How do you organise your mail, bills, etc? Need help!

squiggles

I have one of those concentina folders where i store everything.I also have a little blue plastic wallet thing for my rent card and poll tax,i put all bills that need paying in the blue wallet too so that i dont forget to pay them.Then once they are paid i pop them into their own section in my concentina file (from poundland).

Lillibet_2

Another vote for the concertina file from me:wave:
If you're really disciplined then set aside a regular time each week to pay bills, shed out of date stuff etc. If not, deal with it daily as it arrives. it's the only way:rolleyes:

HTH;)

[Deleted User]

I have a concertina file. Anything urgent gets dealt with straight away. I try to sort my desk every week at the latest as it can soon build up

Mr_Proctalgia

I have tried to get as much as possible on-line and through direct debit, now when I get a statement I read it and shred it. I used to scan my pay statements an shred those too. Obvious spam goes straight in the shredder too! With regard to stuff you need to keep, my TV licence is cellotaped to the back of the telly, house insurance lives in its envelope behind the mirror on the fireplace, all car stuff lives in the folder with the owners manual. Private stuff goes in a floor safe.The trick is to have as little paperwork as possible, registering with MPS is a good start.

wishingonastar_3

i have a concertina file too, and i go through everything on a sunday night, when dd is in bed, sort out all bills that need paying and file everything away. before then it lives in a tray on the shelf, although all junk is shredded each night.

Bargain_Rzl

Oh I'm hopeless with stuff like this! I know where it all is, but it's in no order.

However I was delighted to note recently that Lidl were doing packs of six coloured cardboard wallets (the type that's just a piece of folded card with an elastic fastening) for 99p a few weeks ago, so I picked up a few packs and am in the process of having a sort out.

I don't have to worry about utility bills cos they're all in my housemate's name and he keeps them filed - I just write him a cheque once a month for my share of whatever's come in.

But once I'm organised I'm hoping I'll have a shelf divided into sections like this:

Section 1: papers linked to work and income - i.e. files for payslips, tax documents, pension statements, employee share scheme paperwork.
Section 2: banking & credit cards, one file for each account
Section 3: miscellaneous - i.e. contents insurance, storage bills (I rented a storage unit up to last March), mobile phone
Section 4: receipts from major purchases

But this really isn't my strong point - I'm very mentally organised (everything paid on time, everything reconciled) but not practically so...

HOLsale

RachelD wrote:

I've found the most important thing in organising mail etc is to have a bin near where you open your letters and immediately put anything that you don't want in the bin. It's amazing how much of the mail ends up there and it avoids double handling.

when i open my post i make piles around me

recycling paper
recycling envelopes
work papers (i'm self employed)
bills
envelopes i can keep for ebay etc
misc

i then put away both sets of recycling papers and any envelopes or bubblewrap i can use for my ebay/amazon sales

i have a box that has 5 open shelves that pull out that i have labeled for different things so i put the bills on the bill shelf, the misc on misc and the work on my work shelf

then i deal with any bill that need manual payment once per week and the misc and work things as needed i do 99% of my payments by direct debit so the bills tend to sit there til i get around to filing them perhaps once per month

work papers get dealt with as soon as i'm finished as i need them for tax purposes so i don't want to risk them getting misplaced

wigginsmum

I have as many direct debits as possible, so rarely have any actual bills which need paying. All post is opened on the day, rubbish shredded instantly, and useful stuff put in a tray and filed once or twice a week. Filing is 2 lever arch files with dividers, and the shredder sits next to my desk.

*Louise*

When the post arives, I open everything and sort it

Bills etc go into a small basket

Junk mail goes into the recycling box

Padded envelopes/Bubble wrap goes into the ebay packing box.

At the end of every month, I sit and do the bills - there's not too many because most are DD, I just pay the variable ones by cheque.

The statements go into a lever file, and are kept for 2 years, sometimes a little longer, depending on the company.

black-saturn

Have you thought about paying as much as you can by Direct Debit? I pay all my bills by DD (but when I had credit cards to pay I used to pay over the counter for those). I arrange them so they all go out of my account on around the same day and work out how much is going out of my account on that day and just make sure that amount is in there. Then abot once every 3 months I get a statement through the post telling me what I've paid and if they owe me any money back. I put that statement in an A4 folder which has subject dividers in it for each different bills.