Have You Ever Totally Forgot to Pay a Bill.....

and about 5 days after it was due, suddenly it dawns on you that you don't remember paying it? Anyone besides me do something like this?

LOL...that just happened to me.  I was in bed earlier, and suddenly I started thinking...."hey, I don't remember if I paid our rent for July."  I usually have it in the mail by at least a week before the 1st.

I am good at paying everything before due if I have a statement to remind me...and where I have to send a portion of it with my payment.  Our rent is not like that....it is a local guy we rent from, and there isn't anything like that. I just keep a record myself of payments.   I always pay by check in order to prove payment, but this time, I didn't remember to send that check, lol.

So, now I'm writing a note of apology to him, along with July and August rent, lol....in case I have a lapse of memory again. It's one thing to not pay if there isn't money to do it, but for the money to be in the bank, and not pay really makes me very annoyed at myself....and this is the second time, I've forgotten in the last year to pay the rent.

Forgetting something like this always makes me feel I'm getting older, and it seems easier for me to forget things.

Barbara

Yes!  Once I forgot to pay the phone bill and somehow I missed it for several months and they cut off our phone!!!  Dh was very upset with me and decided he would start trying to help with the bills.  Needless to say I'm back at paying all the bills again!  LOL!  But I think what happened was I clicked online that I didn't want to receive paper bills anymore and I never got an email or anything saying the bill was due.  So I went back to the paper billing so I wouldn't forget.  But there have been others that I have forgotten over the years.  I'm afraid I'm not very organized!

Only once in all the years I've been paying bills and that was last July. We had changed our phone, tv cable and internet service to Charter to take advantage of a package deal for all 3 services. When I got the first bill that included the package deal it was a lot more than it should have been so I called to find out why. The first person I talked to kept telling me that it was because I had changed my service and was not really helping me to understand why the bill wasd more than what I had agreed to pay. I started looking in my checkbook to make sure that I had paid my last bill and figured it out. Another call to the company and a more helpful representative confirmed what I suspected. I was preoccupied at that time with gathering things for our dd and her pending move so I'm surprised that was the only bill I forgot to pay. They didn't charge me a late charge and I took a check by the local office the next morning and put in their drop box. I think we all have times that we are so preoccupied with the daily trials that it's easy to forget things that seem less important like bills.

Yep - my last cell phone bill.  I remembered it before it was actually due, but not by much.  By the time the check got there, it was a late payment.

 i pay all my bills online but of course i have to put them in my checkbook also, i also get the paper statements so i don't get messed up.  last month i read the water bill and marked it in my checkbook.....but i forgot to put it online...thank heavens they list the payments i have made recently on the side of the payment schedule...when i checked it out...the waterbill was missing and it was three days late.  i called the water company and paid it over the phone, there was no late charge.  i keep comparing that list with my checkbook now so i don't mess up again...

I pay all my bills by check in the mail, and I'm very grateful that I can do so the first weekend after I get the bills in the mail. 

 But there was one time I completely forgot to pay the rent, and I got one of those embarassing yellow court notices taped to my mail box for everyone in my building to see.  When I got it, I quickly wrote the check and got it out.

There was another time when I bought my checks from my bank (which I'll never do again because they charge 3x more than Checks Unlimited) and they automatically debited my checking account, but I forgot to record the transaction in my check book.  Naturally, I NSF'd shortly after that. LOL!! 

I once forgot to deposit my paycheck (it was in the days before direct deposit and when the bank employees still knew all their customers by name). Since the deposits came in as regular as church on Sunday, our banker called and asked me if I had happened for forget something. lol   Yup, the check and deposit slip were in my pocketbook, and I had totally forgotten about them. Lucky for me that none of the checks I'd written to pay the bills had been deposited yet.

YoopergrammaUP_MI:

Since the deposits came in as regular as church on Sunday, our banker called and asked me if I had happened for forget something.

LOL....those were the days!

Barbara

 Once about 30+ years ago I drove up just as the electric company was turning off my electicity.  I could have sworn I paid the bill.  Sure enough the stamped, addressed envelope with the check was in my purse.  

 Honestly I can say I never have... BUT.. I have always had an accountant deal with it..I was gone too much to try to keep up with them...September 1 I will be taking over my own bills for the first time in my life!

For years I have kept a notebook with all bills posted each month, as I pay check them off. That way I never forget, my money is limited so I have to be on top of my bills.

diana

"I am good at paying everything before due if I have a statement to remind me...and where I have to send a portion of it with my payment."

Not that you will forget again anytime soon, but maybe you could use your computer to make yourself "receipts".  It would only need the amount and the date.  You could put little dashes between the months so that you could cut it off and turn it in with your check.  I don't think your "local guy" would care if you turned in a slip with your check.  (Especially if it helps you remember to pay on time.)  :-)

Our preschool sends home a sheet in the Fall that we turn in with our checks.  It really helps us to remember and I thought it might work for you too.  :-) 

Ljmanus  :-)

I don't know if I actually forgot it, but about two years ago I suddenly remembered I hadn't written a check for our regular land line phone bill, and the next months bill was almost due.   They had mailed it but I didn't receive it.  I called the phone company and explained and asked why they hadn't turned the phone of, or at least sent a warning notice..  She said "Oh, we're not worried, you have excellent credit with us.  The missing month will be on the next bill to be mailed soon"!  No late charges or anything.

I do blame myself though, as I have Quicken with the bill reminder on my computer.  I just hadn't checked it to see when the next bill was due.  I now check the bill reminder every few days.

I'll have to say no.  We try to keep on top of it and have never had many things to pay.  If he can't do it, I do it, visa versa.