Bills, Bills, Bills | Pad Patter 8/1

Do you pay your bills electronically? Yes. I have all of my house utility bills automatically pulled from my account, even the real estate taxes. I know exactly what date they will be pulled. It is a wonderful tool for budgeting. For the real estate taxes I don't have to fork out the large amount twice a year, just much smaller amounts every month and it gets adjusted on the December payment.

On time? Day of? On time since pulled by vendor. For the credit card bills, I pay them electronically before due date.

Do you pay more to pay things off early? I try to pay the credit card about every 2 weeks at the amount that is on the card at that time. Then make a final payment for anything that comes in before the bill so quite often I'll have a zero statement.

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits) Nope. Credit card is only used for gasoline, online shopping and purchases at stores where I don't want to use my debit card.

As for checks, yes I still have them. I write one once a month for the cleaning lady and for church tithes. My garbage pickup is a small company so they also get a check quarterly. And, this summer I've had a lot of medical bills so I pay those by check. I had a friend send me a refund (she is a CM consultant) through Paypal since I don't use Venmo or Zelle and I couldn't even figure out how to send it to my account... it wasn't showing on the website as paypal cash! It did finally get used for an automatic monthly payment I have through paypal.

 

Do you pay your bills electronically?
Yup...everything is pretty much online. Or in person, if it's a doctor bill and we're there for a visit at the time.


On time? Day of?
As on time as possible, and in advance if our pay schedules line up/allow it.


Do you pay more to pay things off early?
If I can add extra to CC bills then I will. Big purchases, it doesn't help unless you can add a larger addition, our mortgage gives us a schedule for how much $25 $50 $100 etc will actually help to pay down the interest and/or principle.


Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits)
Nope

 

Do you pay your bills electronically? Yes, I use my bank's bill pay option.

On time? Day of? I "pay" the bills via my bank's bill pay when I get them, but schedule payment for the day before they are due. Some payments are scheduled for a year in advance for example my rent payment.

Do you pay more to pay things off early? I don't have a mortgage or other long-term loan payments.

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? Yes. By using my credit cards I can see where my money went. I normally pay my cc in full at the end of the month.

I still carry a checkbook in my purse. I rarely use it, but I have it.

 

Do you pay your bills electronically?
If at all possible, yes. I rarely write a check these days.

On time? Day of?
My husband gets paid every 2 weeks (so twice a year he has an 'extra' paycheck) whereas my pay days are on the 15th & 31st (ish.) My check goes straight into our "house" savings and pays our mortgage and anything to do with the house. We 'live' off my husband's income. I do our budget on a spreadsheet and roughly pay everything as close to on time, or ahead as possible. I try to pay everything either around the 1st or around the 15th so it's easier to budget/balance. About half our bills are on auto pay, so those come out when they are due I believe- or a few days before if I've scheduled it that way.

Do you pay more to pay things off early?
We've always rounded up on our mortgage and loan payments. Right now, we are paying a pretend (to savings) car payment to save up for a new car down payment and to make sure we can swing it with our budget as my daughter will be turning 16 and will need a car to drive. Prior to that- we were making that 'car payment' as extra payments to our mortgage & my car. We're trying to only have 1 car payment at a time, so mine is ALMOST paid off!

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month?
Mostly. We have a pretty nice rewards card where it accrues a dollar amount and you can just use it to pay the card or take the cash. We always pay it off (or transfer $ from the corresponding accounts) every 2 weeks when my husband's paycheck comes in.

We have a interesting checking system, which my husband who has always worked at a bank or now our local credit union swears by. We have multiple checking/savings accounts- Bills (where all the bills come from, there's always enough $$ for bills), Play (certain dollar amount transferred in on payday- when we have no more play money- we don't play anymore! ), House (mortgage & house repairs), Vacation Savings, Savings we dont touch, Savings for each kid and a savings we change the name of frequently- currently it is a Car Savings for the new car downpayment. It seems complicated, but it's pretty easy at each payday to just transfer $ around to the correct spots. This way bills are always paid, we save as much as possible and are trying to pay down debt as fast as possible.

 

I set up a small checking account many years ago that my paypal account is linked to. When I worked I had $25 per weekly paycheck deposited to that account. That paid my cell phone bill and was my digi scrapping money. I also kept less than $300 in it so if it got hacked, the hackers didn't get much. When I retired, I set up an auto transfer from my main checking account at another bank to it. It has now also been connected to my Amazon account and I use it to buy Kindle books or music. That was also my "play" account and is still is! Like you, when it is empty, no more playing...

 

Do you pay your bills electronically?
Yes

On time? Day of?
On time

Do you pay more to pay things off early?
We have started paying more on our house to pay it off early.

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits)
Yes! Can't beat those "free" benefits!

 

Do you pay your bills electronically? yes! I love the ease of digital banking. We still do it manually at the website though. Only a couple of our bills are on autopay. We don't make enough to not worry about an autopay over drafting our account.
On time? Day of? We do the bills on the day my husband's paycheck deposits, or within a few days after.
Do you pay more to pay things off early? We've only done that when we've taken advantage of no-interest deals for appliances or tech (usually at Best Buy). We always pay them off much sooner than than however long the deal is meant to last.
Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits) Never thought of doing that!

We use a budget app (called Good Budget) that works kind of like the cash-in-envelopes method if you know that, and also kind of like Amie's system above but without literally separating out the money. It has categories my husband set up, such as utilities, gas, groceries, etc. so we can track our spending and try not to go over budget. When we can't fit it in the budget, that's when we use the credit card.

 

Oh my gosh! I totally agree with you on the college expense! Our tuition bill doesn't come out until the 5th, but I made the mistake of looking it up today and my son's tuition went up $1800 per semester this year. Ugh! That was unexpected for sure and since we're freaking out about having two kids in college next year, I'm not happy that I will have less to put aside for that overlap! Eeks!


Do you pay your bills electronically?
I pay most of the bills electronically. The only one I don't is our city tax bills because they charge a boat load of extra fees that way.

On time? Day of?
I'm always early! I pay either automatically, or the minute I see an email come in with a bill statement (like our electric and natural gas bills)

Do you pay more to pay things off early?
I don't think I have to pay any more to pay anything off early. I think I did that once with my car and it annoyed me that there was a fee for that.

ETA: I misunderstood this question! Lol. YES! We paid a bunch extra each month and got our house paid off last year. That was awesome and just in time for us to start paying for college!

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits)
We definitely use our CC a lot to pay for as much as we can so we earn free cash back. I always pay the full balance each month. My hubby is the spender in our family, so I taught him early to keep a spreadsheet of what he's spending as he goes, so that once his allowance is gone, he has to stop charging things. I do the main budgeting for our shared stuff and keep track of everything as it's spent too.

 

I just made that first semester tuition payment 2 days ago, so I feel ya! Fortunately, he got a good chunk of change in scholarships, but still...
And yes, college is ridiculously expensive!!

Do you pay your bills electronically? All but 3 of them. My water, sewer, and garbage don't have an online option and charge me extra if I do it through my bank's bill pay system *eye roll*.

On time? Day of? I get paid on the last working day of the month, so I pay everything on the 1st, regardless of when it's due. I do have a couple that come out automatically at the very end of the month.

Do you pay more to pay things off early? I very seldom pay the minimum on anything. My house and all 3 of our cars are paid for, but I do have a couple of outstanding balances on things.

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits) I probably should do that, but I don't. I pay for a lot of things throughout the month on my credit card and then pay it off so I get the points.

 

Do you pay your bills electronically? Yes

On time? Day of? early

Do you pay more to pay things off early? not usually

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits) yes!

Between hubby and I we have 4 checking accounts at 4 different banks & 7 savings accounts at 7 different banks. Most separate and one joint account. It is an odd system but it works well for us... kinda yours, mine, and ours....

 

I have multiple bank accounts ... personal checking, joint checking with my daughter, joint savings with my granddaughter, joint savings with my son, then a number of savings and retirement accounts that are "pay on death" to my son and my daughter's children. It's weird, but it avoids probate and my money goes to the people I want it to go to on my death.

 

Yes, I pay all the bills I can electonically if I can. Most I can except lawn guy I pay cash (now an added expense with DH going to Japan.)

I usually always (mostly) get my stuff in on time. Lately after all the surgeries sickness and hospital and ER visits, and of course rehab, brain fog (its real)

My only Debt is a truck loan. I have been able to pay some things off. If I can, I will.

I pay with credit To accrue points or other benefits for everything I can. WE use our credit card for everything we can. This way, we can monitor our spending. I do have a very good rewards program. We use almost all points for our air travel.

 

I do something similar, but through our budget program. We have a category for things, and so I don't check the credit union balance, I check the budget balance. No Eating out money? No eating out. We joke all the time about being "YNAB poor" because our category says nope, but because of saving for things, our actual balance is pretty healthy. We did the multiple accounts at our last credit union, and while I didn't mind it, it's easier for me to manage 1 checking and 1 savings account rather than moving a bunch of money around.

 

Do you pay your bills electronically? Mostly. Our dentist, plumber, and other service companies charge extra for electronic, so we send them a check.
On time? Day of? Usually early. I sit down about twice a month and reconcile the budget and make sure things are paid at that time until the next paycheck.
Do you pay more to pay things off early? The only thing that applies to is our mortgage. Yep, we send some extra each month. Little by little that extra money adds up, especially since our credit union lets us apply it directly to principal.
Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits) Yes, and no. Yes, we use a credit card to pay for everything (unless there is an additional charge, then I use cash). But, I pay it as we do the budget, so we treat it like a debit card, not credit card. I just got tired of having my debit card number stolen, and while the bank is easy to deal with, the credit card company is easier. And the rewards are extra play money.

 

I basically do the same thing except on a spreadsheet. I started with actual envelopes when I started my road to being debt free in 2009. If there was no cash in the dining envelope, no dining out. Then I found a spreadsheet template that fit my needs. Changed it up a little bit and have been using it since 2012. At the end of the month I make sure the balances on the envelope spreadsheet match the bank accounts spreadsheet. Thankfully because of all the steps I've taken my "balances" in my envelopes are actually enough to cover 2 or 3 months of my regular bills.

 

@HavaDrPepper If it were just me, I would totally still be using a spreadsheet and envelopes. But, having a second person, who's more of the spender, gotta keep it easy for him! So, we use a program with a phone app and website. We tried a spreadsheet, but it didn't work for him and was just frustrating.

 

2 kids in college this year. But they are paying for it. LOL! With scholarships, and living at home (they commute about 35 minutes) it's almost free. We did loan our daughter some money so she could make it through her last semester without having to get a student loan. She'll pay it back to us interest-free.

Do you pay your bills electronically?
Yes!

On time? Day of?
On time

Do you pay more to pay things off early?
We've always paid our cars off as early as we can. Right now we have no car payments...yay!
We have paid extra on our mortgage in the past.

Do you use a credit card to pay all the things, and then pay that at end of the month? (To accrue points or other benefits)
Yes! We have a great rewards credit card through our bank. I pay it off at the end of each month.