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How to Budget Your BIlls

Do you ever find yourself wondering why your electric bill is due and you don’t have the money to pay it? It may be because you don’t quite realize how much money you make and how much you actually spend on “non necessity” items. I have a system I personally use that may help lower the possibility of late bills and the frustration that comes with it.

Step 1: Gather all of your bills.
Get a list of all your monthly bills and decide the average you pay monthly for each of them. For Example:

Electric-$100 Insurance-$150
Rent-$475 Phone- $80
Water-$50 Cable-$80
Remember to include all your bills. Meaning do include daycare or rent, do not include a ticket or any fees that aren’t constant.

Step 2: Figure out how much you make per pay period, and how much you need to put back each period for each bill. In my example I will use a weekly pay period but you will want to coordinate it to your schedule.

Net total of weekly paycheck- $400
Weekly totals for each bill:
Electric-$25 Insurance-$38
Rent-$119 Phone-$20
Water-$13 Cable-$20 Total=$229

Now take you total paycheck amount and your total bill amounts and subtract them.
$400-$229=$171
This leaves you with $171 to work with for the rest of the week, until your next pay period.

Step 3: Figure out the due dates of each bill so you can incorporate that in to your schedule. Using past bills helps you average out which day of the month each bill is due. Figure your 3 of your bills are due close to the same date and the other three are closer to a different date.

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Electric-30th Insurance-22nd
Rent-1st Phone-23rd
Water-5th Cable-22nd

Step 4: Now put all of this information together on a calender to create an organized routine. You’ll want to pick a specific day of the week to put back the payments accordingly, usually payday is the best. You’ll also want to use some kind of stashing system, for instance I use labeled envelopes for each bill. Just as long as you know what goes with which bill you should be ok. Your end result should look something like this on a calender.

May 5th
Electric-$25 Insurance-$38
Rent-$119 Phone-$20
Water-$13 Cable-$20

May 12th
Electric-$25 Insurance-$38
Rent-$119 Phone-$20
Water-$13 Cable-$20

May 19th
Electric-$25 Insurance-$38 Pay 22nd
Rent-$119 Phone-$20 Pay 23rd
Water-$13 Cable-$20 Pay 22nd

May 26th
Electric-$25 Pay 30th Insurance-$38
Rent-$119 Pay 1st Phone-$20
Water-$13 Pay 5th Cable-$20

Notice how on the 19th I put all the bills that were due before the next pay period on that week, and so on.

Just remember that your bill totals can vary monthly and to leave a few extra dollars just in case. Also remember to put back for all necessities before spending the extra cash. Once you get through the first few months you will begin to get a set routine in place which will make it a little easier. Also keep in mind that when you first try thins system you may have to make some tweaks, meaning if you only have three weeks until insurance is due then divide total by three not four.