4.04.2011

Going Paperless

We have officially gone paperless!!! 

I decided I wanted to get rid of all the clutter and papers around the house, so my resolution to the clutter --- going paperless with all our bills.  I now have almost all of our bills coming with the paperless option, with the exception of our rent and water bill since they don't have that option.  This is such a great money saving option, because not only do the bills come in my email, but I also pay them all online, which saves money on stamps and checks.  Plus, it's much better for the environment since we aren't printing a bunch of bills.  AND the bills come a lot faster, which I really love!!

I was very hesitant to switch over to online billing, as I had many concerns; many of which I'm sure several of you have.  I was super worried that I would forget to pay a bill since I wouldn't have it sitting in front of me when I went to pay bills.  I worried I wouldn't be able to track the payments.  I worried that I would end up wasting more money because I'd be printing the bills so I could still have a paper copy.  However, none of these fears actually surfaced once I actually went paperless.

For me, baby steps were key to be sure I didn't miss a due date or get overwhelmed with switching over.  First, I started with our cell phone bill and starting receiving that as an online bill.  I've been paying it online for quite some time, so at least I have been saving the time and money, since I haven't been mailing it.  Eventually, I switched the rest of my bills to paperless and began my new filing system.

Originally, I used to file my bills by due date, then pay as necessary.  Now that they're all paperless, I have a calendar with all the due dates on it (ok, so I'm not 100% paperless quite yet).  I have to be able to visualize the bills and when they're due comparatively to our pay dates.  I also keep a digital calendar through Google Calendars, which syncs with my iPhone.  Their calendar is AWESOME (more to come later on that)!!  With Google Calendar, I have reminders that go off a week or 2 in advance, just depending on the bill, to be sure they've been paid.  Basically, I just use it as a way to double-check myself. 

Now that all my bills are paperless and I receive the notifications in my email, I save a copy of the bill in it's specific folder with the bill due date.  I recommend naming folders very specifically.  The folders I have named on my computer are Apartment, Credit Cards, Student Loans etc.  Then each folder has a sub-folder with each company, i.e. Ameren, Discover, etc. Once the bill is paid, I then update the name with the paid date, so I can always track it.  For example, Ameren Due 010511 Paid 121410.

I've learned quite a bit about online billing.  It's really a great feature that I love to use now!  I love that I can always go back to view, print or save my previous bills.  Some companies even have an archive system that goes back years, if I ever need it.  So is it really necessary to save them?  I'm not sure yet.  My main reasoning for doing it is for the tracking of the due/paid dates.  Plus, if the website is ever down and I need to view my bill, I have it readily available.  Who knows, I'm sure I'll end up with an excel sheet to better document my dates and bills.  I just love Excel!!

Does anyone have any other suggestions for organizing online bills?  What other ways do you organize your bills?

3 comments:

  1. I have a special folder in my gmail that all my bill-related emails and reminders and logins go in, so it's easier to find them if I need to.

    I have our bills set up through my Busey account, so it sends me reminders for all of them. I also use the auto-pay when it's available, so all I have to worry about is double checking every so often that they're getting paid when I tell them to.

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  2. First of all, how do you have a FOLDER in gmail?? I'd really like to how how that was possible!! I've only been able to make labels. Am I missing something? But I do have something similar with my labels, too.

    I haven't quite gotten up to speed with the auto-pay yet. I suppose I just worry that there would be some "chance" that something would go wrong with it, however at some point we may make our way in that direction, too.

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  3. Label was what I meant, I just couldn't think of what they were called! :)

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