Managing Your Monthly Bills
Posted by Gail | Filed under Money Management
I’m always amazed by people. I was having lunch with an acquaintance (she hasn’t seen me in my undies yet, so she hasn’t made it to “friend”). She was telling me all about how she stresses out every month when it comes time to pay the bills. Here’s a woman who manages a household with heaps of kids, in her early forties (so she’s been a grown-up for a while), and she’s cowed by the prospect of bill payment. Wow!
I get the sense that there are more than a few people who freak out over the bill-paying process. I’ve listened to people talk about a tightening in their stomachs, the sense of dread in case there’s not enough money. It’s like a monthly ritual of torture. Some people are so afraid of their bills that they just toss ‘em in a drawer without opening them. There’s a plan! If you’re stressing out over managing the monthlies, you should take a deep breath and:
1. Set-up a folder into which you put all your bills every month. Actually, two folders work better. One dated the 1st to the 15th, the second dated the 16th to the 31st. When you get a bill, open it and put it in the right folder based on the due date. Now you have everything in one place so you don’t have to go hunting for the bills you shoved out of sight. Be brave, this is the first step in taking control.
2. Set two dates a month for bill payment and money management: the 10th and the 25th work great. That’s when you’ll pay your bills. See, no more procrastinating because you have a date set! You need to make sure you’re paying your bills at least three days in advance of their due date so you don’t get hit with a late fee because of the time it takes to “process” your transaction.
If you are paying your bills manually, for each bill, look at the balance on the current statement to verify that last month’s payment was credited to your account. If you’re paying by cheque, write your account number on the face of the cheque to ensure that your payment will be properly credited.
Enter the cheque number and the payment amount into your Spending Journal. If you paid online, enter the amount paid and the confirmation number in your Spending Journal.
Write the payment amount, the cheque number or online confirmation number and the date on the face of the bill or statement. Put it into your “Paid” folder.
3. Automate as much of your bill paying as you can. Many of my bills come as e-bills. Many more are auto deductions from my account. Each month, at the beginning of the month, I subtract those amounts from my spending journal so the money’s already “gone” and I can’t spend it on other stuff. (Since I’m paid monthly, this works for me. If you’re paid more often, you should read this blog.
4. Set-up online banking so you can pay and record info immediately. I know there are some die-hard pay-by-mail fans out there. If it’s working for you, swell. But if you’re having trouble keeping abreast of what’s been paid and what hasn’t, nothing beats online banking.
5. Eliminate unnecessary bills. Are you still paying for that subscription you took out five years ago? How about that annual gym membership that you keep forgetting to cancel? Are you spending your money on things you actually want, or are you just defaulting to spending because taking action seems like too much effort? Hey, cut that out! You work hard for your money and even small amounts drifting away through apathy is dumb!
One of the most popular tools I’ve given my families on TDDUP is the Office In A Box. I’ve given these away at a couple of speaking engagements too, and people have cried with happiness. It’s not the stuff in the box per se. I think it is more the relief that they now have a system and they are so frickin’ relieved.
July 26, 2010 at 7:30 am
I don’t get the whole paying bills fear. But then, looking at my bills, there are only seven regular bills, most of them utilities with water and hydro only every two months – so every second month I only have to handle 5 bills. If I can’t manage those, then I’m in really in bad shape…
July 26, 2010 at 7:53 am
When I do my bill payments, I feel so in control. Paydays are bi-weekly, so on that day, twice a month, my calendar journal comes out, with all the dates on it that have due dates, and all my automatic deductions. I use my online banking and make sure all the payments have come out properly, and check them off. I pay the bills I currently have due, and deduct that from my balance. I check over my budget to make sure I haven’t missed anything, and by the time I’m finished, I have a balance that I know is available while all the bills are paid. Such a nice feeling to know that I’m caught up, and it’s all there in black and white. I could put it in a spreadsheet, but I’m a paper person – love to write it down and see it all laid out in front of me in a monthly fashion.
July 26, 2010 at 8:22 am
I used to hate the idea of being paid monthly but it’s been 10 years now of once a month paycheques, and I actually think it makes budgetting super simple! You know exactly how much money you have to work with for the month – upfront and in your bank account, waiting to be divided up. I can factor ALL the bills regardless of when they are due, the entire month’s jar money and any extra expenses that are due that month, right at the beginning of each month. No worries about whether or not the money will be there because it already is. It means we have to be disciplined and not “see” the big bank balance as “being rich”. Once we changed our attitude about that, the budget fell into place nicely and all the bills get paid on time, every time.
July 26, 2010 at 8:23 am
It’s all automatic for us. It takes the headache out of coordination. Our bank accounts are skimmed every month automatically by companies and credit card companies. Property taxes are the only thing that we pay manually, but we do so online anyway. -5 years 4 months left
July 26, 2010 at 8:31 am
I think for some folks, they’re in such denial about their money situation entirely, so they panic when they see a bill.
Watching a re-run of TDDUP last week, Gail showed a couple their average monthly spending on eating out. Each transaction was around $20 or less, which doesn’t seem like they were indulging in fine-dining experiences. However, add it all up and they were spending more eating out than I spend feeding my family at home per month. That’s the denial I’m speaking of. Just a lack of personal accountability.
So when they utility bill comes, and it likely does every month and should be no surprise, folks panic.
It isn’t complicated to get one’s financial life in order and see the big picture, but since many folks leave it so long, it seems too overwhelming. Many of us know that once you cross that hurdle, it’s liberating on the other side!
I’m a fan of the spreadsheet. I work on my computer throughout the day anyway, so I have it minimized on my screen usually and can normally keep it up to date without any real effort. When I let it slide, however, it does take an investment of time to get it back on track. After years of tracking spending (some years better than others), I’ve learned that it’s totally worth that investment of time. The ROI is unbeatable!
July 26, 2010 at 8:45 am
EVERYTHING should be accounted for in this manner…i.e. Christmas and birthdays…they come every year on the same date…if we plan for them all year round we won’t be in a panic when the day hits…if the spending that life entails is pre planned as much as possible we will all feel much calmer and more organized..there is no feeling better than calm and organized!
July 26, 2010 at 8:56 am
Wow! Reading this article reminded me of when I was in my twenties, my finances were such a mess that I hated paying bills – the dreaded fear of an nsf. Now, that I’ve got my finances in control, I love paying my bills (online) – I feel empowered when I make a payment.
I use my credit card as much as possible (points) but I have budgeted my purchases before hand. I love paying my bills so much I’ve had to reign myself in, I was making a credit card payment the same day I used the credit card so I’d actually show a credit on my card balance because the charge wasn’t even showing up yet. It’s a bit of an addiction, really – but I’ve got myself down to only paying my credit card balance once a week.
July 26, 2010 at 9:28 am
I know of people I work with, who make much more money than I, who always let their husbands handle the bills and payments, and were terrified of writing a cheque that would be NSF. And if I had to write them a cheque myself, they’d ask, “Is it okay to cash it right away?”, and I’d respond, “It doesn’t matter when you cash it, the money will be there.” and they’d have this stunned look on their face, not understanding how that could be possible.
My husband gets paid weekly by cheque, and when he puts his cheque in the bank, he pays a bill (ie: hydro, bell, shaw, or cell), which works out conveniently for us. We do have some automated payments, which are fairly spread out through the month (insurance, car loans). There are probably better systems out their of organizing finances than ours, but, for now, it works for us.
July 26, 2010 at 9:38 am
@ Jody:
I totally understand! I was paying my visa bill after every purchase and then after the end of the month I got a “huge” bank charge! (like $4.50 lol). I didn’t know paying my visa counted towards the 15 free transactions, I thought that was only for my debit. Now I’m with PC and they let me have unlimited transactions but I still try to pay my visa only once every 1-2 weeks. It’s really hard to watch that balance go up, it makes my stomach churn! It’s the opposite of what Gail talks about!
I agree with people above saying that htey now like paying their bills. My hubby and I have like 6 pay cheques (or sometimes more) throughout the month and I know what comes out of each cheque. I anxiously wait for a pay cheque so I can pay “myself” and my bills! lol. I’m suck a geek
July 26, 2010 at 9:47 am
Most of my bills are automated, but some can’t be (like my Visa with a different bank than my regular bank–I can’t automate that). When it arrives, I simply check it over to make sure it’s right and pay it immediately online. I like to do things as soon as I think of them instead of waiting for a day in the future to do them (I wish I could transfer that thinking to housework, LOL!).
July 26, 2010 at 10:13 am
I’ve never had a problem with it – I have everything automated as well, other than rent cheques!
Rent gets written, taken downstairs and left at the supers office every month (theoretically, we could just drop a large batch of cheques, but I would rather do it monthly).
Insurance gets put on my credit card automatically, our Rogers bill goes on my credit card automatically, and we don’t have any other bills to pay. I put money into savings at the middle of the month, at the end of the month, I write my cheque to cover half of our joint expenses (tracked in excel), and then pay off my credit card at the beggining of the month, with the money from my bank account, and our joint bank account.
When reconciling my credit card against the expenses / bills, I simply verify the amounts are correct, and if there’s a problem, contact the credit card company and / or the company that charged me incorrectly.
July 26, 2010 at 10:18 am
I don’t use online banking but I do pay my bills as soon as they arrive. It only takes a minute to write a cheque and then pop it in the mail the next day. If it’s my Amex or Visa I go through the drive-thu at the bank the next day and pay. My property taxes, insurance and medical are automatic deductions. I don’t see much point in saving bills up to pay all at once because then it does seem to take more time and becomes a job that can be put off until you have more time. You don’t don’t need to worry about due dates if you pay the day the bill arrives
July 26, 2010 at 10:19 am
@Mimi
I’m such a geek when it comes to that too! Between my fiance and I, we get a cheque every week and I’m always so excited!
Most of my bills are paid automatically from my bank account (student loans, rent, RRSPs, TFSAs) and the others are either paid by credit card (and then I transfer the money from the bank) or I pay them automatically when the cheque comes in. I know I could set everything up to be automatic, but I always like to know exactly how much the bill is before it comes out and I like to be the one who controls WHEN it comes out of my account. Like with my cable bill, it’s set up to be paid by my credit card at the end of the month (because that’s when the company does it), but I have it budgeted for the 15th of the month. Of course, as long as it’s paid off by the time the bill comes around, that’s fine, but it’s just nice to know that it’s on my own terms and not the company’s!
July 26, 2010 at 10:36 am
Jody and Mimi:
I am also like that as well with the almost obsessive desire to keep my credit card balance at zero. When we finally gout ourselves somewhat organized financially we were very cautious not to let the credit card balance become so high that it became unmanageable. I use my CC alot for points, and put pretty much everything on there. I was paying it off 4 times a month and I always knew almost to the penny how much was owing on it at any given time. I have even gone into the bank to pay it off and put an extra $100 on it because I was immediately heading to the supermarket to pick up my weekly groceries. As time has passed though, I have eased back a bit and pay it off only every two weeks. One time I had to use my CC to make a ”to me” large purchase (a house LOL) and then within a few days transferred it to my LOC. Ugh, I was sick to my stomach when the statement came in and I saw the $123 in interest charges.
But I’ve gone off topic. I used to dread the monthly bills too, even though I knew when then would be coming in and roughly how much they would be. We are kind of old school when it comes to bill paying. When the bill comes in the mail (at a retail post office), I immediately go next door to the bank and line up for the tellers and pay the bills that way. No telephone or online banking for us! We only have dial-up at home and I wouldn’t trust that, and I don’t want to use a work computer either. For us, going to the teller is the most convenient because its right next door to the post office and nothing gets forgotten! We only have 7 regular bills, 2 come out of my account automatically and 1 is cycled through my CC. And call me wierd, but I feel like by going into the bank it is creating work for the tellers, it keeps their ‘’stats”up and hopefully helps prevent job loss due to lack of in-bank transactions. Plus they all know me by name and I even bring in a Christmas card present (ususally a tin of nice candies)to thank them for such excellent service.
July 26, 2010 at 11:14 am
I think finally I have a system that works. It was inspired by ‘you know who’ up above :
I get paid monthly, which I used to hate but now that I’ve been Vaz-Oxladized, I am quite at peace with. I have not yet advanced to ebill but I do pay them online. My utilities are due by the 15th
On the evening of the 24th, I check over my binder for the month’s spending and update anything needed.
I get paid on the 25th of each month. I spend time that day transferring money to the different savings pools I have. I take out my jar money for that week and come home and fill them.
My CC is due at the end of the month. Anything I charged was accounted for from the last month’s budget and is paid in full.
My utilities are due around the 15th. I wait for all of them to arrive then sit down and online pay them all at once. Takes about 4 minutes. I mark on the bill when I paid and how much then file them in my budget in a box. I put the amount for each utility on a spreadsheet so I can see at a quick glance how much I paid each month.
The longer I do this. The easier I get. I still get paper bills but I pay online. baby steps LOL
July 26, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Gail wrote:
“You need to make sure you’re paying your bills at least three days in advance of their due date”
I think you should correct that to “You need to make sure you’re paying your bills at least three BUSINESS days in advance of their due date ” I am glad I usually pick 5 business days because I forgot a statutory holiday once but got in just under the radar.
I think that people stress about it because they don’t track their expenses. It is a mix of accountabilities that someone mentioned and aall those little $20 bills that ssomeone else mentioned. If people don’t keep track through the month, they won’t know if there will be enough. … they can always switch to cash…
July 26, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I used to get so nervous paying bills that I had to take gravol ahead of time to settle my stomach – which had the unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate) side affect of making me sleepy so eventually I had to stop trying to figure out our financial mess and take a nap. And by the time I woke up it was time to take the dog for a walk so I could justifiably shove all the bills back in the drawer. He nags so I couldn’t concentrate anyways.
It took us many years to become debt free and also many years to tweak the budget. I have written about this before and I am sorry to sound like a broken record but this REALLY works. We lived paycheque to almost paycheque all of our lives and I was a gold medalist at racing to the bank with the extra $3.31 we found down the cushions of the couch to beat the about to be NSF cheque. There never was a month where we had the money in the bank to pay everything – thus the constant nausea when dealing with bills. Even with a Gail budget and living on cash it was still quite nerve racking to pay the bills because it seemed our pays and bills just never connected perfectly.
This is when we decided to get one month ahead in our chequing account. We saved little bits here and there, sold stuff and put tax refunds, birthday gifts and overtime pay into our chequing account until we had a whole months worth of money just sitting there. It took quite a while because we were still paying down debt. With a whole month’s expenses sitting in your account at the beginning of the month you never again have to worry about paying a bill on time because you are living a month ahead. The money you earn during the month is for next month. This gives you lots of time to plan, tweak and even react to emergencies without blowing the whole budget.
I think this works so well and makes life so stress free that I have even said to my husband when watching ‘Til Debt that if we were the couple on the show and Gail gave us the cheque at the end I would cheat and put it into the chequing account instead of paying down the debt just to get our chequing account a month ahead. Just kidding! Well not – but don’t tell Gail.
July 26, 2010 at 12:29 pm
mimi you gave me an early morning laugh. “a geek”. thank you!
i get paid every other week. the bills go in my file as they arrive in the mail, and twice a month i pay them on line. i do have 4 (including utilities and cc) that arrive through email so when i sit down to pay all due dates are fudged on my calendar & made due 5 days before the actual due date. even paying on line i have become accustomed to the 5 days; it just makes me feel better knowing my transaction will be processed & no more late payments! talk about little steps…
i, too, like to go to the bank and ask for cash, especially a bunch of one dollar bills so i can set the jars up for 2 weeks at a time. the tellers normally just look at me but one day i was shocked when a young man said “jars”? he’s probably all of 20, and told me he loves gail. we had a good little chat & he said “see you in 2 weeks”. i admire that young man for having his financial life in order already!
i used to be afraid of the big nsf, or the huge credit card bill & a minimum payment. now i feel more confident, no more nsf’s, and i have had much luck calling my cc company to investigate an incorrrect charge. so far so good. it seems, as i’ve learned to take the correct baby steps (thanks gail, for holding my hand!) i’ve become more confident about my money.
i notice many of you are well set in your ways & have found a system which works for you. i take heart from your comments; if you all have done it i know i can too. thanks for the continuing inspiration!
July 26, 2010 at 12:33 pm
If it’ll help with your cashflow, you can ask a company to switch your billing cycle so that the bill is due at a different date. Be Warned though: this does not postpone your current bill, AND it will make the next one bigger because of some month-in-advance crap that I don’t understand, but after that, you’ll have a new due date.
July 26, 2010 at 2:50 pm
While reading posts, I don’t always read the name of the poster, BUT, I certainly recognized Maureen’s style in the first two sentences! How are you doing? Myself, I am stuck with my cast another MONTH because the bone is not healing – go figure, all the running around getting insurance coverage and EI entails. I have e-billing, and pay all my bills online, which was a real problem when my computer had to go to the hospital and I had to re-enter ALL the information for all utilities/GWL/banking, including account numbers, sign in ID’s and passwords, etc. With my two jobs, I was getting paid weekly, which seemed like a winfall, but I did use a large desk calendar to designate each paydate, estimated amount, and the dates when bills were due. This way I knew which job paid which bill. It worked out that the part time job was always going to make the payment on my ‘new to me’ truck, something I never had to pay before. I have been trying to get money ahead to follow Maureen and Gail’s method, at least to cover my rent since my paydates are both biweekly, there is rarely one on the first. I almost had a fight with my landlord in June when he informed me that rent money better be there early, cuz he was depositing the cheque on ‘at least June 30th” Stunned me says “You mean the cheque that is DATED July 1st?” to which he replied that he was going out of town and would not be here. I informed him that I could not change my paydates and how did he expect this to be OK? Quick call (again) to the Rentalsman (they are getting to know me on a first name basis!) and I was just told to record everything and if the cheque bounced, it was his responsibility to reimburse me!! When he called on the 29th to tell me that he was bringing the cheque to the bank that day, I kinda freaked on him, and asked if he was putting it in a teller machine, cuz that could be done anywhere he was headed on holidays. I politely informed him that the cheque could NOT clear before July 1st (he didn’t need to know that the money had been there for two weeks). He told me that he was bringing it to the bank and they would make the deposit for him on July 2, after the stat. To shorten a long story, and this is sooooo funny, TD Clearing House had a problem, and anything deposited on July 2 did not clear! I called my LL twice to see why the cheque wasn’t clearing, which he tried to blame on my bank. He had to eat humble pie when he told me it was his bank’s fault. That cheque did not clear till —- JULY 20th!!! It was nice to see that $700+ in my account for three extra weeks, but I still had to see it as a zero balance, cuz it was not my money. It was also nice to see a landlord who does not think that the rules apply to him getting kicked in the butt at least once. Unfortunately, I have to stick it out with this guy for a while yet, but I do document everything and anything. That was a little off topic, but had to relate how having a month ahead CAN come in handy.
July 26, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I only have 4 bills a month. 2 are manual and 2 are automatic. i know the dates that it comes out and when i have to pay rent. Normally i pay rent early so i don’t have to think about it and then my phone bill whenever it gets emailed to me i normally have 2 weeks to pay it off but i get it done the second i check out the amount. Other than that 10th and the 15th are my automatic and i don’t have to worry about those ones. As for pre planning. Just yesterday i set myself up a Christmas fund HHOLLA.
i’ve got many presents to buy this year so im getting a head of the game…
July 26, 2010 at 7:02 pm
I know a couple people who were burned by allowing Bell to automatically take money out of their account. When they canceled their account the payments kept being taken out! They disallowed the payments for the future, but I’m not sure they ever got back the extra payment that was taken out. My rule is now that the only services that can access my account directly need to be payments that should outlast the account.
July 26, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I used to hide from them, which got me nowhere, cause I would forget if I paid them or not. Now I pay them the day I recieve them…easy as pie that way…for me that is
July 27, 2010 at 10:09 am
@ Jodi and Mimi – I don’t get why you’d pay your credit card early. Why not just transfer the funds into a savings account, and then pay it the day it’s due? That way you can pick up a few extra bucks interest. Sure it might only be $5 over the year, but hey five bucks is five bucks.
Also for everyone – keep in mind that you can often ‘transfer’ instead of ‘pay’ funds into a credit card account. With my online account with bmo I can either pay my mastercard (takes 1 – 3 days) or I can ‘transfer’ the funds into my mastercard account (instant).
July 27, 2010 at 10:31 am
This is what we’ve done for the last year:
My honey and I have a joint account where each pay period (every Friday b/c we’re paid on opposite weeks) $287.50 gets deposited. This adds up to $1,150 for eight months out of the year and $1,437.50 four months out of the year (the extra 4 payments serves as a pseudo emergency/annual expenses fund…don’t worry we have a separate e-fund as well).
All of our bills (enmax, shaw, used to be bell for a while and rent) all come out of this account and are all on automatic withdrawal.
Because the $287.50 is based on our most expensive months in the winter, there is always more than enough money in the account. It’s also based on having three roommates, and we typically have four.
We’re now in the process of changing things up again – but this has really worked for us for the last year or so.
July 27, 2010 at 11:51 am
STE – I know! Isn’t it shocking when someone else understands when you say jars and budget binder?!? This happened to me in the grocery line – was chatting away to the Hubster (why I don’t know since the grocery store always makes him shut down. It is the stress – he insists on doing the packing since I apparently have no concept of space or time? and yet he hates it – says he is intimidated by the speed of the the converyor belt) and the lady behind me started telling me about her jars! She was very impressed that I used ziplock bags for the money that ends up leaving the house with us. What can I say. Genius. My husband has 3 young assistants – the oldest is 28 – and they all have their financial sh*t in order including RSPs and planned spending. Stunning but gives me great hope for the young uns.
July 27, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Suzanne – very sorry to read that you have to keep the cast for another month. So hot, itchy and annoying when casts (or the last months of pregnancy )happen at the height of summer. Our friend broke her leg a few years ago and she was a tanning freak so after one leg was nicely tanned she was unhappy at being uneven so used fabric paint to paint her cast a lovely shade of brown.
We were always lucky with landlords – except once – but know a lot of people who have trouble. Our bank is generally a pain but they will absolutely not cash a cheque until the date on the cheque. I know this because they once cashed a cheque early and then a day later put the money back. Very disappointing. Did not even give me enough time to rehearse my rant.
The month ahead game really makes my life very relaxed. Of course for about a year after we had the money in the cheqing account I had to go through an explanation every month for the Hubster. He just could not get used to seeing so much money in our account on the first day of every month and at first he kept thinking that we could spend it. NOT. I finally told him the money was there in case we needed instant cash to ransom our cat. (Some little kids in our neighbourhood “kidnapped” our neighbours cat and held her for ransom. They saw it on some cartoon show and thought it was a great idea. Apparently the neighbour and miscellaneous parents did not.)
July 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Geoff:
“you can often ‘transfer’ instead of ‘pay’ funds into a credit card account”
I used to be able to do that if the credit card was from the SAME bank as my account. Are you limited to that in your case?
July 27, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I have a separate chequing account (via pc financial which is wonderfully and completely free) for my variable spending and a separate account for my automatic withdrawals for our vehicles/bills. With every pay cheque I get, I put in half the approximate money needed for those bills into that account. I then know that i’m covered and don’t have to worry. And more often then not have extra cash to put into savings or spend frivolously.
July 27, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I used to be very afraid of my bills. I never knew how much they were going to be, or if I had enough to cover them. I would make extra trips to go into the business so I didn’t have to worry about nsf fees if my cheque bounced.
Internet and/or ATM banking have taken so much of that away for me. I also make sure everything (ie. electricity, car insurance) is spaced out equally over 12 months, even if that means I pay a little bit more. When I get paid, I pay half on all my bills (also setting aside 50% of my monthly housing costs) and then 15 days later, I pay the other half. Somehow it “hurts” less when it’s taken care of so quickly and it feels good actually to walk away with my “paycheque” knowing that everything is paid and what’s left is safe to use for gas, groceries, etc. (oh – I also make sure “x” is shuttled directly into my emergency fund too!)
July 28, 2010 at 3:59 am
My husband is paid weekly and I am paid bi-monthly so I pay our bills weekly, however I work off a draft of expected weekly expenses to make sure I am covered each week. We are paying off our credit cards and will be debt-free by Christmas. We pay ourselves an allowance too so we don’t accidentally overspend. Once our allowance is gone, that’s it. Knowing what is due, when it’s due and factoring it in is so comforting and a nice change from the tennis match we used to engage in trying to get each other to pay the bills.
August 26, 2010 at 10:03 pm
HOW DO YOU MANAGE A JOINT ACCOUNT WHEN HE THINKS THERE IS NO LIMIT ON ANYTHING ALWAYS HAS TO HAVE THE EXTRAS IN LIFE BUT YET WONDERS WHY THINGS DON’T GET PAID ON TIME?
August 27, 2010 at 6:35 am
@Confused
You don’t. I would suggest one account with just the correct amount to pay all your bills that you both contribute to and yours being the name on it and amounts automatically withdrawn. Then you have your own account and he has his. You have to protect yourself until he ‘gets’ it.
March 30, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Another great tip is to sign up for ‘budget’ plans where available and also for monthly payments rather than lump sum payments (like taxes and insurance). This way your monthly expenditures are pretty consistent, which coincides with your pay. This keeps your cash flow pretty consistent, saving can be done monthly without feeling the pinch, and makes ‘budgetting’ less of a dirty word.
May 10, 2012 at 9:49 pm
terms and a site must have a…
privacy policy. this sorts it all out, similar to contact form 7, you copy a bit of code and post it into a page and hit publish. job done. [essential]5. google xml sitemaps – the best way to describe this is…