Forums / Tips & Tricks

Like many other people, I have far too many different bills to pay each month. Keeping track of them all used to be a real hassle, but thanks to Remember the Milk, things are much easier. Here's what I do:

1. For each bill, I set up a new task named after the bill in question and the day of the month it's generally due (for example, my AT&T bill is usually due on the 5th of every month, though occasionally it'll be on the 8th).
2. I set it up to repeat monthly.
3. If it's a bill that has a fixed monthly minimum payment (student loans, car payments, etc.) I add that information in a note, along with the URL to log into the site if online billing is available.
4. Set as priority level 2. I use priority solely so that when I look at my list of tasks in Gmail (using the Firefox extension), which is where I see them most often, I can immediately tell what bills, if any, are due soon. I use priority level 2 because I like the color, but any other level would work just as well for this purpose.
5. Tag as "bill." I saved a search for "tag:bill" so that they're all grouped together.

And that's my setup. When I get my statements every month, I open them up, check the due date and minimum payment and adjust each task accordingly, and then file the statements away so they don't clutter up my desk.

I know this is a really basic setup, but it works for me, and I thought I'd share it in case it's useful for anyone else. Enjoy!

Posted at 7:24am on September 15, 2009