4d ago

Anybody end up using physical paper to track bills? ADHD or something is sxrewing me up

I feel like I’ve tried every single app for financing out there. So far ynab does good but I fall off from time to time. Tracking stuff on my phone seems like it’s great in theory for most but I over complicate it every single time.

One big issue for me is sometimes I’ll do a pending payment and it won’t come out for a few days I might forget about it. I end up paying another bill and I end up over extending myself. Doesn’t happen every week but seems like it happens monthly.

Anyone have a simple system for tracking bills due, ones that are pending being paid?

7 comments

I use Actual and any recurring bill is set up as a schedule. As such, I can see it in the appropriate account a week (this amount is customizeable) ahead of its due date. It can be set to post automatically on that due date.
I only pay a waterbill manually, i put it in my digital calendar that i share with my partner (i get an email and a notification when it's time), and put the physical bill on the fridge
sometimes I just pay it when it arrives
don't be too hard on yourself if you can't stick with a routine perfectly, just do your best
I just use auto-pay for all my regular bills. That way I don't need to remember what is due when. That should reduce the need for you to track them, assuming you do have enough money to pay them at the scheduled time. If you still want to log them, fixed amounts like rent/phone/insurance can be done way ahead of time. Variable payments like credit cards or utilities can't be done earlier, but after some time you could start estimating what they will be based on averages.
These are all bills that are due around the same time every month, right? I have a physical sheet of paper with:
a matrix of every monthly bill, marked with dates that are about 1 wk before the typical due date
a second matrix of quarterly/yearly payments and when they are due
(It's actually stored in a spreadsheet, but I check over the spreadsheet file and print a new one every year.)
And then I look at it a few times a month, and pay whatever happens to be due.
I go the extra mile and insist on paper statements for all things that might be variable (like credit card statements). The bills go into a to-do folder, and when I have time to pay bills I go through the pile, pay them, and mark things paid on my sheet. Then at the end of the pile, I review the sheet again to note things that might have slipped.
I do all the bill payment through my bank electronically, so at least I'm not writing checks every time....
I was going to suggest just getting receipts (still only solving part of the problem) and using a spreadsheet. Why overthink it? Then I was reminded by my own ADHD that I haven't screwed around with spreadsheets in a while and am now off to play around with pivot tables. Immediately demonstrating why this is a bad solution.
I use GnuCash for tracking my transactions, but I'll describe exactly how I handle "accounts payable", to borrow a term from big-time accounting.
Firstly, I have scheduled transactions for all bills that I regularly receive, but since the gas or electric bill varies per month, I have the automatically-created transaction use a placeholder value, usually something that is approximate to my average bill. This transaction is scheduled to be created 25 days before the due date, so that it will appear in my accounts register in advance (so I don't overspend and can't pay the bill when it's due), post-dated to when the bill is actually paid.
On this scheduled transaction, I leave a "TODO" in the description field, which is my standard marker for transactions that aren't finalized. Specifically, when there's a placeholder value, I would write "TODO: need bill", which reminds me that I have to see the real bill first. This also implies that no bill payment has been made yet.
After receiving the bill -- which might arrive 25-30 days in advance of being due -- I would then update the transaction to the real value owed. And I would change the description field to "TODO: pay this", as an indicator that the bill still isn't paid yet. Sometimes I've reconciled a half-dozen bills and don't want to log-in to my online banking to pay them yet. I'm lazy; don't @ me lol.
Other times, I'll also do the payment right there-and-then, so the TODO would be removed and the transaction is complete (in the sense that all actions on my part are done, and the ledger is representative of the state of my accounts, now and once the payment goes through). Whenever I want to look at my accounts, the first thing to check is if there are any outstanding TODOs that require my attention. GnuCash lets me easily search the description field.
My accounting process is basically a state machine, leaving myself breadcrumbs here and there, so that I can pick up where I left off, as long as I've made sure to complete each step atomically.
- Speaking of accounts receivable, TODOs, and physical paper, I have a separate system for tracking things I have to do IRL and also things I expect to receive in future. This consists of two lists kept on single sheet of paper, which I keep on my fridge.
  On the left is my TODO list, which records stuff that I need to do, for whom, and by when. Example: "groceries; party supplies; 21 December". Completed items are crossed off the list.
  On the right is my "receivables" list, which records anything that someone else will supply to me. This includes tools being returned to me by friends, as well as parcels in transit to me, plus transactions that I need to be dead-certain have completed successfully (eg property tax bill). These items have an expected due date, or the latest date before I have to follow-up on what happened. For example, I would mark most online orders as expected no later than 10 business days after the order date, or 5 business days after being shipped. The expected date is updated when I learn more. When these items arrive or are complete, I cross them off.
  In this way, I never lose track of packages ordered months ago (as is common for eBay or AliExpress orders), and can also schedule things months in the future that I need to deal with (eg buy concert tickets once available).

7 comments