Bills, Bills, Bills.

Domestic Issue:
We all have household bills...lots of them...that never seem to end and take way too much time to pay, manage or otherwise deal with. If you are still sorting mail, writing checks and using a ledger, you need help. Serious help.

Corporate Strategy:
Businesses have bills...lots of them...that never end and take entire people and/or departments to pay, manage or otherwise deal with. Most businesses do not use paper to manage expenses anymore and the days of handwritten checks are long gone. When we process invoices at work, we have a grand computer program (some of us SAPers are grander than others) and we move money around without ever touching it. We can keep awesome records of transactions, track payments and receipts with ease and otherwise pay everything on time. Rarely does a US Postal Service stamp touch our fingers!

Domestic Bliss: If you are still sorting paper bills and writing paper checks and sending said checks through the US Mail with a stamp (you didn't lick it, did you?) then you need to BRING WORK HOME!

Here are your options:
1. Electronic Bill Pay - nearly every bank in American allows you to pay bills online. It is so simple that if you haven't looked into it - you're nuts. Electronic Bill Pay allows you to set up all of the entities to whom you pay bills. If they have electronic transfer options - the Electronic Bill Pay system takes care of that for you. If they don't - many banks will cut a paper check and send it out for free!

All you do is log into your account and decide how much you need to pay each entity, set a payment date and ojala! You can do this monthly at your whim - or you can set up an automatic payment for a specific amount each month!

To pay 20 bills (phones, cable, day care, etc.,) it takes me all of 2 minutes (with distractions mixed in) to get it done!

Not only is it easy - but my online bill pay keeps a record of my payments to each biller! So, if I'm wondering whether I paid the Cable bill or not - I can go online and see when the next one went out. And trust me - it's far more reliable than my notes in a ledger...which rarely was correct or used at all!

Bonus Benefit - I can also log in after I open the mail every day - when I get a bill - and set up a future payment for it based on the balance.

Now, this is assuming that you don't already have...

2. Automatic Deductions - if you're not a control freak like me, you might be comfortable letting a company automatically deduct your payments for a bill from your account. I'm most comfortable doing this for something that is the same price, month after month, and something that gives me a discount if I do it - like my Weight Watchers monthly pass.

Having Automatic Deductions cuts down on the number of bills you get in the mail, assuming that you aren't getting them as....

3. E-Bills - many companies will send you household bills electronically, via email. WOW. No more mail! I have done this with a couple of bills - and it's nice, until they end up in a spam filter or I miss them because I was scanning my inbox for the next coupon for Texas Roadhouse, not the bill from AT&T.

But it doesn't get much greener than this! If you get your e-bill and then pay it electronically and then your bank jsut transfers the money to the biller...you've just done it all without lifting a pen, stuffing an envelop or licking a stamp (which I don't think you can actually do anymore...)

Final Word:
If you are still writing checks for most of your bills, you need to stop.

It's nuts to spend that much time and energy on something like this! Sure, it might give you a deep-seated sense of control and responsibility, but wouldn't you rather be watching all of the inflections in Gordon Ramsey's angry tirades on Top Chef while you're drinking your nightly glass of wine, instead of catching snipets of it as you examine, write, stuff and stamp? I can think of better ways to use $.44 these days!

DO - check out Bill Payment options on your bank's website.

DO - sign up for e-bills or automatic deductions, if you are comfortable with that.

DO - pay bills online as you get them - no more mail pile - or late charges!

DON'T - write checks anymore - unless you have to. My checkbook is only used for two purposes: Checks to my mother (reimbursements for things and whatever) and random school fundraisers. However, I can always use my debit card to pay for these too!

DON'T - get rid of your checks completely. You never know...for now.

DO - use your online bill payment stuff to monitor and keep a record of your payments. Gone are the days of hand-written ledgers.