How To: Pay Your Bills, Bills, Bills

Ok so I'm being overly ambitious and decided I am ready to post Article Number Two. Yes, I know its Friday and I still have another five days before I am supposed to post again. For those of you who know me, I'm sure its shocking to find out that sometimes I can be an over-achiever.

DISCLAIMER: I am by no means an expert on any topic I choose to write about from here on out, but maybe the things that I've gone through or are going through currently relate to you and can help you in some way. At the very least, you can laugh at/with me, remembering that one time that maybe you too felt like a complete moron, as I go through the many Mishaps of an Almost Adult.

This is by far my least favorite topic, my Achilles’ heel, the bane of my adult life… Budgeting. (In my head, this would be followed by an ominous “dun dun duuuuuuun.”) Wouldn’t it be nice to have the Golden Ticket and never have to worry about finances ever again? For me, and a majority of other recent grads, this is definitely not the case.

I ended my relationship with Kinda Broke: Student Edition the day I decided it was time to be financially independent. Despite the fact that I recognize all of the things that were terribly wrong with Kinda Broke and understood that I had outgrown that relationship, I still miss our good days.

On the rebound, I picked up with Completely Broke shortly after and we have been loyal companions for a while now. A few months ago, I decided it was time to have a sit down talk and discuss our differences. Since then, we’ve been in therapy. It was time for a budget.

Living alone added a whole new set of problems to the mix; no longer splitting things like cable bills and electricity had me staring wide-eyed at my empty bank account. I half expected my wallet to have tumble weeds rolling through it, it was so deserted. I finally sat down one night, pulled out my computer and set to work figuring out how to make this all work.

If you haven’t heard of Mint.com (there is a link on the left under Lifesavers for Almost Adults), it is an absolute miracle. I finally decided I needed to give Frugal a fair shot, seeing as how Completely Broke and I were not getting along so well. After inputting all of my information, I took a look at my “Trends”, and the most obvious Trend is that I am a horrible budgeter. Mint was nice enough to provide me with a little pie chart to show me just exactly how inadequate I am at budgeting too!

After I got over loathing Mint and my denial at how dreadful I really am at this, it was time to say goodbye to Completely Broke. My grieving was over and I found myself at the seventh and final stage: Acceptance. Mint offers handy options for laying out a budget, as well as guidelines to help you save for a rainy day, buy a house, pay off debts, invest, pick your nose, etc.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Lay out your monthly bills and work backwards through your budget. Rent, car payments, gas, electricity, water, phone, cable, insurance, etc. all come first. Figure out exactly how much you will spend monthly and plan ahead.
2. If you’re using Mint, check out your little Pie Chart of Shame and figure out where else you’re spending the most money. Is it food? Shopping? Bars? Plan ahead for that category.
3. Cash is easier to keep track of and Mint even has a handy iPhone app that you can enter in how much you spent when using cash as well. The little smarty-pants even asks if it should split it out of your most recent ATM withdrawal. Give yourself a weekly cash limit for things like food and then when it runs out, it’s apparently time to diet.
4. Check your bills to see if any of them have adjustable due dates. My rent is always due on the first of the month, so I like to set my other larger bills to be in the middle of the month since I get paid semi-monthly. If you get paid on a set date, then make the due date shortly after that so you always know you have enough money to cover those particular bills. Its easier to pay it and deal with Broke than it is to be diligent about saving sometimes.
5. If you have more than one credit card, check your interest rates. Always pay the higher ones off first, even if it has a lower balance than some of the other ones! Store credit cards are generally the worst, so pay ‘em off.
6. Don’t be unrealistic with your budget! The hardest part is balancing the obstacle of budgeting with the fact that I still like to do things that cost money. Make a list of extra areas and rank them by priority to you. For me, I have to budget for buying books and getting my nails done. I know. Laugh, shake your head at me, tell me I’m completely ridiculous.
7. Can you pay my bills? Especially these automo’bills. They’re the worst.