Laaaaarge stack of papers, no where to start! Help!

Okay, before I get into what I really need help with, I want to give you all some background as to why I'm asking for help in the first place. I figured BG would be the best place to get some tips/tricks/organization ideas, because we're all in the same boat on some level.

Alright, so anyways. I, personally don't have really any bills or anything that needs to be worried about. But my mother on the other hand, she does and it's really just time that I stop sitting around doing nothing because I'm pregnant!

A year ago or so, my father moved out of the house. Technically, my mother kicked him out because of his constant alcohol abuse/cheating/unreliablity. (This wont be a pity story. I just want to give background so you all know why things have gotten so bad, and so hard to turn around.) Well he moved out, and refused to let her know of his address. (I don't really understand why. But whatever.) Now, this house is basically falling apart. It's old, and it's not worth it to fix it up anymore. (It's over 200 yrs old, and we have done probably 8 years of renovations and there still is so much to get done. Without these things done, the house is unable to sell, and with such a shitty market, no one is buying. It wasn't really a struggle until this past year when my father left.)

He doesn't pay ANY of his bills. He hasn't given her a dime to take care of the place. She and him combined was enough money to cover everything, even if it was a struggle, but with him abandoning everything she has fallen far behind. And since he refuses to give out his address to her, or even pick up her phone calls, she has no way to get him to pay his bills. So everyone is going after her for the debt he placed her in. There are authorities looking for him, but still, credit companies and electric companies and etc dont care about your sob stories, they just want what you owe them and that's all they care about!

So she works overtime all the time. Usually she works 5pm-7am mon-thurs, and then 7pm-10am fri and saturday. And top of it all, she takes overtime whenever possible. So she comes home, sleeps, wakes up and goes to work. She doesn't have any free time to even sit down and cry, let alone stare at the stack of bills she is losing her mind over.

Prime example of what is going on. Last january the electricity got turned off due to lack of paying the bill. Now, ok, yeah, her fault for not paying it. She should have kept on top of it, but with everything else to pay, how is that possible. We worked out a payment plan with the electric company, and all was fine. Until probably a few weeks ago a notice came in the mail, and we didn't see it/get it until it was too late. It said pay a certain amount of money, or else what you owe in a minimum payment according to your bill will be demanded or else the electrcity will be manually removed from the home. So wow! We didnt know that notice came in until the faithful knock on the door with an electric guy and trucks to remove the electricity was standing there demanding money or else. (Basically) I ask for minimum payment, to write a check and he says "1,871.97" and I thought I was going to faint. I dealt with the guy, he leaves, and I try to contact my father. What does he say? "I don't care if you lose the house." WELL GREAT THAT YOU DONT CARE. 

And now, the propane bill is due on tuesday. Another 600.00 bucks to dish out from thin air! And then on the tenth, credit card bills, mortgage payment, phone bills, cable.. Everything you can imagine needs to be fucking paid on that day.  

Gahh!!

Now since I am an organization freak, and I am horribly crazy with doing everything by my day planner, and getting things done on schedule I have decided to help her get her bills in line. Put the ones most important, the second priority, then at last; least priority.

Problem is... Like I said before, I have no Idea about bills, because I do not have many of my own. Where do I start?! I stare at this pile and I have such 'want' to organize it for her, keep her income in line, set up a budget and just help her out.. But I have no idea where to begin!

Peasssse, tell me of how you guys manage organizing/paying bills. What comes first and is most important, etc!

It would really help me out.
 

well all of the bills are important

I start every month by writing down every bill and the day its due.
Then I write down every pay check *my husband is on salary* and how much we will be getting. Might be a little harder for you to know exactally.
then I kind of arrange them on a dry erase board, so I can move them around if needed. I also make sure we have so much each paycheck for food, gas, ect. It really just takes some time and thought to make everything work. things are tight right now for us too...so its like a miracle every month that everything gets paid and we still are able to eat. good luck!

alrighty.

get yourself in a big enough area that you can make tons of piles....even if you have to sit in the middle of the room on the floor.

get a trash bucket or a trash bag cause im sure tons of this can be thrown away.

put them im piles of company (electric company, bank, phone, etc etc.)

when this is all done, start with the ELECTRIC pile or whatever is your most important bill month after month...

open them all, and try to find the most recent one....i ALWAYS just throw away old bills because..wtf do i care what i owed 3 months ago? i care what i owe now.

do this for all your piles.....

if you KNOW that youre not gonna be able to pay that amount, CALL these people asap. they would rather TALK to you and work some sort of payment plan out...some companies can even extend your deadline if you are in a hard time...the last thing the electricity comp wants to do is turn off your electricity...ivfound that they are really willing to work things out with you.

for all of my bills, i have a huge binder with those little tab things (dividers??) and i labeled them all by compnay and i just keep the most recent one in the front. when i make a payment i write it in big black sharpy on top so that i know not to worry about it......also, instead of sending out checks which take a few days to go through, i find it a lot easier to pay by phone with a debit card or something..if you pay by phone with checks, they sometimes have a processing fee.

so anywho, if u have any more questions then feel free to ask me because i am the queen of organization HAHA!

Quoting * Amy *:“ well all of the bills are important I start every month by writing down every bill and the day its due. ... [snip!] ... right now for us too...so its like a miracle every month that everything gets paid and we still are able to eat. good luck!”

YES planning out your paychecks are so impt...thats probably what helps me the most so i know what i will be able to pay and what not

Quoting * Amy *:“ well all of the bills are important I start every month by writing down every bill and the day its due. ... [snip!] ... right now for us too...so its like a miracle every month that everything gets paid and we still are able to eat. good luck!”

Yes, having a spreadsheet of some sort that dates out when your paychecks come in and when the bills are due is important. I have mine on an excel sheet and I programmed it to automatically sum it out. The important thing is to keep track of when bills are due (usually they are due at the same time every month) and when you should be getting the money to pay these bills. My priorities for bills to be paid are as follows: Mortgage, Car Loan, Personal Loans, Credit Cards and then utilities/phone bills etc. But then again I have enough money to pay everything and I'm concerned with what effects my credit score, you might have to change up your priorities because having electricty is more important than paying your credit cards when you don't have enough money to pay for everything.

I feel for you and hope that things look up for your family.

Thank you ladies. I did what you all sugested, and got through the stack of papers in like.. Four hours, lol. But I feel relieved to have everything organized and prioritized.. Nows its all about paying everything.

Thank you.