The Absolute Easiest Way To Track, Pay & Organize Your Household Bills...No Filing Involved! - Echoes of Laughter (2024)

February 10, 2011 by Angie 120 Comments

For years, Ikept ourhousehold bills filed in file folders in a file box….. just like hundreds of other people.
Let me also confess that I have gone through periodsin my life where bills were ‘filed’ in a grocery bag hanging on the back of thebedroom 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.

I like not having to go through different files to find things or put them away.
Thissystem 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 computerto makeon-line payments withour bank.
And then I put the binder away. No filing!

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

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 insidewith labels for all the types of household bills.

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

As I open each bill, I write downtheamount due and due dateon a calendar page for the current month in the front of theHousehold Bill Binder.

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

I keep the unpaid bills ina pocket at the front of the binder until it’s time to pay the bills. I pay the bills onthe 1st and the 15th ofevery month.

As each bill is paid, I write ‘paid’ in red pen with the amount and date, punch 3 holes in the billand 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 thebinder, and keep onlythose things we need for income tax.

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

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 discussbills, 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 havein the front of the binderto recordbills 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.

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