My husband and I have been married for almost 16 years, and I’ve always been the one whose job it is to get all the bills paid. Although my personality is more suited to this task than my husband’s is, sometimes it’s been really hard for me to manage the money successfully. The hardest times for me to keep up on this has been right after I had a baby. It seemed the mail would come into the house and get strewn all over the place, days and weeks would go by and I wouldn’t realize what day it was or that the electric bill was due, etc. Things get mighty stressful once late notices arrive and you realize you don’t know how much money you have in the bank account!

Over the years I’ve accumulated some strategies that have helped me, and I wanted to share them with all of you since I know lots of you are probably just as swamped as I’ve been!

1. Microsoft Money: Keeping track of our account balances on Microsoft Money has been a big help. It took a long session of trying to balance my checkbook by hand to a 5 minutes click-click-click session on the computer. The computer has also saved me from making several mistakes where I entered the same transaction more than once. And it’s great for being able to look back and see where all the money goes, like how much you really spend each month on gas, eating out, groceries, etc. A Big Help when it comes time for budgeting!

2. Duplicate Checks: Yeah, they cost a little more. But if you’re one of those people that doesn’t want to take time to write all your check details into your check register when you’re waiting in line, you need these! Write your check and later you can look back at the copy for accurate info on what you spent and where.

3. Sticky Notes Bill Paying System!: I have a calendar on the wall in my kitchen. I got the small (2″x2″) sticky notes and wrote one bill on each note and then put it onto the calendar on the day it was due or needed to be sent. I fortified the sticky power of my notes with a little poster putty so that I can reuse the same notes every month. When I pay this month’s water bill, I remove it from it’s spot on this month and stick it to next month’s date when it’ll need to be paid. Now when I look at the calendar I can easily see what still needs to be paid and what’s coming up. This has saved me a lot of brain power and stress!

If you don’t want all of the visitors in your house to see how much your mortgage payment is, you may want to either close your calendar when they come by, or use a calendar in a different part of your house. Some people use the inside of a cupboard door to keep things like this handy but private.

4. Open-top file system: I have an open-top file box in my kitchen where I have file folders for all of the everyday type items I would need to file. For instance, I have files for:
-bills to be paid
-things waiting to be filed (items that will move to a less convenient file for safekeeping, such as tax information, warranty items, etc.)
-phone lists (take out menus, church or work phone directories, school phone lists, etc.)
-netflix (I still all our Netflix movies in a file along with the return envelopes so I can always find them)
-stamps and envelopes
-one file per person in our family (for the kids, when they have a special paper from school or something that I want to save for them, it goes into their file. At the end of the school year I put these away in a different spot.)
-one file for things that I need to show to my husband (it might be his mail, things related to his job, or something we need to discuss and I don’t want to forget or lose track of it)

Basically, this file keeps everything together without me having to keep piles of paper all over the place. I try to handle all my papers when I get them, putting them into their file or throwing them away. Now I have a handy place for all of my bills, so I can find them when I’m ready to make payments.

(I have less convenient file space for things like warranties, legal paperwork, birth certificates, etc.)

I hope some of these ideas are a help to you! I know they have been a huge step in the right direction for me.