It pays to read your bills

You might guess that I learned to handle and pay bills from my parents. However, I only really learned the value of being on time and having the money in the budget.

I learned how to budget from my parents.

But I really learned about bills from Packrat, whom I lived with for two years in college.

Packrat is very good at picking out the details of bills. He possesses a certain suspicion that each one is somehow wrong. Maybe they are? I also learned how to do a good job managing bills among multiple housemates. I believe that skill made living with 4 other people manageable when I was in grad school.

It's pretty common to divide and conquer when you're living with other people. The concept that dividing each bill among the housemates seems simple, but it can be convoluted if someone forgets to pay or suddenly moves out. Also, at the end of the month, everybody has to write a lot of checks to balance between the wildly dissimiliar amounts owed. It gets nasty quickly if someone forgets, or if someone keeps getting hit with a big bill (like heating oil...).

Instead, I took Packrat's route of simply putting all the bills in my name. I payed the bills, everyone payed me. I put the bills and math I used to determine the amount owed on the fridge. The bills were always on time, and if someone was having a bad month, I could spread their amount owed ahead a little until they did have the money. While this requires an individual to step up for a big monthly ding, with a little budgeting, things can be made to balance out. The only real need is to have enough money to pay 1 months bills ahead of time. Everyone in you house will love you for making things easy. It doesn't take long, as long as you can do a little arithmetic.


I also learned to be suspicious of what I was being billed for. I read every bill quite carefully. You can learn alot about what you do and what can be done to you.

Today, I learned that there is a new toll-free prefix out. In addition to 1-800, there is 1-888,1-877, 1-866, and now, as of October, 1-855. This is in a special note at the back of my verizon bill. There is even a reminder to update by call management software to recognize it.

Interesting.