The perks of paying bills weekly, not monthly
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Trent Hamm Guest blogger
When Sarah and I first graduated from college and entered the 鈥渞eal world,鈥� we paid our bills on a monthly cycle. I would just collect all of our bills in a basket and pay them on the first of the month.
It wasn鈥檛 long before I noticed that I was getting late fees on several of the bills, so I studied them and realized that the best date each month to pay the bills was the 20th as that would avoid almost all of the late fees. I moved to that day.
(Even worse was the fact that some of these 鈥渓ate鈥� bills were actually dinging my credit report, though I didn鈥檛 actively realize it at the time.)
Eventually, we moved. We changed energy companies and internet service providers. We bought a house. We changed cell phone providers.聽
It wasn鈥檛 long before聽paying bills once (or even twice) a month didn鈥檛 really work.聽We were always getting dinged with late fees, even though we were diligent with our bill payments.
Paying bills as soon as they arrived didn鈥檛 always work, either. We鈥檒l check the mail on our way in the house on a busy day and we just won鈥檛 have time to deal with a bill right then and there.
The solution was simple.聽We started a weekly bill payment cycle.
Our bill paying routine is really straightforward.
We have a small basket on the table in our entryway. When we get the mail each day, we leaf through it for urgent items, perhaps pull out some of the junk mail, and then toss what鈥檚 left into that basket.
On the weekend, one of us (usually me) will process that basket. We鈥檒l pull out all of the bills and pay them all at once using online banking.
Having this as a weekly routine has a lot of advantages. First, the pile of mail isn鈥檛 overwhelming 鈥� it鈥檚 just a week鈥檚 worth of mail, so it doesn鈥檛 take聽that聽long. Second, paying all my bills weekly avoids all late fees and all potential dings to my credit score, which directly saves me money. Third, I just don鈥檛 have to worry about things as they come in 鈥� I just deal with it all once a week.
Sure, it takes some time and effort to establish a routine, but this is one routine that鈥檚 really beneficial.
This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available聽at Amazon聽and at bookstores everywhere.聽
