Simplify bill pay for less stress

Nobody likes to pay bills but the process of actually paying them doesn't have to be stressful.  Bill payment is probably one of the most procrastinated tasks that anyone has.  No one wants to send their hard earned money off any earlier than they have to.  Me neither!  Here are a few simply ways to keep track of the bills that you pay regularly and make sure that they are paid on time.

Keep the information for all bills together.  This is one of my favorite.  No matter what method you use, keeping all the information on your accounts together makes it easier to know if a bill has been paid and how to contact the company in case of a problem.  There is a monthly bill organizer from the office store that has pockets for each month and a place to log it all.  I use a spreadsheet for mine that also allows me to make calculations and look at costs over time.  You can also keep it as simple as writing your information on a piece of paper that you keep with your check book.  Remember to keep this information secure the same way you would any other financial information.

File bill statements together by the month.  Forget trying to create complicated filing systems that you can never remember.  File normal monthly bills together by the month.  Most of them only need to be keep for two years, so the Freedom Filer system is perfect.  They suggest having a folder for each month for two years.  One set is labeled even year and the other odd year.  You file by the month and when you come back to where you started you purge the folder at the beginning of the month so that you never have more than two years worth of filing.

Automate bill pay or pay online as much as you can.  The internet has made it easier than ever to pay bills.  You can have bills pay automatically or pay them online manually and even go paperless to avoid piles of mail and potential identity theft.  You may want to set up a checking account just for recurring accounts.  This will prevent unwanted overdrafts from checks and debits that occurs unknowingly together.   For bills that come in the mail, keep them together for easy access when you are ready to pay bills.  A folder at your desk or near the door or mail box works well for this.

Schedule bill due dates near the same time each month.  With bills due around the same time of the month you can pay them all at once.  If money is tight and you are willing to pay bills more often you can group them into weekly or bi-monthly groups.

What is your favorite way to keep track of accounts and bills that need to be paid?