More money management

The task today for the weekly challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons was to create a budget box. It is basically a file box where you keep your bills to be paid, paid bills, stamps, envelopes, etc. I tried that once. I used one of these:


That didn't work for me. I used to keep my paid bills for a long time and read somewhere that it is unnecessary. For most bills, once they are paid, you can get rid of them. I have too much paper around here, anyway, so I am happy to recycle them immediately. (I have to say, it would be nice to have my mortgage statement from last month. I need to register my son for kindergarten and I can use that as proof of residency. It's not urgent, so I can wait for the next one.) Now, I use this box for insurance papers. We are constantly having to deal with our health insurance company about out of pocket expenses. It's perfect for that.

When my bills come in, I mark the due date in the upper right corner of the envelope and put them in this basket:


(I thought about moving the receipts and the candy cane pen before I took the picture but this is a more accurate picture of what it usually looks like.)

I keep stamps & envelopes in the basket.

I pay my bills every Sunday night. I take out the ones due that week and pay them online.

There are a couple things Toni has in her budget box that I will probably add to my binder. Hopefully, I'll update that before the week is over.

Side note:
You might have noticed the baskets in these pictures (and others) as Longaberger baskets. I bought ALL of them before we had kids. Back when I thought we could afford them. Plus, I did sell them for a while so I got them at a lower price and only used the money I made selling them to buy more. Now, I wish I had saved that extra money instead of spent it on these baskets. Live and learn.