FINANCES: Paying Large Monthly Bills; FUN: College Football Games

Tonight my husband and I are attending the first UCF game of the year complete with a "Southern Theme" tailgating party. We'll sit with many of my old college friends in the alumni section who have offered us free tickets for the game tonight. I hope we don't get rained out. I played flag football in college intramurals with my sorority so I know all the rules and enjoy cheering for our team, but I still mainly attend these games for the social aspect of them. I love seeing old friends and reminiscing when we were all young kids in college as well and seeing how our lives and kids are doing. All the husbands and mine get along well together and share some common interests. We've all grown up and are in our 50's and then some but the memories we share from our youth are some of the sweetest. It's good to have "old" friends.

FRIDAY, September 4, 2009

FINANCES: Paying Large Monthly Bills

Who hasn't been shell-shocked when you open up one of your bills to find that it's way more than you expected? Bills that fall into this category can be your electric bill (a personal pet peeve of mine), the phone/internet/cable bill or the mortgage. These are three that come regularly to our home and I know generally what to expect. Two are always the same amount but the electric is one that can be more, and occasionally less, than expected. So that we can eat every week rather than pay one of these in full when it arrives, I accrue the amount over a 4-week period each month.

For example, let's say our electric is generally about $300 per month in the summer. I divide that by 4 and subtract $75 from our checkbook for week #1 and mark it as such in the checkbook. I keep an index card with my bills with post-its attached as a second recording of this. When the actual bill arrives in the mail I paper clip the index card to the bill. I keep doing this until the week of the due date (if it's a bill I can pay online). When the bill is due, I should have four $75 deductions in my checkbook. If the bill should be more than the $300 then I would just subtract more for the difference. I then go back and add up all the accrued amounts and pay the bill in full. This is a much less painful way to take care of the larger bills we pay and keep our cash flow on a steadier stream each week.

Try it and see if you like it. I will warn you that it takes a little longer to balance the checkbook each month but the peace of mind it brings is SO worth the extra time.