Friday, March 30, 2012

Bill Paying For The Clueless By Choice

Every household has a system for paying bills.
In some households the couple pay bills jointly.
Or maybe one pays them and the other stays in the loop about the particulars.
Our is neither of those.
I pay them and my husband begs to not have to look at.....
THE BLUE FOLDER.
Seriously, its not even a blue folder anymore. But the name stuck.
So I pay the bills, I juggle the expenses. I budget.
All he wants to know is when is dinner ready and when can he buy another gadget.
Nothing more, nothing less. The less he knows, the happier he is.
I am really okay with this system. It works for us for the most part.
I figure he is a great Dad and works hard, really hard, so I will let him off the hook on this one.
But lately I had a morbid feeling take over me.
What if I was sick and could not pay them?
What if I was in a coma and could not pay them?
What if I died....would the kids ever have electricity again?!
Dramatic much? Meh.
But seriously, the problem with a one sided system is if the keeper of the
system goes down, so does the system. Not good.
So, in a effort to keep a roof over my children's head and power
for their Wii should I eat shellfish accidentally and die....I made a manual. 
All of our bills are in there, current one of top of each section. I also staple
receipts, confirmations etc. to the bill once it is paid.
Neat. Organized. Informational.
But because that is not enough for my clueless by choice hubby, I went a
step further. I added paying instructions at the beginning of each bill.
I went into Word and I typed in step by step of where, how, how much, and when.
OCD much? Meh.
Seriously, if you have never paid the electric bill in like 10 years, you need to know
where to go, how much the service fee is going to be and how long it takes to
credit to your account. Or at least I would need to know this. If I was clueless. By choice.
I am working on a table of contents. Oh yes, I have issues.
And also should note I am keeping a years of bills with paid receipts in the binder.
I know organizing experts claim there is no need. Trust me, there is a need.
Ever have a company you owe claim you did not pay 4 months ago?
BAM! Shut the front door, yes I did. Here it is.
This happened to us with a rental company. The wrong amount of entered on the computer
but was entered correctly on the receipt of payment. Had I not kept the receipt we would
have paid $375 for someone else's mistake. No thanks.
I am also going to print the Excel budget I have each month and include it.
However this may or may not send him off the deep end.
Too. Much. Numbers.
The point?
Do what works for you and your family.
Experts can only suggest what may have worked for some.
Adapt systems so that they work for you, not you work for them. 

2 comments:

Felecia Cofield said...

Brilliant suggestions! Thanks for sharing. I'm you newest follower! Blessings from Bama!

Chele said...

Thanks for stopping by! :)