So excited to share my binder system to organize life with you. I love having my documents easy to access and easy to maintain. I tried file cabinets and folders for years but found thematic binders were easiest for me. I swear there’s nothing more stressful than searching for a needle in a haystack.
In each house one person is the usually the designated bill payer. I’m the bill payer here mostly because my husband was military and went *POOF* and deployed for 6 months to a year so I kinda had to be.
I worry that if I became really ill or was suddenly gone I would want my husband to know what our monthly bills are and how they are paid. Not trying to be morbid but Moms think like this!
SETTING UP YOUR BINDER
Toss a few page protectors inside a binder. Sharpie a label on the side of the binder or print off a label. BOOM! You are ready to roll.
CONTENT IDEAS
-bills to be paid inside one page protector pocket
-copies of any upcoming costs, estimates or payoffs in the binder
-a monthly print out of all bills that were paid
-a bill stub from your utilities to show account numbers (toss every few months)
I keep a note on my phone for the current month such as this. It shows the chronological due dates, bill name and amount. (I deleted amounts for the blog because that’s TMI.)
AUGUST MONTHLY BILLS
✅1st Mortgage
✅2nd Internet
✅3rd Credit card
4th Car payment (AP)
5th life insurance (AP)
7th Gas
16th Auto insurance (AP)
18th Verizon
20th FL Prepaid (AP)
26th Electric
28th Insurance (AP)
I fill in the dollar amounts and ✅ them off as I pay them. “AP” = an auto draft payment and no action needs taken. Otherwise, I have web bill pay set up for the remaining bills. I don’t write checks for any of our monthly or reoccurring bills. Make sure your people know how you pay the bills.
After I pay the bills for that month I print it off then delete variable amounts, delete the checkmarks and I’m all set up for the next month. I file the printed monthly bills/expenses in the binder so we can refer back if needed.
An excel spreadsheet would be ideal for tracking -I just haven’t gotten to setting it all up. Whatever you use just stick a copy in the binder periodically.
Hopefully the BUDGET binder could provide enough clues to get the bills paid in my absence (or yours).
Happy organizing ~
Kristen
I love this!
Thanks! Do you have a binder or organization system that you use or you’d like to share?
I started using binders several years ago, but I didn’t keep up with them. We use to work out of state for months on end, so I just threw everything in a box. But when we came back home for a couple of weeks, I didn’t put the info in the binders. It’s a wonderful idea though and something I really need to do for my husband. I use the calendar method to keep track of bills and payments.