A bill tracker printable is an easy way to keep track of your monthly household bills and whether or not they’ve been paid. Download my free bill payment logs to help you!
If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that I single-handedly manage all of the finances for my household, including paying the bills, keeping track of our income and expenses, and ensuring that we’re following our budget.
And I’ve been handling all of the finances for the last 15 years, without a single missed payment or overdrawn bank balance, thanks in large part to these income and expense tracking tips.
All of our monthly bill payments are auto-drafted now, which makes it super easy, but for years I would pay each bill manually either by check or online. The only problem with paying each bill by hand is that it can be difficult to keep track of what bills have already been paid and which ones are still due… not to mention the due dates for each one.
But that’s where a monthly bill payment log or printable bill tracker comes in handy!
A bill tracker printable is a great way to make sure that your monthly household bills are paid on time and that you aren’t wasting money on late fees. And, of course, I’ve got loads of cute printable monthly bill trackers for you to use for FREE!
How to Use the Free Printable Monthly Bills Checklist
Keeping track of your monthly bills and whether they’ve been paid or not is super simple with this checklist. Here’s how to use it:
Print out the Monthly Bill Log that you want to use.
I’ve got 6 different bill logs for you to choose from, based on your needs.
The first style is more of a simple one page checklist that can be used for the entire year. You simply check off the month after each bill has been paid for that month. This one allows you to see the full year on one PDF, like this:
The second style contains bill payment information for a single month, so you would need to print out 12 copies to use for the whole year. This one has more information that you can include like the total amount due for each bill, the due date, the date that you make the payment, and the payment method (check number, credit card, etc).
You can download three different designs in this style also:
See how to download all of the free bill payment logs at the end of this post, and use which one works best for your family!
Write down all of your monthly bills on the printable.
First, write down your list of bills on the printable. The order that you list the bills depends on your personal preference, but here are some suggestions:
- Write your bills down in order of due date, with the bills that are due on the 1st of the month listed first.
- List monthly bills by dollar amount, with your higher cost bills (like mortgage, car payments, etc) listed first.
- Write them down in alphabetical order.
- Group the bills by category. For instance, put all housing related bills first like mortgage, utility payments, HOA fees, etc. Then list car related bills like car payments and insurance.
I personally like to list my bills in order of due date, but find what works best for you.
For the more detailed bill log:
If you choose to use the more detailed bill log, then you may need to have two months accessible at the same time (hung on the refrigerator together, next to each other in your planner, etc).
You often receive a bill in the mail, like an electric bill, the month before it’s due. So if you’re going to record the due date and amount due, you will need to have the next month’s worksheet handy. This is true of bills that are variable only, meaning the total amount due fluctuates month to month.
For recurring bills that are the same amount each month (like your rent or life insurance), you can record the due dates and amounts ahead of time or simply add that task to your beginning of the month to do list.
You can also store next month’s bills in a designated filing folder, and get them all out on the last day of the month to add to the next month’s bill payment tracker.
Check off when you’ve paid each bill.
After you’ve paid each bill, simply put a check mark in the correct column. If you’re using the more detailed bill payment log, you can also write down payment details.
With a neatly organized checklist like this, you should be able to quickly determine which bills you have already paid for the month and which bills are still due to help you better budget your money and adjust your spending accordingly.
Common Household Expenses for Your List of Bills
So that you don’t forget to add an expense to your list of bills, I recommend going through a few months of bank and credit card statements and making a list of any monthly recurring bills that you have.
Here are some common household expenses that you may need to add to your list of bills:
Housing Expenses
- Mortgage payment
- Rent
- HOA fees
- Property taxes – If you don’t have a mortgage because your home is paid off (good for you!), then you’ll need to budget for property taxes. You can choose to divide the total annual payment by 12 to get the monthly amount, and then set aside that money each month in a savings account.
Utilities
- Electric
- Water
- Sewer
- Natural gas
- Cable or satellite service
- Streaming TV services
- Internet
- Home phone
- Cell phone
- Trash pickup service
- Recycling service
Insurance
- Home Owner’s Insurance – If not included in your mortgage payment
- Car Insurance
- Boat or RV Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Health Insurance – If not deducted out of your paycheck
- Other insurance you may have, like a personal umbrella policy
Savings and Debt Payments
- Car loan payments
- Credit card payments
- Automatic monthly deposits to a 401K or other savings plan
- Student loan payments
- Automatic transfers to a savings account
Other Household Expenses
With the rise of subscription services that make household management easier (think meal delivery kits or kids’ activity kits), you may have additional services that are billed automatically each month.
Since these expenses are technically recurring payments (until you cancel the subscription), I like to group them in with my monthly bills as well.
Here are some other monthly household expenses you may have to add to your list of bills:
- Preschool or daycare payments
- Meal kit monthly subscription – I personally LOVE Home Chef, but other common ones are HelloFresh and Freshly.
- Satellite radio for your car
- Amazon Prime membership – Some Prime memberships or membership features (like the Kids’ Free Time and Music Unlimited) are billed monthly.
- Steaming music subscriptions – Pandora, Spotify, etc.
- Kid’s craft subscriptions boxes that renew monthly
- Storage unit payments
Free Printable Monthly Bill Payment Logs
Want my FREE printable monthly bill trackers? When you sign up for my FREE email newsletter, you’ll get access to my entire FREEBIES library as a gift! I’ve got over 60 super cute printables in there to help you with all things home management!
Just use the form below, and check your email inbox:
What to Do AFTER You Pay Your Bills
Using your bill tracker printable to check off when each of your monthly bills is paid is a GREAT first step to organizing your finances… but managing your family’s finances goes well beyond just tracking bill payments.
After you pay each bill, you should add the amount that was paid to an income and expense tracker.
*By the way, did you know that the average American family spends $5,102 each month on expenses? That’s a lot of money to keep track of!
For the past 3 years, I’ve been using this budget spreadsheet that I created using Google Sheets. I absolutely LOVE it, and I will probably never use a different expense tracker ever again.
You can check out my income and expense tracker spreadsheet here!
But before I started using this spreadsheet, I tracked my income and expenses by hand in my weekly planner, which also works well, but requires a bit more time to complete all the necessary calculations.
Check out my weekly planner expense tracking system here!
What about you? How do you keep track of your household bills? Do you just have a designated “mail drop” area where your bills go to die (and you hopefully remember to pay them) or are you super organized and slightly OCD like me?
Leave me a comment down below! I’d LOVE to hear from you!
And don’t forget to PIN this post for later!
