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Showing posts from July, 2017

Monthly Payment Tracker spreadsheet

Increasingly the various businesses that I pay monthly (rent, garage, credit cards, phone bill, newspaper bill, and utility bill) are only notifying me that I have a payment due by email or worse, not notifying me at all.  Combined with a shrinking window between when the bill is issued and when late charges start to accrue, there is increasing pressure on me to track my bills. In the past I would accumulate unpaid bills on a designated spot on my desk at home.  The presence of paper bills there told me that I had bills to pay.  When a paycheck rendered me sufficiently liquid to write checks, I would pay them. As the transition to email notification and non-notification has progressed, many of these bill issuers have offered to help me out with this scheduling problem.  All I had to do was give them the ability to directly take money from my bank account in whatever amount they desired and at whatever time they liked. You’re kidding, right? Not all of these institutions are crooked, an