School and sports are now in full swing, vacations are over, and it seems like we are running full speed into the holiday season.
With so much on our plates it can be easy to forget to take care of the day-to-day stuff like budgeting and paying bills.
Why not try setting up automatic payments through your financial institution to cover expenses like utilities or credit card bills? Online banking is usually an easy way to accomplish this.
Often a bank or credit union will allow you to keep track of expenses, and will store your utility or credit card account information on its website. With just a few clicks of a button, you can designate how much money to distribute to each account and how often you pay.
Don’t have online banking? Most companies now will set up their own automatic bill-pay. Just contact their customer service line, or visit their website, and a representative will take your banking account information and will have your funds automatically debited in the amount of your bill.
Another way to make sure bills are paid on time and to track your expenses is by using a good old-fashioned calendar. Whether this is one you hang on your wall or one you store on your phone or computer, you can keep track of daily expenses, bill due dates, and income all in one location.
Use your calendar to plan ahead and monitor where you are spending your money. If you notice a lot of money being spent on one expense and don’t have enough money to cover your needs, make a change and give yourself a spending limit for items considered “wants.”
Make a commitment to yourself to save money, reduce debt and build wealth over time. Visit our website, www.okaloosasaves.org, or text “OKSaves” to 95577 to take the Okaloosa Saves pledge. (Standard data and message rates may apply.)
For more information, contact me at 689-5850 or jbreslawski@ufl.edu.
Jill Breslawski is an agent at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension office in Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Automatic payments can save people time and money