Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Help!! How do you stay organized with bills, mail etc???
DH usually takes care of the bills, most of them he has signed up for email statements but recently I have learned more and more of our bills are not being paid on time - for no reason other than forgetting or missing the due date.
Most of the time, we get the mail and I end up looking thru it quickly and throwing it on the table by our entrance. DH will then pickup the pile of everything and put it in the office on his desk, he will then go thru it and shred, throw out etc. I usually find bills at the bottom of the pile when they are due or past due.
I need suggestions on how to organize this better. Do you go thru the mail right away? and separate bills to be paid one pile, throw out junk mail and keep on the side magazines, advertisements or anything else to look thru?
Please help! I really do not know what to do...I get very overwhelmed with all the papers/mail etc
Thanks!!!

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Many of our bills we have set up for automatic payment, so those we don't have to worry about.

The ones that aren't, I hang on the side of the frig until I pay them and file them away. Junk mail gets thrown away immediately, and magazines pile up on the side until we no longer want them.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I put all bills in date order right in front of the computer. That way they are in my face as a constant reminder

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

My DH handles paying the bills and most are also through auto pay but the ones that we send for payment he attaches them to a clipboard in the order they are due and puts the clipboard on top of our desk as a reminder.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I am a SAHM so I go through the mail each day, take the bills open them and on the envelope write the due date. THe junk goes in the garbage. THe bills then go to our computer desk where we have a basket for the bills or things that need attention (donations, bank statements etc.) I organize hte bills by due date.

We basically have 2 cycles for bills. So around now we sit (whoever is doing hte bills, usually DH but lately more me) and do all the bills that are due from now until the mid/end of the month. THen closer to the end of the month we do the stragglers that are due on teh 3rd or 5th of the month.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I pay everything online and I keep an excel list of all the bills sorted by due date. Every other week on pay day, I go through the list and pay everything that is due within the next 2 weeks.



As for mail...
Catalogs & junk mail goes straight to the recycling bin.

Bills & credit offers go right through the shredder.

Personal mail is read and addressed as needed.

Message edited 11/9/2011 10:56:11 PM.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

the only paper statements we get are landscaping and water so we don't have a system for physically sorting bills. i have a master excel spreadsheet with all open accounts, the balances, the due dates, and the amount of payment made. before that it was a complete shiz-show. now it's organized bliss lol.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

First, I go through my mail every day and sort the junk from the real stuff. I too get 98% of my bills as e-statements so rarely do I have an actual bill in the mail.

To make sure everything gets paid on time, I use a big monthly desk blotter. It's PERFECT for paying bills. At the start of each month I write in what bill is due on what date and as I pay everything week to week I highlight it so I know it's been paid. I've NEVER had a late payment to anyone with this system.

Also, to ensure that my bank account is always accurate I use Quicken and I make sure to balance my check book EVERY month through Quicken. It's VERY easy and my accounts are always accurate and up to date this way I never have to worry about overdraft charges. If you get Quicken, you can also use it to pay bills as well.

If you're really concerned about late payments you can always set up automatic payments so you don't even have to worry about being on time. I did that for a while and I used one empty credit card for all the auto payments and then all I had to pay was the one credit card in full every month and my bills were all paid.

You just have to find a system that works for you and stick with it!

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I bought a folder to store all the bills. I pay bills twice a month on payday so I dont forget anything and also write a list each month of bills due and due date. As soon as I get the mail I throw out everything except bills and cards. I also cancelled all magazine and catalogs bc they create a mess and I don't get to read them anyway. My bill list that I write out is put in two columns according to which paycheck will pay it.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I go through all the mail when I get it. Junk mail gets recycled. Anything with personal information gets shredded. All bills get opened and checked (to make sure we are billed correctly), then I write the due date on the front of the envelope and set a reminder to pay it in my cell phone for about one week before it's due. Then I have a basket-type thing that hangs on my wall and the bills go in there with the bill due the soonest at the front. Magazines are put in a pile and after they're read I usually give them to my mom to read or throw them out if she's not interested.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I am and have always been super organized with bill paying. DH not so much, after we got married I realized some bills he wouldn't pay for months and then would make a big payment when he realized. This drove me crazy!

So I took everything out of his name and put it into mine. I do most everything online, and have the email reminders all send to my address.

Then I have an excel sheet that lists all of our bills, when they're due, our salaries and I break down our paychecks x amount for mortgage, x amount for savings, x amount for cable...

It was a pain to transfer it all over, but when the bills were in his name I didn't have access into the accounts. My life is so much easier now.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Junk mail gets tossed right away, catalogues toss/keep, magazines put on the coffee table. DH jokes that he never gets to see the mail anymore, but if I give him his junk, it just sits there until it irritates me and I toss it.

Bills are opened, logged into a simple spreadsheet and then put in an organizer I have just for bills and my checkbook. The statement part gets put into a basket for filing.

I get paid once a month and DH every other week, so I have to be careful with what bills get paid when.
The spreadsheet lists all the bills, the due date and the balance.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I have one of those nice looking desk organizers with dividers that I categorized my mail into:

File / To Do / Shred

Something like this but better looking since it sits in my LR:



I'll sit next to my trash bin and dump most mail in them while organizing the rest, then once a week or so, I just take care of the stuff in the divider.

As for scheduling bills, I pay most of my bills online and use gmail calendar set up to remind me when the non-automated bills are due.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

My mom always had piles of mail everywhere so I'm 100% against keeping mail just because lol.

Whenever the mail comes in I go through it immediately. I organize and save any coupons that arrive, throw out/recycle junk mail, and look at bills right away. I have a calendar open on the computer desk and immediately right in the date all the bills are due and the amount in red ink so it stands out. Then I throw the bill itself out after I check it over. Anything that we need to keep we file in a little file box.

I also have an account through mint.com which sends me text messages whenever an upcoming credit card bills is due and when my account drops below a certain amount.

Message edited 11/10/2011 1:48:54 PM.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

i have all our bills set up on "bill pay" through my banks website..

so even if they dont accept electronic payments, the bank mails them a check.

all the bills get paid on the same schedule as my pay check... every other friday... half gets paid one week.. the other half the next.

some months a bill will get 2 payments.. i have credits with about 60% of my payees...

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I throw out all junk mail right away.

The important stuff I pile and then file in our file cabinet.

I keep the bills in a plastic organizer then I list them on paper with due dates.

I pay 2x a month. So I go back to the list see whats due and pay them.

Message edited 11/10/2011 2:34:47 PM.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I have something like this. If I didn't, I don't know how I would stay organized!!!



Monthly Organizer

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

I just try to pay the bill as soon as I can so I don't forget. I keep them all together when they come in so I don't miss anything. Someplace obvious like on the kitchen table usually! Once it's paid I give it to DH to file away (he is much better about keeping up with filing than I am). The bills he pays he does online.

Re: Organizing Bills & Mail HELP please!!

what about using one of these:

Bill Organizer