Staying on Top of Monthly Bills

Paying bills is not really a fun task, though a necessary one. I'm someone who really dislikes waiting until the last moment to do things. So I like paying bills as soon as they come in. Several years ago I decided to pay all my bills using direct pay method, without sending checks or paying online each month. One reason is that if I'm really busy or am out of town, it's easy to forget which bill is due when. Having everything done automatically avoids late payments and associated penalties. I believe this is convenient and easily doable for someone with a regular monthly income.

My monthly bills include mortgage, electricity, water, internet, mobile phone and Netflix subscription. These are more or less the same each month, so I consider them as fixed expenses.

I have enrolled in direct pay from my checking account to pay all bills. I receive an email reminder before the scheduled date and a confirmation email after the amount is paid. I like this method mainly because there are no overdue bills and it also saves postage fee and envelopes. Even when I'm away from home, my bills are paid automatically. The only thing I have to do is to make sure that the checking account has sufficient funds to cover all bills.

A couple of months ago I contacted my mortgage provider and set up a bi-weekly payment plan. I made sure that there are no additional fees because I've heard that some banks charge extra for such plans. Because there are 52 weeks per year, in a bi-weekly plan there are 26 half payments which means 13 full mortgage payments in 12 months. This means each year I pay one additional mortgage payment. This is one advantage of the bi-weekly mortgage payment plan. The second advantage is, if the half payment is immediately applied, it can lower the principal a bit faster. This doesn't apply to me as my bank waits until the full monthly payment is received before applying it to the mortgage. In theory, I could send one additional monthly payment each year without using a bi-weekly plan. However, this way it is taken care of automatically without having to remember additional payments.
I want to pay off my mortgage as quickly as possible, so this is one painless way to do it.

My goal is to pay off the mortgage early. The sooner the better.

Though bills are paid automatically, it's important to read the bills to make sure there are no mistakes. I don't receive paper bills, so I log into each account and read bills and note the electric and water usage. I also make sure the correct amount is taken from my bank account. I update my expenses spreadsheet at the end of each month, and when I do so I also check bills.

For other expenses such as gas and groceries I use a credit card. For security reasons, I have set up notifications on my credit card account so it sends me a text each time the card is used. I pay my credit card fully each month, and it is also paid automatically.

I have read about the cash envelope system as a way to control monthly expenses. I have never tried it as I always use credit cards. Though I do have a set amount for groceries, sometimes I spend a bit more than the budgeted amount. I have never thought too much about it because I rarely spend more than I earn unless it is an emergency. When my regular income starts again in a couple of months I'd like to use cash for groceries and see how it goes. Hopefully using cash will reduce my grocery expenses further. Plus, I enjoy new ways of saving money , so I will share details when I start my cash envelope system.