How to Keep your Bills Organized

Sort mail each day and put bills together in one location until you are ready to pay or file them.

Organizing bills can be quite a chore if you do not do it regularly and if you do not use a consistent filing system. Unorganized bills can lead to disconnected utilities, late payments and lower credit scores. To take control of your bills and other financial paperwork, set routines on how to deal with incoming bills, when to pay bills and where to file bills once they are paid.

Things You'll Need

• Bill storage location (kitchen drawer, basket)
• Accordion file, file folders or three-ring binder
• Scanner
• Shredder

Instructions

1. Choose an area in your home to collect bills as they arrive each day. Choose an area that is easy to access. Some people may use a basket in their home office or a kitchen drawer dedicated to storing financial paperwork.

2. Avoid piles of paperwork by accessing bills online or by scanning bills that arrive in the mail. If you prefer to have hard copies of your bills, purchase an expandable accordion file to use for bills. Since some bills are not available online, you probably need a small expandable file even if you prefer mostly electronic statements. Other paper storage options include file folders or a three-ring binder.

3. Set a routine for filing and paying bills. For example, file bills on a certain day each week. Review and pay bills at least twice each month. If you have difficulty remembering to do these tasks, put them on your calendar.

4. Organize your bills when filing them. You may either want a folder or accordion section for each month of the year if you do not have many bills. However, if you have numerous bills, you may want to file bills by categories such as utilities, insurance, medical, credit cards and loans. You may want to set aside a section for unpaid bills and then move the bills to the appropriate categories once they have been paid. Also, you may want another special section to file any bills that may be used for tax deductions, such as medical expenses and business-related expenses.

5. Record due dates and amounts due when filing your bills. You can either use a calendar, a notebook or a spreadsheet to list bills.

6. Purge your bill files yearly. Most bills can be thrown away, shredded preferably, after a year. Keep bills related to expensive purchases indefinitely just in case you need verification of your belongings for an insurance claim.

References

• Bankrate.com: How to Organize Your Financial Paperwork
• Bankrate.com: How Long to Keep Financial Records
• University of Wisconsin Extension: Organize to Keep Ahead of the Bills
• University of Nevada: Organizing Household Files; Alice M. Crites

Resources

• University of California Cooperative Extension: Making Every Dollar Count