Bill Pay Checklist | Organize Your Finances With This Free Printable!

Does this sound familiar?  You’re so caught up in the day to day that you forget the smaller things, like when your bills are due?  Or you remembered that it’s the 18th, and the electric bill was due, but did you really pay it?  If this sounds like you, I know exactly where you are coming from!

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Hubs and I were having troubles staying on top of our bills.  The money was usually there as spending it all wasn’t our issue, saving for sinking funds was.  But saving aside, remembering the due dates and what was due was another one of our biggest challenges.

At the time, he was working 14+ hours each day, and I was commuting 3 hours a day while juggling Lady Bug’s prenatal appointments, student teaching responsibilities through one university, and the final requirements for my graduate degree through a separate university.  And that’s to speak nothing of the boys, who were 6 and 2 at the time.

We had a lot on our plate at the time, and so it was pretty hard remembering what day of the week it was, let alone what day of the month it was and when the bills were due.  Our finances lacked organization, and if we wanted to get on top of our finances and reach our goal of paying off all our debt, we had to change something.

You can grab your copy of the budget workbook I use, or my bill pay checklist bundle, here!

Since then, we’ve tried a lot of different accountability systems for keeping on top of our bills.  The system I outline in this post is one we’ve stuck to for the longest, and the reason is simply that it works really well for us.  What makes it particularly effective for us is that it is a two-part system.  You could use it together, or use them separately.

But it comes back to solving the problem… our finances were unorganized, and this system makes it easier for us to keep track of what was paid, what still has to be paid, and when we can expect bills that we don’t pay monthly.

The best part is, since using our current system, we haven’t missed paying a bill yet and there are no surprises when it comes to those non-monthly expenses.  That’s what tells me that this system is worth continuing.

 

Google Calendar

My Google calendar is the first part of our system.  I want to preface this by saying that I wasn’t a fan of Google Calendars in the least when Hubs tried to get me to use them back in 2008.  He wanted us to have a way to streamline our separate grad class schedules & GA office hours, as well as days that Bookworm’s preschool was closed but campus was not.  In the last 10 years, I’m still not Google calendar savvy by any means, I much rather have my paper planners, but I have learned to incorporate it into my life for mutual benefit between my husband’s schedule and mine.

First we created a shared calendar specifically for bills and made it so that each of us has the ability to edit the calendar.  Since we have android based phones, we’re not limited to editing the calendar from just the computer.

We then added in all the bills we pay throughout the month, made the bill due date an all day event, edited each event to repeat each month, and set reminders.  We can add new bills that come {such as medical bills, trash bills, etc.} as a one time event.  As each bill is paid or scheduled through the month, I edit the specific event to be marked as “PAID”.

This used to be a vital part of our system, especially at the beginning of our debt free journey when we had more accounts to keep track of each month.  Since paying off a majority of our accounts, this has become a secondary piece.

 

Printable Bill Pay Checklist

Back when our Google Calendar was the main way to keep track of when our bills were due, I still felt like something was missing.  I felt like I was still being surprised by when quarterly bills were due.  So I created a bill payment checklist to appease the paper & pen side of myself.

Since adding this checklist to our bill pay routine, I’ve been able to keep track of our bills better.  I sit down around the 5th or 6th of the month, and pay the bills for the remainder of the month, and write the check for the mortgage for the following month.  I schedule out the bills for their due dates, that way the bill comes from the appropriate paycheck, I use my zero based budgeting printable for that, I know the money to cover it is there.

After the bills are scheduled, I color in the box to mark them as paid on the checklist, and on our Google Calendar if I remember.  {I’m horrible at using the Google calendar sometimes and don’t always remember.  Like I told you, I’m a pen and paper kinda gal.}

What I really like about this printable though is that I can keep track of a few different things.

First: when our electric bill and insurance bills fluctuated each month, I would write the amount in the box each month as I colored in the box.  Since then, our amounts have levelled off.  Instead, I write what the highest the bill has been recently, whether it was that amount for the month or not.  For example, our electric bill says $150 is due on the 20th each month, but it’s only that high in the summer when the pool filter and air conditioners are running.  The rest of the year it hovers around $80-$110, and I use the difference to put towards our debt.

Second: I can see when we have another quarterly bill due.  It’s so easy for me to forget when we last had a propane delivery, and it’s not a little amount of propane they deliver each time {our stove and water heater run off propane}.  If I can see when to expect a $300 propane bill, I can be more prepared for when the bill will come, rather than being surprised when I see the little yellow baggie hanging off of our door knob.  Winning!

 

But the absolute best part of this system?  Everything is paid on time and we don’t have to worry anymore.  Goal accomplished!

 

Since this system works so well for us, and who couldn’t use a cute and free printable, I thought I’d share my free checklist with you!  It’s completely free, and sitting pretty in my resource library!  It’s a blank slate just waiting for you to customize to your own needs.

 

 

Do you struggle with remembering when the bills are due?  Or do you already have a bill pay system in place?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!