Are there ever small things that you never thought would annoy you, and then this little annoyance becomes a great big pet peeve? 

In our home my current annoyance has been the way that bills seem to accumulate and are never where I need them when the time comes to pay.  When bills enter our house, they typically go into a folder that hangs on a shelf in our kitchen until they head downstairs to the office to be filed.  Some bills we no longer get paper notifications for, and usually get paid as we get the notice in our inboxes. 

However, the phone is upstairs, my computer may be up or down, and it all results in bills that have been paid being in the same pile as bills waiting to be paid and much more paperwork than seems reasonable for a small family of three to have to deal with on a regular basis. 

To combat this I made this quick little sheet to help me organize due dates, amounts etc. and not have to wonder if I can carry that stack of papers or if I am forgetting something.  Now, when a bill comes into the house, I look at them each day, and write on this sheet the next due date, and when it is due.  When I pay a particular bill, I write the actual date it was paid, the amount and confirmation number.  This way I don't have to break out my computer or the filing system to know that we're keeping our budget buttoned up.

This is not a typical budget spreadsheet as it contains no way to add or subtract and no formulas.  I have simply laminated the sheet using my lovely recent birthday gift, and we write in permanent marker as the bills arrive.  Quick tip: If you run over permanent marker on many laminated or white board surfaces with a white board erasable marker, then the permanent marker will wipe right off. 

You can simply print off one of these sheets for each month as well, if it is easier to do so that way and have a permanent record.  Around every payday when we do bills and actually file the bills, I run the sheet downstairs to the office and enter in the info. into our actual budget. 

Download the jpg. here. 

Download the psd. here.

I used this lovely airplane doodle from lil blue boo and the yellow background fabric is a PS Action from the Coffee Shop Blog.  All the rest is mine and may be used for personal usage only.