Bill payin' record

Dear Shayne,

As I peeled the dots off of my bill payin' record at the beginning of 2010, I thought this was a simple little craft you might be interested in. Or not. It's pretty boring. But it sure does come in handy for a slacker like me.

Several years back, I printed out a little grid that shows our utility bills across the top and the months down the side:


I laminated it with the intention of using a dry erase marker to make X's when I paid bills. But then I went with little dot stickers -- it's neater than X's and the lamination makes it easy to pick them off at the end of the year.

We have a couple of bills that get paid either quarterly or every other month, so I just made those grids cover two or three months. Those are the hardest ones for me to keep track of, so this is really handy.

I attached the laminated grid to a piece of black cardstock (for looks, really) and then I taped the flap of an envelope to the back so there's a pocket to hold the dot stickers. I keep it tacked to a bulletin board next to my desk, so it's easy to see at a glance what needs payin'.

Here's me having paid two bills:


Yay!

I originally made the stickers using a hole punch and a sticker maker, but then I found these pre-made at an office supply store, so I bought 'em. The store was in Wales, though, so when I run out, that's going to be an expensive re-stocking trip.

If you make one of these for yourself, you could also use little gold stars and feel super proud every time you pay a bill!

love,
kelly