Monthly Bill Log

January...time to make a fresh start, get organized, start some resolutions, take on challenges and all that. I'm almost done putting away the Christmas decorations and lights - click here to see how I organize Christmas lights - so the house is in decent shape for the time being. Sitting at my desk though is another story - I have things piled up so high it's giving me anxiety! So it's time to get this part of my life together and since it's the first of the month it's time to start a fresh monthly bill log and I thought I'd share what I do to keep track. I pretty much pay bills online now, I have most of them set up to email me a reminder when they're due but it's hard for me to remember what's been paid and what's coming up, and also keep confirmation numbers - so I made up this simple chart to help me keep track of what's been done and what still needs to be paid. I just did this in Word, super simple to make a table and fill in the basic information - I print the form off for every month and hand write in the details as things come up, you could also keep this on your computer and fill in that way but I'm old school paper and pen. I keep them in a folder (along with another form that holds account numbers, passwords, email addresses, etc.) and at the end of the year staple them all together and file away - that way I can easily look back and see what I spent. I've been doing this system for a couple years now and it really works for me - I try to sit down every Monday morning and see what's due or coming up so I can stay on top of the checkbook - having a set time to pay bills works for me, other wise I'd procrastinate and end up with late fees which I hate! Now I'm off to whittle down some of the towering piles next to me...

Here's what my form looks like to give you an idea how to create your own - it doesn't need to be fancy, I just want to record basic information to help me keep track (note at the top of the form I have a space for the month and year, and the bottom has a total line for the month - they got cut off in this example):