red_trillium (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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actyourwage2012-09-01 08:23 am
red_trillium) wrote in actyourwage2012-09-01 08:23 am
Time Tips?
Does anyone have any tips on how to regularly manage your bills/account but that doesn't take a ton of time?
Our situation: I work full time. I leave the house at 6am, get back at 6pm. I do over half to 3/4 the house work & about 1/3 to 1/2 the cooking usually. My wife has had an increase in her chronic pain levels which means I'm now doing at least 3/4 to all the house work, all the cooking and my usual work schedule & trying to help her with daily things she's having problems with. We're busy at work and going through some Big Changes so I'm also running on low energy so not a lot available. Fortunately we're only just heading into spring but that does mean the gardening is going to start back up, at the very least for our food plants and regular watering.
I've always had a bad bill habit--leaving things until we get paid each fortnight. I've been trying to get better but at this point can't do it as regularly as I'd like due to time and energy being low. As you can imagine this starts a viscous cycle of over spending, dipping into the (diminishing) savings and making me reluctant to face the bills.
How do you stay on top of your bills and balancing your account regularly? Do you do it once or twice or more a week? Do you do certain parts at different times? I've tried to "reward" myself for doing it, I just feel guilty and go without doing/getting something then.
We're hoping that her pain levels reduce back below the spike she had a couple weeks ago, but as she's lived with chronic pain for over 30 years we know they won't go away. I need to get some good habits in place before things do get much worse.
Our situation: I work full time. I leave the house at 6am, get back at 6pm. I do over half to 3/4 the house work & about 1/3 to 1/2 the cooking usually. My wife has had an increase in her chronic pain levels which means I'm now doing at least 3/4 to all the house work, all the cooking and my usual work schedule & trying to help her with daily things she's having problems with. We're busy at work and going through some Big Changes so I'm also running on low energy so not a lot available. Fortunately we're only just heading into spring but that does mean the gardening is going to start back up, at the very least for our food plants and regular watering.
I've always had a bad bill habit--leaving things until we get paid each fortnight. I've been trying to get better but at this point can't do it as regularly as I'd like due to time and energy being low. As you can imagine this starts a viscous cycle of over spending, dipping into the (diminishing) savings and making me reluctant to face the bills.
How do you stay on top of your bills and balancing your account regularly? Do you do it once or twice or more a week? Do you do certain parts at different times? I've tried to "reward" myself for doing it, I just feel guilty and go without doing/getting something then.
We're hoping that her pain levels reduce back below the spike she had a couple weeks ago, but as she's lived with chronic pain for over 30 years we know they won't go away. I need to get some good habits in place before things do get much worse.
no subject
I think it you take care of stuff twice a month/every time you get paid, that should be often enough to keep you up to date on paying things.
If tracking your spending is where you see things taking up more time than you have, maybe someone else will have better suggestions, but I've heard good things about the envelope budget method, if you don't mind working all in cash. That way, you wouldn't have to fuss with saving your receipts and whatnot.
I could also see it helping if you had an envelope for each budget category and put your receipts in that envelope at the time of purchase, so when you go to total everything up, it's already sorted and you just have to sit down for a few minutes with a calculator.
Downside: both of these methods do mean wandering around with a bunch of envelopes or one of those expanding file thingies that people use for coupons or something.
Good luck! Let us know if you come up with a method that works for you!
no subject
One option is to set up 7 envelopes to match 7 days a week--that way I can force myself to put the receipts in daily, and then turn around and actually do my bills each week so I can clear the envelopes out. That's an interesting idea, thank you!