IF YOU ARE VISITING THIS POST – BE SURE TO CHECK OUT AN UPDATED VERSION OF MY SOON-TO-BE-DEBT FREE BUNDLE!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I hope all of you had an amazing holiday season with your loved ones! I had a wonderful time spending the last two weeks or so with our family. Life has changed so much since Scott has finished his Executive MBA program. It is amazing having our little family back together!
2013 was a huge year for us. I really feel like it was a game changer in the way our family will run from now on. I FINALLY (literally after years) had a system that worked for us in terms of bill payment. I had been trying so many different things over the years trying to find what would work for me. In 2013 I did! *I am going to share all of it with you!*
I have tried everything from, cash budgets- excel program – mint.com – manilla.com- notebooks – pen and paper – checkbook registrars- and everything in-between. I could not find a system that “stuck” and made sure every bill was accounted for, paid not just on-time but early AND would help us tackle some lingering debt that we had.
In 2013 we paid of thousands off dollars of debt YAY!! built up a savings account that rocks our world, AND went on a family vacation. I dont want to sound like we are bragging. I am not. I just feel really proud of what we accomplished simply by getting real with our money, and working for 365 on making every cent count.
So now that I have a system to track our bills, I am going to stick with it, and make 2014 even better.
So here we go!
It is a really simple system.
Start with a three ring binder! I grabbed a new one this year, because I find it helps to have something that I think is pretty, and will enjoy opening multiple times a month.
I chose the navy blue with gold dots binder for 2014. It goes with my desire to add all little more glitz into our lives. 🙂 You can find them at Target.
Step two- Go HERE and print off the bundle! In this bundle you will have the following forms to take you though 2014:
Fist up we have the monthly payment tracker— for the entire year!
Write in the bills you have on the left hand side. When you pay the bill put a check mark in the “P’ (for paid) column. Once you see that the payment has cleared your bank account put a check mark in the “C” (for cleared) column. I added the “C” column because of AllyAuto. Our car loan is through them, and they have this extra step that I was missing a lot. I thought I had paid the bill, but I never officially submitted it. This is just a good way to double check that ALL of your bills are paid every.single.month!
Then we have the Usernames and Passwords form. This is just for your accounts that you have have a payment for. For example: your credit card would go here, but not your gmail account information. That is put on a different form.
The next one was a game changer for me in 2013. It was our debt payment tracker. Also know as- the SNOWBALL method. Select your debt with the smallest amount owed. but the number “1” in the circle on the left. This debt is now your first priority to pay off. Once it is paid go onto your next smallest bill, combine the amount you were paying on debt #1 to the new debt until it is paid off. Keep doing this until you are debt free.
I kept my top three bills filled out and in the binder. I honestly LOVED filling out the bottom half of this form when I made a payment. It is such an amazing feeling paying off lingering debt. Once the debt was paid we would write in huge letters “PAID” across it. I kept it in the binder as motivation for the next debt.
This is our donation tracker. This is excellent to have on hand once tax time rolls around.
I also have a form for our Home Projects. We have a lot of those in our life, and it is nice to know how much you are spending. It really helps you keep everything within budget.
When you download the bundle you will notice that there are two more pages, that have to do with a cleaning routine. I will be talking about those in a few days.
Next up: I will show you what inserts I have in my binder to make bill payment completely painless and organized.
By the time we are done, we will have an amazing Home Management binder!
Are there any other forms you’d like to have? Let me know, I would be more than happy to create them and add them to the bundle!
Linked Up:
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Bloom Designs
I LOVE these printables but I am not able to print them. It says a drawing error has occurred and/or no pages were selected for printing.
Hi, Tammy! I am not sure why you are getting that error. If you email me onebeautifulhome (AT) gmail.com I will send you the PDF link directly!
love it thank you!!!!
You are amazing!!! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR YOUR WONDERFUL FREEBIES!!!
1 question. Do you have time to spend with you son? Make sure that is your priority, always. We can wait for your wonderful help and encouragements.
Thanks again
Thank you so much!
I work on the blog while Greyson is at preschool and *right now* while he is napping. 🙂 I completely agree that spending time with him (and his little brother in December) is my number one priority!!
xo,
Lindsay
You are so precious! Congraduations on your new baby! I have been praying for you to get out of debt. So if you don’t see any returns on your wonderful efforts to help families getting out of debt, please know I am praying for you. It is ok that you remind me (us) on your posts to keep you in our prayers. And let your readers know what major leaps God is doing in your finances.
There are others like you and I who seem to be stuck in an impossible situation, but remember the battle is not ours, it belongs to the Lord. I am too familiar with the sick feeling you got in your stomach about your husbands school will be paid off when Greson is in college, (did i remember right?)
I love all of this … do you happen to have one for 2015?
Wait I just found it!! Thank you 🙂