Day 4: Create a List of Bills/Accounts (15 Minute Prepping Projects)

Welcome to DAY 4 of our 15 Minute Prepping Projects series. Today we are going to create a master list of all of our bills and financial account information and put it in a safe place.

Every day for the month of September we will celebrate National Preparedness Month by undertaking a small task to help us get more prepared. Do as few or as many days as you want. Jump in at any time. Do them out of order, or more than one in a day. And feel free to share what you are doing!

Click here and scroll to the bottom of the post to view all the past days’ projects.

Are you the one who pays all the bills in your family? Or is it your spouse? Have you ever thought about what would happen if the “bill-payer” died or became incapacitated? It’s not a pleasant thing to think about but it’s oh so important. A few things to consider:

Are things on auto-pay or do the need to be manually paid each month?
Do you send in checks or pay online?
Do you have an online account set up?
Whose name is on the account?
What are the due dates?
Do bills come via snail mail or email? Do you have access to that email?
Do you have a monthly budget you follow?

Today’s Project:

Step 1: Go through your last month of checking account transactions and write down all of the set bills that get paid each month along with their due dates (don’t forget some items that may not be billed monthly like a quarterly utility or HOA fee, etc.)

Step 2: For each “bill”, write down how it is paid (auto-pay, check, online payment)

Step 3: Write down the account information for each bill along with the login information to access that account.

Step 4: Make a list of all other financial institutions that deal with your money (retirement accounts, insurance companies, etc.) and write down all login information for them

Can you do this in fifteen minutes? If you can’t get the whole project done at least get steps 1 and 2 done. Then spend a few minutes each day working on collecting all the account info.

Helpful Tools:

Master List Spreadsheet: I threw together a little spreadsheet that you can use or modify to fit your needs. (Click the link above and the file should download to your computer) This includes columns for all the info necessary for this project. You can decide how to store the data securely (password protect the spreadsheet, print it and fill it in by hand, etc.) Once you have all the info compiled it needs to be accessible in case of emergency but also secure.

How to Create an Emergency Binder: The master list of bills/accounts is only a small part of having an entire emergency binder put together for your family. This blog post will detail the rest of the documents that should be included and can be a project for you to embark on over time.

Share Your Results

Did you complete your project today? Did it take you longer or shorter than 15 minutes? I want to hear all about it! Here are some ways you can share:

Instagram: Use #15minuteprep and tag @jodi_foodstoragemadeeasy on any post or story you do featuring your project. You can follow the hashtag to see everyone’s projects and if you tag me I will repost in my stories throughout the day (if your account is public). Since this project will have sensitive personal data you can just share pics of you WORKING on it but not your actual spreadsheet haha.

Facebook: Comment on the PINNED posts in my Facebook Group (If you are not a member yet I will try to get you added within 24 hours so you can play along). The most recent day should show up at the top and you can scroll to the right to see past days. I will try to share some of these to Facebook stories as well (no names will be used, don’t worry!)

Text me: If you are not already signed up to get the daily challenges via text just text 15minuteprep to 717-788-3663. You can always reply to the daily text with your “report” so I can cheer you on.