Organizing bills

[Kimberleygal1]

I pay all bills with how my husbands pay period works. He gets paid monthly so I make sure I negotiate with my billers to ensure everything is due to come out after the 15th of the month this ensures that there is money to pay it all. As for phone bills I get paid fortnightly so I will pay half of the bill each pay therefore it's not like trying to pay a monthly bill out of a fortnights pay. So I guess my suggestion is if you get paid weekly divide the amounts due on all bills by the weekly amount and ensure that is put aside for when the bill is due or pay direct to the biller weekly so it builds up and enough is in there by the due date. This also works with the bigger bills like rego just estimate the expected cost and put away for it weekly as you get paid. You can also set up weekly direct debits for your rates or electricity to come out after you get paid also to ensure that it's not once again this huge monthly bill being paid out of a weeks wage... It's hard to catch up if you have to use a whole weeks pay on one bill.

This is what I do too My dh gets paid monthly too and I pay the mortgage payment and car payment on that day to ensure they are paid first, this also means that because he gets paid on the 15th of every month but both aren't due until the end of the month we are always 2 weeks in advance. I also have a separate account for direct debits and know how much is due for insurances etc every month and transfer that amount over so it's sitting there until it gets deducted. I then pay other bills such as phone, foxtel, credit card, transfer some to an offset savings account and anything else that's due then do a huge monthly shop and his pay is pretty much utilized so then we live on my fortnightly pay knowing all bills are already taken care of. I though getting paid monthly would be difficult but it's actually easier.

[BigRedV]

I get paid fortnightly and pay a small amount each fortnight from my pay to all the bills. I've worked out roughly how much our bills are quarterly and estimated how much I need to pay each fortnight.

[BigRedV]

Both my husband's wages and my wages are paid into our offset home loan account.
On a weekly basis I withdraw money for groceries, entertainment/social costs and petrol.
The remainder stays in the account and most of our bills including internet, mobile phones, water, gas, electricity, home phone and mortgage are set up as direct debit. The only bill that is not direct debit are our rates.
We do have to make sure there is a pool of money in the account for bills and not be too frivolous. Sometimes I have willpower, sometimes I don't! But this method seems to work for us.

Do you work for crazy johns?

[Susan Mac]

I'm another one who has a high interest online savings account (an ANZ online saver, attached to my ANZ transaction account, but most banks offer the same sort of product), and have an automatic transfer set up so that every fortnight money goes into the account.

I'm a bit nerdy when it comes to budgeting, and I keep track on my budget spreadsheet how much each bill is when it comes in, and then at the start of every year I add 4-5% onto the actual amount my bills came to last year and adjust my fortnightly transfer accordingly. I always slightly overestimate in case there are any surprises. You know, like my house insurance going up by $400 last year!!!

I also pay some bills on my credit card (interest free days + reward points), and some direct by BPAY from the account, depending on whether they have a credit card surcharge or not. If it is a big bill (like a $2000 car and house insurance policy) I set it up so it so that it doesn't come out of the account until it's due, so I earn that little bit extra interest.

[lovepurplebutterflies]

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[Guest1234]

We leave them in a place we will see them MULTIPLE times a day until they get paid. Usually DF waits til his pay goes through then he pays what ever bills we have sitting in our spot and then files them away.