[Cody Dawg]

Do you pay all your bills at the end of the month or at the beginning? I pay all bills on the 1st of each month. If you have credit cards do you pay them all off each month or do you pay a balance (some people are carrying balances after the holidays.) Don't have any credit cards with balances, just one car payment and a mortgage.

I hate paying some bills (like my power/electric bill was $561.00 this month, up $200, because of the holiday lights that decorated our house and yard last month), but I feel so relieved when they're paid.

I'm astonished at the amount that bills add up to, however. My basic bills per month, exluding mortgage and car payments, are about $1000. That's also excluding food. That's just bills like electricity, water, insurances, cable, telephone, cell phone, etc. Electricity alone is about $350 a month. Oh, and that doesn't include health insurance which we pay another $550 a month for but which is deducted from my husband's paycheck so we never see it. (His company pays 50% or another $550 for a total of $1100 for our monthly family health insurance.)

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

(like my power/electric bill was $561.00 this month, up $200, because of the holiday lights that decorated our house and yard last month)

And again, for emphasis:

[nbnz]

Most of my bills are paid by standing order or direct debit on the 1st of each month. Any bills not automatically paid I pay as soon as they arrive. Credit cards I pay off as soon as the charges come through.

It might not be the most effective in terms of using maximum free credit time, but I find it's best for me to always have a clean slate.

[macroy]

Yea - usually may gas and electric bills total $200 at the most (150 gas and 50 electric in winter and vice versa in summer). However, the last two months... my gas alone was about $310.....

I usually schedule my electronic payments as I get the bills... most are set to be sent out 3-5 days before due - depending on if its electronic or mailed from the bank. I also use my credit card to pay my non-credit card bills if they allow that (more points!!!).

[Cody Dawg]

Interesting!

I pay all my bills online or I call the company directly and pay the bill. I don't trust automatic debits as I once had a company (FPL - electric) debit my account $3200 instead of $320

I like knowing that EVERYTHING is paid "up" at the beginning of each month.

I also am very grateful to be able to pay all my bills in full. I know that some people cannot.

I do work hard, though, for our quality of life. Like right now - I work at home about 40 hours a week and my spouse works about 60 hours a week.

[Cody Dawg]

macroy: Do you mean "gas" as in gasoline for your car or natural gas for your home?

If we're saying that gasoline is a "bill" then, gosh, I didn't include that either. Our gasoline bills a month average about $300 to $400 a month for two vehicles. One is a truck and the other is a Suburban (which some of you will say is also a truck) and I drive the Suburban back and forth to my son's school and to the grocery store. Probably put about $100 a month into that beast ($70 to fill it up right now) each month.

[andi*pandi]

pay them as they're due, none of them are due at the same time, so usually every paycheck I see what's due and pay that next. I use my bank's billpay for most, saves time.

my husband pays the electric and oil, so I don't know what those are. We split the mortgage, I pay telephone, cell, internets, etc.

[Cody Dawg]

Wow!

You actually each pay half of the mortgage - separately?

Independent woman!



I pay ALL of the bills. My husband puts his paychecks into the bank weekly (he gets a weekly paycheck and a weekly automobile allowance of about $200 a week) and his bonus check monthly and I pay all of the bills.

I make money and he doesn't care what I do with it. He says, "It's your money, just do whatever you want." I've been socking it away for college funds for the kids and whatever comes up. I feel like I owe it to our marriage to reimburse our savings account for the debt that I incurred (before marriage) as outlined below, so I really do try to save it.

This is good for two reasons.

1. He doesn't worry about those things
2. I know exactly how much money I CANNOT spend on frivolous things

I used to carry huge credit card balances and pay them monthly until a couple of years ago when he sat down and tallied up my credit card bills (they were from before we were married and added up to over $80,000) and told me that at the rate I was going I would pay, like, an extra $200,000 in interest by the time they were paid off if I paid the minimum on them as I was doing - and didn't add any debt at all. I was really shocked.

So, we paid off every credit card that month and made a deal that there would be no more credit cards except for AMEX and Visa associated with our local bank and that would be paid off monthly and AMEX never used unless necessary.

Anyway, now I'm a lot more responsible about bills and debt. Our savings took a huge hit, but I'm trying to rebuild it. With expenses, though, and inflation, it's hard.

[ReggieX]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Do you pay all your bills at the end of the month or at the beginning? I pay all bills on the 1st of each month.

Why on the first? I pay mine as soon as they arrive. Get bill in the mail, sit down at the Mac, pay bill. Bam! Done for another month.

[macroy]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

macroy: Do you mean "gas" as in gasoline for your car or natural gas for your home?

Natural gas. Thus its lower in the summer since its only used to cook and heat the house. I have no clue what I spend on gasoline... I rather not add that up.....<shudder>

I use direct debt only for certain things.... usually then one's that I have confidence in through good CS and experience (i.e USAA, Equitable)... although I'm doing that with comcast (which I have no confidence in) right now because they can't seem to understand how to switch credit cards.....freaking idiots.

[JoshKurtz]

I'm like ReggieX in that I pay them as soon as I arrive. My wife and I stay away from credit cards right now since we don't have the extra money to pay them every month. If we used them we'd be in debt up to our eyeballs.

[Cody Dawg]

I pay them ALL on the first of each month.

I don't even check the mail every day so some just sit there in the mailbox for days. I don't know why, but I could care less about getting my mail - it's right at the end of my driveway. Some days the mailman brings me the mail because the mailbox is so full that he can't fit one more piece in. I give him a bottle of Coke and send him on his way with thanks. It's an idiosyncracy of mine and probably not a good one.

The FedEx person is here just about every day to drop off business mail or pick up business mail for overnighting, but I don't care about regular mail. It's usually bills and why run out to get those? And I hate junk mail and never read it.

Before I got married I had a personal banker pay bills for me. I am not stupid, but I just didn't want to be bothered to sit down and pay bills. They did it for me and I paid them to do it. Then I moved and I decided to do things on my own and I could never quite get them all paid on time. Spoke to a CPA and he is the one who said, "Sit down on the first of each month and pay every single bill so that you know that all the bills are paid."

I did that and that's when I just saw the amount that said "Minimum due" on each credit card and I would round it up to the nearest hundred and send in a check and that's why the debt didn't decrease on credit cards. That habit carried over into marriage.

It's a good thing my husband got involved or I'd still have tons of unhealthy and unnecessary debt. He "showed me the way" when it comes to debt.

[Scotttheking]

I have bill pay setup to pay them so they arrive 2 days before they are due.
Unfortunately, BofA won't auto pay the full balance of Citibank credit cards for whatever absurd reason, so when I get notification of that bill I have to go manually set it to pay.
All of my bills that debit from my account (the others just charge to the CCs) happen to fall a few days after the 1st of the month, so I have an auto transfer into my checking account on the 1st. If I need more I manually transfer a little more.

--Scott

[Cody Dawg]

Oh, gosh, guess I'll just post again instead of re-editing since it won't post there at the previous post.

Aren't you afraid of giving too much leeway or power to "automated payments," Scotttheking?

[only120xs]

I have alarms set up in iCal for every bill that comes in (except for car/house insurance which only come every 6 months or 1 year) 10 days before they're due. I pay them as soon as the alarm pops up (you can't get the alarm out of the way, so it makes you pay it right away!)

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
(like my power/electric bill was $561.00 this month, up $200, because of the holiday lights that decorated our house and yard last month)

And again, for emphasis:

I second this

ps - I use my banks bill pay feature for everything also, but I manually enter most of them each time since they change.

[andi*pandi]

I love billpay, but autotransfer scares the heck outta me. I don't have enough "cushion" in my account to cover if, say, the cell phone bill decides to double. And by using billpay I at least check in with my account, look over the balance, see if there are any wrong charges, etc.

we split the mortgage because neither one of us can usually afford to pay it all at once, and we don't have access to each others checking. I carry a balance on CC that I pay off pretty quickly (charging the course fee for school is killer).

the lack of cushion worries me, if I didn't know that he had stocks etc. But he runs up his CC and then takes forever to do a transfer. :|

[Cody Dawg]

I read somewhere that the AVERAGE electric bill in my area is $421 per month. People with big pools have a power bill that is over $500 monthly.

Our power company, FPL, socks it to everyone. No wonder they recently announced "record earnings" while at the same time notifying every FPL customers to expect bills to go up ANOTHER 3% due to hurricane repairs - this just after 3% added on last year.

[Cody Dawg]

andi*pandi:

Do you have overdraft protection? If not, get it. I have $5000 on our account and it's a Visa overdraft. I don't like to keep excess funds in checking either and I ran into the same problem once in a while so I got overdraft. Some banks will let you use a savings account as overdraft also.

[wdlove]

Hi Cody,

I pay my bills as they arive in the mail. Setup the payment date at my bank online. Like to pay all my bills in full each month.

[Scotttheking]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Oh, gosh, guess I'll just post again instead of re-editing since it won't post there at the previous post.

Aren't you afraid of giving too much leeway or power to "automated payments," Scotttheking?

No. No one has direct debit ability to my account. I receive the bills electronically. For some of those bills, it will auto pay the full balance 2 days before the bill is due. For the citibank credit cards, which it has a bug and thus doesn't pay in full, I manually set it to pay the balance 2 days before it is due. If a bill comes in that is wrong, I'll just cancel payment on it and call whoever made the mistake. I still maintain control and final authority over what happens and when.
If I had something that had to auto debit from my account, I'd setup a separate account for that.

I should probably setup the CCs to auto pay the minimum due just incase something where to happen where I can't deal with bills for a month (aka in a coma)...

[nerd]

I auto debit my car payment since it's the same bank as the loan. I also auto debit my mortgage. All the rest of the bills I use online bill pay and will pay them when they come in. If I don't have the cash in the bank then I schedule the bill for the next payday.

[Dork.]

This is the only area where using Quicken actually helps me out -- in all other ways, Quicken sucks.

Quicken has a "scheduled transactions" feature where you can put in all your recurring transactions. You can make it repeat until you shut it off, or you can make it run for a certain number of payments. If you have a loan, it can figure out how much of the loan payment goes toward principal and how much goes towards interest. I never miss any payments, because Quicken keeps track of all the dates for me.

Twice a month, I sit down and schedule all my payments via my bank's bill pay service. I get paid every two weeks, so the date of my payday varies from month to month. So I do need to put some thought into when the bills get paid.

I never did understand the "separate accounts" thing. My wife and I had a joint account since before we were married, because I was in Grad School and she had just started working when we got engaged. We've never had a problem with determining whose money goes where, since we've always considered it "our" money. But I guess what works for us won't work for everyone....

[sek929]

December's gas bill: 87$

January's gas bill: 270$

We actually used less in January too, damn price hikes.

I pay my bills at some point in the middle of the month (when all bills have arrived) I then fire up my phone and the internet and give my checking account a beating.

[Cody Dawg]

WOW!

That's SOME price hike!

[KeriVit]

I pay bills once a month regardless of when they are due. I got ahead of those due earlier. I pay them all online with a few here and there by check.

Just paid off $20K in credit (over 8 mos.) But, now my tuition is on a credit card till my house sells and I pay as much as I can afford on that.

[The Godfather]

I am just glad I don't have a POTS, XM, Sirius, Cable, Satellite, car payments, Napster, or student loans.

[ghporter]

We pay bills sort of when they arrive, except for the mortgage and a few others. We pay the mortgage at least a month ahead when my pay hits the bank. A few others tend to need budgeting for as well, so they get paid when the appropriate income hits our bank.

We use the bill pay feature through our bank, Wells Fargo, and it's great. Typically we don't worry about having the payment credit just before it's due-we just go ahead and pay it.

And we DO NOT use any automated payment system. Nope, don't trust 'em. It's much better for us to know that WE actively and intentionally paid everything on our schedule than to wonder and have to check on how some automated thing is doing.

[macforray]

I "schedule" them when they arrive with my online bill payment service. I schedule them to arrive just before their due date so I have use (interest) of the money as long as possible. I used to pay all in full every month, but unfortunately am now carrying some credit card debt (oldest just started college in the fall). Two car payments, mortgage, utilities and gasoline are the big ones. Just rec'd my gas / electric bill for January...$335. The gasoline bill was $350 for the two vehicles. These used to be about $200 each before the increases. I'm not sure I can maintain my "middle class" status much longer.

[macroy]

Originally Posted by Dork.

I never did understand the "separate accounts" thing. My wife and I had a joint account since before we were married, because I was in Grad School and she had just started working when we got engaged. We've never had a problem with determining whose money goes where, since we've always considered it "our" money. But I guess what works for us won't work for everyone....

Hm... interesting.. Come to think of it - my wife and I also do not have any joint accounts. Been together for almost 15 years.. and married for about half that time. Its definitely not by design.. just never bothered I guess. I've always paid the bills... and just saved her money (or, OUR money that's in her account )

[Cody Dawg]

I know. I, too, am puzzled by separate accounts. It seems to allude to a lack of trust in the relationship?



"You pay this and I'll pay that."

"No, I'll pay THAT and you pay THIS."



"This comes out of your account, okay?"

"Well, if you remember, I paid THIS out of my account LAST month, so why don't you pay this out of YOUR account this month?"

I mean, I just don't understand? All of the bills have to be paid so why separate monies if you're married?

Anyway, to each his own I guess. All I know is that if my husband said, "We need to have separate accounts and by the way, you need to pay me half of the mortgage each month," I would have been so long gone. I would never, ever, say something like that to someone I love, "Hey, you owe me money." It's one for all and all for one until death us do part," remember?

I have to laugh by this because I remember one night going with my husband, who was way back when just a person I'd had a date or two with, and I had to go to Office Depot and pick up some printers and a couple of laptop computers on a company card. Well, I got up to the register and the bill was $5600. The card was declined for the amount - over limit. He didn't realize that I was trying to buy for my company and boss and thought that it was a personal purchase. Quick as a wink he pulled out his own credit card and said, "Here, put it on that." I just looked at him in amazement - I'd known him for about 2 weeks at that point. He shrugged and smiled and said, "Hey, it gives me a chance to come around and pick up a payment here and there so I'll get to see you - you can't kick me to the curb as fast." It was very sweet, very trusting, and kind. I explained to him that it wasn't my purchase, but it was such a sweet gesture on his behalf.

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

I read somewhere that the AVERAGE electric bill in my area is $421 per month. People with big pools have a power bill that is over $500 monthly.

Our power company, FPL, socks it to everyone. No wonder they recently announced "record earnings" while at the same time notifying every FPL customers to expect bills to go up ANOTHER 3% due to hurricane repairs - this just after 3% added on last year.

Isn't that less than inflation anyway?

[itai195]

My wife and I have a joint checking account and separate accounts,and all our savings accounts are joint accounts. Joint checking account holds all our income for bill paying, household stuff, etc. Most bills are auto charged to an Amex, which consolidates things nicely. Separate checking accounts are just for our own little personal 'allowances.' Works nicely, because that way we each have a little stash of our own money we can save/spend as we each want without breeding resentment (e.g. my wife spends big money on spa treatments, I have a bit of a video game habit). Also helps to prevent overspending on personal stuff.

[andi*pandi]

it's not about trust, convenience more like. If we had one account, it would make more sense for one of us to do the chore of writing all the bills. We share all the chores, sooo... If we really needed to both our names are on the checks. He likes etrade, I like being able to go to a local ATM to make deposits.

My momma taught me to always have my own accounts, credit rating, etc. And to marry a man that does laundry.

[Cody Dawg]

I see.

Well, we do all of that, but we share the same accounts and each of us has an ATM card to make deposits into the same account, etc.

All I can say is if it works for you then

Oh, and never argue with your momma.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

I know. I, too, am puzzled by separate accounts. It seems to allude to a lack of trust in the relationship?

My cousin and his wife do this. I thought it was bad at first too, but then he explained that it's because she's terrible at managing her money. She'll spend every bit of money they have if she could, just because she doesn't see how all the little things add up. Like going to lunch with her friends every day, instead of bringing lunch from home. So she'll spend her account down to $0 within a week of getting paid, and he'll have to give her money for the rest of the month. If they didn't do like this, she'd spend all the money set aside for bills.

Sounds silly, I know, but it works for them and they're perfectly happy... So whatever.

[wdlove]

Hi Cody,

During our marriage of over 33 years, we have always had joint accounts. No separate accounts. I'm the one that pays the bills.

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by jasonsRX7

My cousin and his wife do this. I thought it was bad at first too, but then he explained that it's because she's terrible at managing her money. She'll spend every bit of money they have if she could, just because she doesn't see how all the little things add up. Like going to lunch with her friends every day, instead of bringing lunch from home. So she'll spend her account down to $0 within a week of getting paid, and he'll have to give her money for the rest of the month. If they didn't do like this, she'd spend all the money set aside for bills.

Sounds silly, I know, but it works for them and they're perfectly happy... So whatever.

That's a little different, it's more of an "allowance" concept, rather than a "lets not pool our finances" concept. And I agree, if it works for them, great!

[wdlove]

Originally Posted by Dork.

That's a little different, it's more of an "allowance" concept, rather than a "lets not pool our finances" concept. And I agree, if it works for them, great!

My wife gets a weekly allowance.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by wdlove

My wife gets a weekly allowance.

of WHAT ?

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by wdlove

My wife gets a weekly allowance.

eff that!

[Ganesha]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

I hate paying some bills (like my power/electric bill was $561.00 this month, up $200, because of the holiday lights that decorated our house and yard last month), but I feel so relieved when they're paid.

How about teaching the kids to turn off the lights? My power bill (for a 3 br house) runs around $60.

In any case, I pay bills the same day (or day after) I get them in the mail.

[teknopimp]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

...my power/electric bill was $561.00 this month, up $200, because of the holiday lights that decorated our house and yard last month...

say goodbye to your christmas boners, er, bonus (or boners?).

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

eff that!

"Allowance" makes it sound worse than it really is. All it is is a bucket of "fun money" that someone can use on whatever they need to, or want to, without feeling guilty about blowing the whole wad. I'm sure that Mrs. wdlove doesn't mind that wdlove makes room for that in their budget!

[Cody Dawg]

My kids DO "turn off the lights."

I have a "smart house" meaning that each room has sensors in it that detect motion (built into the alarm system also) and when it detects no motion at all for 15 minutes it cuts the power (lights and electrical outlets) off except for certain outlets (where a computer might be plugged in for example.) I have the air conditioning/central heat calibrated to be certain temperatures at night versus the day. I also bought a brand new central air/heating system last year - after I replaced the roof and re-insulated my home.

My house is pretty electricity-efficient.

[andi*pandi]

what people may not realize is that living in FL, you have the A/C on pretty much all the time, right? my folks do. And that adds up.

[Cody Dawg]

Yeah, yer right, andi*pandi.

It's even on when it's set at the same temperature as it is outdoors because we need to dehumidify the home or else everything mildews.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

It's even on when it's set at the same temperature as it is outdoors because we need to dehumidify the home or else everything mildews.

What ?

So outside, without A/C, everything mildews ?
Didn't notice that the last time I was in FL.

[Cody Dawg]

Yes. Hang your suit outside, put your fabric sofa outside, even in a covered area it will mildew.

[macforray]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

I read somewhere that the AVERAGE electric bill in my area is $421 per month. People with big pools have a power bill that is over $500 monthly.

Our power company, FPL, socks it to everyone. No wonder they recently announced "record earnings" while at the same time notifying every FPL customers to expect bills to go up ANOTHER 3% due to hurricane repairs - this just after 3% added on last year.

I'm very glad I bought FPL stock in July. A little depressed now, but if you promise to keep your lights on I'll be your best friend on MacNN.

[JoshuaZ]

I have ignored two NTT phone bills for two months now. I never use my land line phone. Ever. Yet I am required to have one. I hate paying 4,000 yen a month for something I never use. NEVER. I should pay those bills.....