Best Ways to Organize Bills?

scorp1us asks: "Every year on the 1st of January, I start a new set of folders for storing my bills. Generally, I keep everything divided up by account. But this seems to take too long. I wait 3-6 months and get a big pile nad have to go about sorting it. I have been considering a per-month scheme - all bills go to one folder, each month. With all the CS people out there studying sorting algorithms, has anyone found a better approach?"

Comments

Basic life management skills...

[Anonymous Coward]

...are not news for nerds, no matter what "algorithm" spin you put on it.

My solution

[mopslik]

I file all of my bills in a circular metallic file, which I clean out weekly. It sure makes my bill-organization easier.

Hold on, someone's pounding on the door...

counterstrike

[schnits0r]

With all the CS people out there studying sorting algorithms

I dind't know that people who played counterstrike would be studying in this feild.

binary search tree.

[Anonymous Cow herd]

It's quite simple. Just take a hole punch, and punch two holes into your root-node bill. Each subsequent bill will take three holes (parent, and leaf nodes) Then, chose your sorting schema (dollar amount, utility name, month name, whatever) and simply tie the bill to the appropriate leaf node with a piece of string. Fast indexing, and fast retrieval. Voila.

Re:binary search tree.

[synaptik]

Yes, but don't forget to rebalance that tree every so often.

Great idea!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a great idea (hole punching). I used to use this to organize my floppy disks. Now I use it to keep my CD's organized.

Welcome, Senator!

[AtariAmarok]

Of course, this comes from someone who hasn't balanced his checkbook (between ATM receipts and online banking - why bother?) since 1997 or so.",/I>

It appears we have a United States Senator among us! Welcome to Slashdot!

Big Pile Nad

[Dr. Smeegee]

"I wait 3-6 months and get a big pile nad have to go about sorting it."

Try draining your piles with a large diameter needle about once a week. This prevents the secondary scrota formation and makes riding a bicycle much more workable. If you have such a large abundance of pile nads that they require catalogueing, perhaps you need to need to seek out an apple corer or it's surgical equivalent.

Thanks.

You think about the solution too much.

[ewhenn]

A wife is really great for this task. After all, women love to shop and handle money. Learn to exploit her natural talents.

Easy

[RealityMogul]

Eliminate most of the unnecessary filing by throwing away the "normal" white envelope monthly bills. Wait for the yellow certified "disconnection" envelopes to come in and then sort those by shutoff date. As you pay them one day prior to shutoff, throw them away.

Re:Turn off your computer and get a wife!

[corbettw]

Even better, get yourself an ex-wife. Then you won't have enough money to pay your bills, so who cares how they're sorted?

Better bill management with gravestones

[Sevn]

I find it much easier and much cheaper to move every six months and change my name every 12 months. It's as simple as picking a name on a gravestone, and filling for a tax ID number for a business by that name. It will run you about 1500 grand for the entire process and that does add up, but it's a lot cheaper than actually making car and house payments! Like I'm going to fork out the 3 grand a month they want for this condo. It's ridiculous. The 15 grand a month I make from spam is more wisely spent on hookers and drugs. Take it from me, paying bills is for suckers.

-- Gene Siskel