DIY: Corkboard Bill Organizer

Now that we are back from this honeymoon and functioning in reality again, it didn't take long to become apparent we needed a little organization help in the financial department. 

This is especially true for us newlyweds, who are adjusting to each other's bills and income schedules. 

While I'm pretty good at organizing, I don't really like worrying with money. Joseph, on the other hand, doesn't mind taking care of this grown up business, as long as I help him organize what we need to pay and when. 

So, I thought a fun corkboard bill organizer would be a great way for us to keep things ordered, especially since we are both visual and the girl half of us detests Excel spreadsheets! 

One great thing about this is that for the bills that don't change, we can just rotate around the board to different categories (as they apply, obviously). 

If you saw my RSVP tracker, you know I'm kind of into corkboard displays. Since the wedding's over, I decided to revamp those same boards for our bill organizer.

I used simple construction paper to cut out the letters and little squiggly lines. Though it looks a little elementary, it makes me happy because let's be real, bills are NO fun!

My different categories are: late, due, income, upcoming and paid.

Late bills…well, I don't want to sound irresponsible, but I'm a realist here. Hopefully we won't have too many things in this category, but sometimes bills come a day or two before that paycheck you are waiting on gets here, especially when you are a freelancer. (I still find it odd that I'm not at the top of everyone's pay priority, but whatever!)

If we do have bills in this section, we'll know they need to be paid first. The "due" category means these are something that needs to be paid in the coming week or so.

Our income board is VERY important for us to keep track of mostly because of how my money works. Joseph's paychecks are pretty easy to track….every two weeks, same amount type thing. Since I freelance, I can usually keep track in my brain of what I have coming and when, but trying to communicate that is difficult. So, I organized it by the date we each get paid and how much comes on those days. Works for us!

Upcoming bills are just what is ahead for the next month, so as the end of month creeps up like it does, we can try to watch out for those beginning of the month bills.

And paid, well that category is just so we can have a little gratification of moving that pin over and seeing our progress. When it's all paid, we'll have a good idea of what kind of money we have left for other non-bill expenses.

How do you organize your bills? Oh, grown up life!

—Holli Anne