Guess Bill/Command Central

So, in an effort to organize our bill/mail system, I made a "Guess Bill/Command Central" area. I did a previous post on our bill system. You can read it here. It is just a little blurb on organizing our bills. Well, the old system wasn't working. There are two reasons why... A.) I had no where to put the bills when they came in. I know I said I would put them in the notebook, but that was just too much work to do while trying to juggle children and everything else I usually walk in the door with. So the bills would end up where ever they landed. So bills would go missing or I wasn't sure what to pay...time consuming and an aggravation. B.) It was hard to stay disciplined because we didn't get all of our bills in the mail. Some were ebills. Some came in through our Bank of America bill pay. Some were just automatic drafts. When we switched banks and closed the account at Bank of America, our bill pay was shut down and we started receiving bills in the mail again. We still have a few ebills, but it feels more manageable. I like seeing a paper copy of what we are paying and what we are being charged (Guess that doesn't make me a tree hugger?)

The other night, I went to my workstation, our bed, and got busy organizing. I had a lot of ideas pinned on my Living Like No One Else board on Pinterest (Stole the line from Dave Ramsey). My idea for using the metal basket came from my use of something similar at school and the website here. I wouldn't call mine a budget box, but more of a mail/bill organizer.   I have four hanging folders in the basket: Bills/Debts, Utilities, Medical, and Bank Statements. In the back I have the phone books and our money envelopes. In the front I have our checks, address labels, stamps, and a little calendar. 

In the process of doing this, I went through and redid our bill book as well. I used Google Calendar to do a calendar of when our bills are due. I like using Google because I can sync the calendar to my phone. I can also share it with Klint and make it private. A good tool! I also went through and took out all the old bills and reorganized how I kept a record of what was paid and not paid.  

Our old faithful bill binder

These are sheets I use to mark when a bill is paid or to record how much was paid or how much we put in savings. The yellow is utilities, the red is debts, and the green is savings.

When a bill is paid, I hole punch it and put it behind the tab for the month. I put them in the order they need to be paid each month. This let's me see what I paid the previous month and when I paid it. It also helps me see if I had a "mommy moment" and just forgot to pay something (which does happen).

We do the cash envelope system that Dave Ramsey talks about in his books. We have done really well with it and we know that once it is gone, it is gone. It has really helped us stick with a budget.

I saw where Dave's wife simply gets extra bank envelopes and uses them for her envelopes. I like our bank's envelopes because they have a line on the back that makes it easy to write what the envelope is for. I mean, any bank envelope would do, but I am OCD about some things and that little line helps ease my mind. :) Our holder came from Target in the bargain bins for $2 I think. The button has broken off the front, but it still functions fine.

 Our tabs! We have a tab for eating out, groceries, gas, our yard man, dry cleaning, clothes, miscellaneous and other. Our budget sheet let's us know how much to put in each envelope. (See below)

We do a budget every month. Dave Ramsey, who we try to stick by, says to have a zero budget every month. This means that your money has a place. He stresses to give your money a name. I found a budget sheet that follows his model here. The spreadsheet is kind of involved and it can overwhelm you, but once you start using it, it becomes easier. I have even tweaked ours a little to make it easier to use for our family. 

The way I do our budget. I pull up our bank account and as I type into our budget, I set up our bill pays. I try to do this with Klint so we are on the same page. People laugh because I am the one that pays the bills and does our budget and Klint is the one with the accounting degree, but it works for us. He works with numbers and budgets all day. It is the least I can do to help him and make myself more knowledgeable. Back to our budget. The green areas are the areas that we get cash for. I sit down and figure out the break up of all of it and then go to the bank and they handle it. I ask for extra bank envelopes and we are set. 

The other notebooks in the first picture on this post are a bank/retirement/college fund statement book and a coupon binder (a post on that to follow soon). The statement binder holds the statements for Sophie's savings, our retirement accounts, and Sophie's college fund (got to get working on Maggie's.)

If you haven't tried budgeting, like hardcore, write it down and stick to it budgeting, I recommend it. It is so easy when you don't see where your money is going to say, "We'll figure it out!" I said that a million times, and we usually did, but the stress of figuring it out is horrible. 

Happy Budgeting!