The Family Binder- staying organized saves you money

I've mentioned my family binder in other posts, but I haven't ever written about it or what it contains.

[caption id="attachment_1070" align="alignleft" width="540" caption="The front of the Family Binder- Pic of DH and I at Conan last year and the Law and Order:CI Valentine DH gave me"][/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I use our family binder to keep track of bills, our schedules, vehicle maintenance, grocery lists, menu planning, our budget, the groupons and restaurant.com gift certificates. I used some of the pages available to be printed here at Organized Home.  Some of the other pages, like the vehicle maintenance, I use made up a spreadsheet in Excel.

[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The "bills to be paid" folder"][/caption]

Inside the front of the binder is a pocket- I keep the "Bills to be paid" folder in that pocket.  When the bills come, I highlight the due date, and stick them in the folder.  The night before each payday, I pull out the folder and pay the bills.  I mail them on payday. Most of the bills can be paid online, in those cases, I set up the online payment through the companies website the night before payday for those bills that we do not have set up on a re-occurring payment.  By having the car insurance, car payment and electric bill on auto-pay, it saves a stamp and I know the bills will be paid on time.  Only a few of our bills can't be paid online.

I started with a 3 inch 3 ring binder, a package of tabs, and a box of page protectors.

[caption id="attachment_1074" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="The tabs of our binder"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1073" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Table of Contents"][/caption]

I spend about a half hour each week with the book, writing the next weeks menu in the menu planning section, checking due dates on bills, updating our calendar.