, you find this method a little more helpful in rounding up those household bills.

Super simple.


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