Keeping track of your bills is important for many reasons. Organizing your bills can help you avoid late fees and make sure you don’t unintentionally damage your credit score. One of the best ways to track your monthly bills is to make a home bill organizer which keeps all your bills in one place and makes it easy to access your financial information.
There are several important aspects of keeping and maintaining a home bill organizer. Make sure to open and organize all your bills as you receive them, whether digitally or through the mail. Make sure to file all bills received through email in a folder you have specifically designated for your digital bills. Ignoring bills when they arrive can lead to confusion and late fees.
How to Make an Effective Home Bill Organizer
A home bill organizer makes it easier to track your expenses, create a budget (if you do not already have one) and to stick to your budget moving forward. A bill organizer and a budget go hand in hand. You can create a family or home budget folder with all your bills and bill paying information so you can stay organized as you go.
Start by gathering all relevant documents, such as statements and receipts, for all your routine monthly bills. Don’t forget about any bills that you may not receive paper statements for, receive through emails, or bills set up for automatic payments. You may even choose to make two home bill organizers, one for digital bills and one for those you still receive in the mail. Organize your household bills by payment due date. Count the total number of bills, starting with the bills due at the beginning of the month.
There are plenty of software programs that can help you create and keep a home bill organizer. Word processing or spreadsheet software you may already own often offer free templates that you can use to create your organizer. If you wish to make your own notebook instead, create a table with enough rows to fit all your monthly bills, plus an extra few rows for bills received annually or quarterly. Make sure you have enough columns for fields such as, “Due Date,” “Payee,” “Amount Due,” “Amount Paid,” “Date Paid,” and “Payment Method.”
Fill out the bill details in your organizer as you receive them and don’t forget to update your organizer as you pay your bills. Make sure to schedule regular times to pay your bills and update your bill information. Create a “home financial center” so that you always know where to find all your financial papers.
If you’re currently behind on debt payments, CreditGUARD can help. Call one of our certified credit counselors today to learn about our credit counseling and debt management programs at 800-500-6489.