Financial Organization Pt 3: The Binders

Ahh... The Binders 

These are my transition points from my filing cabinets and between my once cluttered mail station. 

I now keep my weekly bills (necessary for tax purposes for our home office) in my financial organizer. 

When the organizer is full

 (after about 4 months it's fairly bursting)

 I transition my bills to my Binders. 

At one point, I had only one binder, but it soon was bursting at the seams as well.

 I had so many categories and so much to put in. 

Supplies:

   3" binders

Page/protector

 Dividers 

I originally used the white binder for everything financial. I prefer binders with pockets so I can shove unsorted bills, letters, etc. in there for later 

Dividers I also prefer with pockets for the same reason but without works just fine. Even though I repurposed, if you care about ease of reading your divider tabs, I would recommend purchasing all of them at once and getting them larger than the page protectors if possible. Ones with pockets are usually larger than the cheaper ones without. 

Now....How do I separate and categorize these binders? 

 White Binder: Financial Binder 
My categories are
Banking Info (statements, account information, etc) 
Cars (maintenance receipts, purchase records, insurance)
Financial Peace Documents (budgeting items, sheets, debt notes) 
Credit Cards
Utilities
School Loans

All these items I rotate out every year these items and put them in their proper folders in our filing cabinet. I always defer to Clay about how long we keep these files on hand.

Pink Binder: Personal Binder 

My categories are

Personal: Any separate entity information, such as personal accounts that will be helpful (forgive the morbidity and God forbid) if anything should happen to either myself or Clay. This category was inspired by my mother's passing and seeing how her organization greatly assisted us in taking care of her personal accounts; accessing emails, where she had banking accounts, etc. 

Dogs: All three pups' vet information, adoption papers, and other things they need 

House Information: receipts of our house updates, etc. 

Medical: Lab results, bills, etc. 

Debt Payoff Letters: these are so satisfactory to keep. I keep such a special notes as a constant reminder of debts paid in full. 

Pay stubs

Reimbursement receipt (for our over the counter purchases)

Donations (such as to our church, Goodwill, etc) 

                                                        Pocket Protectors:                         

Every company has its own pocket protector. A year's worth of bills stacked on top of each other fit with little wiggling into one pocket protector.  

I tried them in separate folders hole punched to fit in the binder but, everything just fits so much more snuggly in the pocket protectors and the transparency helps when searching for specific companies or bills. 

 I hope this all has been hopeful! All these tools have helped a great deal for me to keep a previously messy stack of papers into something easily navigated and accessible. 

Thank you!

Financial Organization Pt 2: Oh, Pretty Organizers!

Oh no! My trusty White Board and calendar are packed away, waiting for a move to our new house (whenever THAT may be) I need ways to keep track of bills, debt. If I don't, I will get so caught up in projects and day to day life, I forget what day it is. What do I do? 

Never fear! Remember, you have your planner in your purse. Remember on your best days you like to color code events anyway, just use your planner as your wall calendar and add the bill schedule to it. (Yes, I'm one of those people!) ***

Here's the planner I purchased in July at Wal-Mart. 
It's small enough to fit in my purse (always great for making appointments on the go), but because it is landscape styled, I can write multiple event on the actual days. I need the visual (usually coded with more color variety than you see here) of events in those neat little blocks. On the other page are three lists, such as Do, Call (shiver) and Buy.  Most helpful.

The brown pen marks? Those represent the monthly bills schedule. Most are listed on the calendar a couple of days before they are actually due so I will hopefully remember to schedule them before their due date. 
For example, On the 30th, I have written "Schedule 1st Bills" to remind myself that hey, bills are due on the first! Just because you can't see the first doesn't mean bills are not due! 

A couple of down-sides to a planner only VS planner and wall calendar...
1- I don't remember to ask Clay for his work schedule so I have found myself at a loss when making dinner (when I do...haha) for when he will be home. inevitable I think, oh, he'll be off at 6, but he arrives home at 5:30 instead, or sometimes dinner is cold because he gets home at 7 instead. Whoops. 
2- Plans with family and or friends can be a little more complicated to keep track of. Used to be we would write it on the calendar for both of us to see, plain as day. This just means we have to communicate more...Ok, maybe not that bad of a down-side after all. 

When I bought our calendar last year, I couldn't find one with pockets in which to store our monthly bill stubs. What could I do? They piled up on our mail center and it was getting a bit ridiculous. I need to keep utility stubs for tax purposes because we claim our home office. Hmm. 
In August, I was at Dollar General and found this sweet thing for $3

Hmmm.... not only a ledger but, oh look! Pockets!! 

My excitement was just a little bit silly, I admit, but it really has helped me fill in our financial organizational dividend. I write it all in pencil too, so it can be updated.
There are columns for due date, the bills, the amount, and the ever-important paid check-marking space! 
Extra spots to check mark? 

CHECK! 


I began using this organizer immediately to store all those stubs. I continue to use this even after my White Board comes back. Especially to keep the bills organized. 

Yes, dear organizer...you shall be used until you fall apart. Being from Dollar General, I hope this is much much later in the future than one would expect. 

Tother day I removed the stubs from August through December and put them in 

THE BINDERS 

What are these you ask? Why next posting I shall show you. :) 

***Yes, I do have a smart phone and realize that there is an app for that. The calendar and reminders can exponentially help some people with everything I've shared here. However, as a visual/hands on learner, I very much prefer, and remember photographically when I write down events on a paper calendar.