Old school, but still awesome

So the other day mom and I were talking about the new bills we were going to have to pay once her boyfried moves out and the house becomes ours. There were so many things that I just couldn't keep my head straight and I was trying to tally it up and come up with a rough estimate of what our monthly bill total will be and I just couldn't. Mainly because we still aren't sure about a few things. Like whether or not we would have cable or Netflix, or whos name would go under certain bills.

I was getting a bit anxious. I've been waiting tables or bartending for over two years now and the thought of living on a paycheck instead of tips is a bit strange. So I was thinking and thinking about how to keep the bills straight, so I wouldn't overspend and be caught off guard.

This is what I came up with -

I went to the store and bought a big sheet of bright colored poster paper. On the top of it I wrote Month, followed by Bill #1, #2-10, EF contribution, Car Savings and finally the total of it all for each month. Then I made lines for each column, wrote the months going along the left hand side and proceeded to fill it in.

I am really happy with it because now I have a way to keep the bills straight, and I made sure to include enough columns so if a random bill we don't typically have like gifts, or a trip to the vet comes up we can factor that in for the month as well.

I'm going to post it up in my kitchen, where I can be sure to see it everyday.

I know this idea isn't new by any means, but for me it seemed to be the easiest way to keep up with it all.

The board isn't beautiful. I'll probably make a new one and lamanate it and make it SUPER awesome later on, but for now this works.

What about you? How do you keep the bills straight?