5 Budget Tips to Tackle Bills and Prepare for the New Year

The New Year is creeping up whether we like it or not, whispering in your ear...did this year go to plan, did you plan at all, what could you have changed or done better...

I can answer that last part for you, you could have done a simple budget for your bills early! Get a 'boring' task out of the way to help you feel more organised and less stressed in 2024.

I promise once you get through the nitty gritty and have that plan in place, you will feeeel soooo gooood!

Tips and tricks to keep on top of your bills in 2024!

#1 - Jot down the basics

I keep it simple and do this on a piece of paper (it doesn't have to look pretty) and write:

• What I earn (and what my partner earns)

• A list of our bills

• How much each bill costs, and

• When each bill is due.

⚠️Tip - If a bill isn't the same amount each week/fortnight/month/quarter then I look back at the last 3 x bills and find an average amount to note down on my bills list.

I would write this down on my bills list as: Bill Amount Internet $100pm

#2 - Find out how much each bill costs

per pay frequency

Let's say I am paid weekly but have bills that need to be paid monthly; I would divide each monthly bill amount into weekly amounts (divide by 4 as there are 4 weeks in a month) and pay that amount to the bill provider weekly (per my pay frequency). I would write this down on my bills list as: Bill Amount Weekly Internet $100pm $25 Go back a bit you say...pay direct to the provider? Yes, my personal preference is to actually transfer the money to the bill provider each time I am paid. For me this means I am not tempted to spend the bill money throughout the month (and promise myself I will pay it back - but then never do). ⚠️Tip - You may have stronger will power and prefer to have a dedicated bank account "bills account" where you can transfer this money to ready for when your bills are due. This is 100% a personal preference so you do what you feel would work best for you, both options are still simple to action (which is what we are aiming for, simple and manageable steps to take to keep on top of our bills).

#3 - 🛑 Be brutal with yourself

If you are looking at what you are earning and what you are paying to bills and are stressed about whether or not you can afford everything, this is when I would assess my bills. Think about whether you NEED to pay for it, or if you just WANT to pay for it. Determining your wants versus your needs is a big part of planning for your bills, you need to be brutally honest with yourself when you are asking this question. It's not worth the additional stress of potentially defaulting on bill payments for something you don't actually NEED.  For example: I recently checked in on a few of my bills and decided to cancel one of the streaming services I don't use often. I also spoke with my phone plan provider and asked them if there was a better deal they could give me as our cashflow is tight, and they were very accommodating and gave me a cheaper deal for a 12-month timeframe (they get to keep a loyal customer and I save some money - it's win-win!). Just doing these two simple things will save me around $252 per year, which doesn't sound like a lot, but imagine the savings you could get if you did this "check in" for ALL your bills.

#4 - AUTOMATE wherever and

whenever you can!

I cannot say this enough; automate, automate, automate. It takes soooo much stress out of your bill budget planning. Knowing that your payments are automated means not having to constantly think about who to pay and when, it's a great feeling!

How do I automate my payments you ask?

Once I know what amounts I need to put aside weekly for each of my bills I start my automating.

• I log in to my online banking and add reoccurring payments for everything.
  

• Some providers will have bank accounts to transfer directly to and others will have Bpay details to use (with this payment type it generally takes a few days to get to the provider, so I would account for this and make sure my weekly transfers will tally up to the monthly bill total by it's due date even with the 3 day delays)
  

• For a lot of my bills I also round up $5-$10 (if I know I can afford it) so that I am always slightly ahead on my payments - it's a great little safety net and gives me some peace of mind knowing if something happened and I couldn't afford to pay for a month that I am a little bit ahead and can contact the provider, explain my circumstances, they would see I am a regular payer and wouldn't hesitate to give me an extension.
  

• I also always choose for the reoccurring payments to be transferred out of my account at least a day or two after my pay goes in (just in case it is delayed hitting the account for some reason) to avoid having to deal with defaulted transfers/rescheduling of payments.
  

#5 - ✅ Occasionally Check Reoccurring Payments

I don't like the saying 'set and forget' in this circumstance as changes will be needed occasionally, however, it is very close to setting and forgetting, perhaps 'set, check a few times and relax' is a more appropriate saying...although it doesn't have as nice a ring to it. Yes, this is a little extra effort, but it just isn't smart to set something up and never check on it again.

You only need to check in on the payments occasionally to see if you need to adjust amounts / frequency and update as necessary. Perhaps you could start with checking every 1-3 months and could extend the check ins if you find that not much changes.

Simply Productive Thoughts

After all of these steps you should have a simple list of bills you have scaled down (or even negotiated a lower deal on) and reoccurring payments for your providers should be set up.

Now you could choose to do something fun and make your list more aesthetically pleasing by adding your notes to a spreadsheet using fun fonts, colour coding by bill type - utility, food, streaming services etc. and having a running tally of payments to reference with comments on when your reoccurring payments are set for each. Doing something like this can make the bills budget planning more organised and the check in process throughout the year quicker, and more pleasant to look at (personally I am a real sucker for a spreadsheet and some colour coding)!

💟 If you liked these tips and are interested in using a Simply Productive Bills Budget Spreadsheet FOR FREE instead of making your own, all you have to do is subscribe to the blog and we will send you your free spreadsheet via email! 💟

Disclaimer: the above blog contains my personal thoughts and tips that work for me when budgeting for my bills, and what I hope could help you plan for your bills; this is not in any way financial advice.