Before I can begin to explain the system that I use to pay my bills, I have to start at the beginning.
I was a new mum and I had just moved out of my parents house where they paid for everything, well I didn't have the money to pay for much anyway I was broke.
The first few months went smoothly sort of as much as it can with a newborn! I didn't really worry about my bills because I hadn't received any yet and I thought, stupidly I might add, that they won't be much so why worry.
Then it happened, the postie came and in my hand was my very first bill, Oh boy was I in trouble, over $300 that I had to find in 2 weeks. I paid the bill but what a struggle trying to find such a large sum of money and I can tell you that over the next couple of weeks, I had other bills that were of similar amount. The stress hit me like an avalanche, laying awake at night stressing about how I was going to pay the bills, I knew that I had to come up with a way to save my sanity.
My first step was deciding that I couldn't wait for my bills to arrive and then scrap together enough money to pay them. I had to plan in advance and set the money aside so that when a bill came in, I had the money there waiting. I used this system for many years and it served us well. The only flaw in the system was that sometimes I need money either for Miss E or the car needed to be fixed and because I didn't have an emergency fund, I used the bill money like an emergency fund so there were many months that I was short.
Then when I talked to a friend she explained to me her system that she uses to pay her bills and how every time a bill arrives it states that she is in credit, naturally I asked her to show me. I couldn't believe how simple her method was.
In Australia, at the bottom of our bills we have a way to pay our bills either online or by phone using our bank called BPAY using the biller code and the customer reference number, which don't change each bill. Using the fact that these number don't change, I am able to each payday, which for me is fortnightly, to pay a certain small amount for each bill.
To work out the amount for each bill to pay, all I did was to get my last bill and looked at the total amount payable and also the billing period. Some bills are monthly and some are every three months, so depending on the billing period, I divided the bill into fortnights.
My billing period for my water bill is every three months so I know that I get paid twice every month, which is six payday over the entire bill. I divide the total amount due by six and I get the approximate amount to pay each fortnight directly by BPAY.
For example: Water bill amount total is: $96.99 divide that by 6 = $16.165
So each fortnight I would pay at the very least $17.00 on my water bill to cover the next billing period and then if I used the same amount of water, my bill would say amount owed nil or that you are in credit, which will be rolled over onto the next billing period.
I cant explain what a relief this has brought to my family and the stress that it has taken off my shoulders knowing that just by this simple method that my bills are taken care of.
