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Managing bills

In the short-term, having savings frees you from the stress of living from one payday to the next. Having some money set aside helps you deal with large bills or unexpected expenses. If you use your savings rather than borrowing the money, you won't have to worry about repaying the debt with interest later on. Not only will you avoid paying interest, your savings account will be earning interest for you.

By including your quarterly utility bills into your budget, you will know approximately how much you need to put aside for them each pay period.

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<h1>Tips to better manage bills</h1><p>What type of bills and statements do you regularly receive?</p>
<ul>
    <li>Bank statements</li>
    <li>Utility bills</li>
    <li>Medical bills</li>
    <li>Department store accounts</li>
    <li>Service bills</li>
    <li>Mobile phone bills</li>
    <li>Finance company accounts</li>
    <li>Vet bills</li>
    <li>Credit card statements</li>
</ul>
<p>Many bills for services, like repairs, veterinary treatments and medical bills often require on the spot payment by cash, cheque or credit card. Payment for bills and statements like utility bills, department store bills and statements and credit card statements are usually deferred to some future date.</p>
<p>Below are tips to help you manage your bills:</p>
<ul>
    <li>Compare bills each time they come in and analyse any significant changes</li>
    <li>Keep bills stored and clearly labelled in a file for future reference</li>
    <li>Make sure the amount paid on the last bill appears correctly in the current statement</li>
    <li>Check that the transactions appearing on each bill are correct</li>
    <li>Double-check all transactions against any receipts or dockets and tick them off when they are correct or note any mismatch between the two</li>
    <li>Keep your pending bills together in one designated area</li>
    <li>Do not separate each pending bill into a separate folder</li>
    <li>Designate 2 to 4 regular days per month to pay your bills</li>
    <li>Pay your bills in one place and keep all of your bill paying supplies together</li>
    <li>Record your paid bills immediately</li>
    <li>Place paid invoices/receipts into a bill paying pocket folder book or categorised file folders</li>
    <li>Condense your credit cards</li>
    <li>Prepare envelopes for recurring bills beforehand</li>
    <li>Sometimes credit card companies and service providers billing due dates can be changed for your convenience, which means you can spread out your payment schedule or do it in one fell swoop. For instance, some credit card billing cycles are based on your application date, but you can change your due date to any day of the month you like</li>
</ul>
<p>Start by trying a couple of these tips each month and see what difference it can make to your financial situation.</p>

Tips to better manage bills

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