I don’t pay my bills.

That is, I don’t think about paying my bills — my autopilot bill payment system does it all for me!

Here’s how it works:

1. Figure out how much gets paid every month on bills.

I made a simple list of the bills I deal with every month and how much I pay for each. It looks like this:
Car loan $X
Utilities $X
Cellphone $X
Internet $X
and so forth.

Most of these bills have a standard cost, like cable fees and association dues. For the rest, I put in a typical cost by averaging my old statements.

I took the total cost of all those bills and divided it in half. This is my biweekly bills amount.

2. Open a separate checking account.
I opened mine in a wholly separate bank! This helped me because it makes it harder to dip into when I want to buy something I shouldn’t.

3. Direct deposit the biweekly amount from #1 every paycheck into the new checking account.

4. Setup auto-pay from the checking account for all the bills.

Some months, my statement will be below average, so paying a set amount every month gives me credit on my account. For instance, right now my cellphone statement shows -$3.00. They owe me money. That credit could be used to cover the times I go over.

When I do go over and there’s no enough credit on my account, it gets billed to me on my monthly statement. I then handle that manually.

But if I am under my budget every month and I autopay the same amount, that credit could very well add up over time. Just last Friday, I received a nice surprise refund check from my car insurance provider! Woot!

5. The rest of my paycheck goes into my normal checking account.

The results are:
1. I never have to worry about paying the bills. Never pay late fees again. It’s all automatic!

2. I feel no pain. With this method, I’m not spending any more money than I do normally. I’m just taking care of business on auto pilot.

3. I’m less likely to overspend. Because all the bills are handled elsewhere, looking at my normal checking account gives me a more accurate picture of how much I have.

4. I can prepare for large payments. It’s like a personal escrow account. For example, the biannual property tax bills are huge! I added up the tax bills for a year and divided the total by 12. That amount is included in my monthly Bills List. It goes into my checking account like everything else. Then when the tax bill comes around, I have the cash ready to go.

Sure, it hurt at first to reduce my spending money every month this way. But taxes are something I have to pay eventually. It’s better to spread it out over the year than deal with one massive financial hit unexpectedly.

I can do the same process to easily save up for large purchases (like a vacation) in the future.

5. Secret savings! During 3-paycheck months, I still have direct deposits into my bills-only checking account, even though the bills for that month have already been paid. My spending money increases as usual, but I’m also building a small reserve on the side.

Best of all, it’s flexible! You don’t have to do this for ALL your bills. Even if you start with a few ones, it’ll definitely make your life easier.

It was late one weeknight that K and I were talking about random things when a thought occurred to me that I would like to fire a gun. And so I asked him if he could teach me. His coworkers teased him the next day about making sure “she’s not really planning to shoot you.” Judging from how I did, I’d probably miss anyway.

Yep. Saturday morning, K and I drove up to this public shooting, err, area up in the mountains near Boulder. It started snowing when we got to the top. That didn’t help things. I managed to fire four rounds using a Colt .45 with a bird’s head grip, scaring myself with my own yelps all the while. Then I decided that was enough experience I needed on that front.

It was amusing to follow that particular activity with genteel afternoon tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House. We shared a pot of Lapsang Souchong, a smokey tea that tastes like campfire. The flavor grows on you. I think I prefer a lighter brew because when the aroma is really strong, I start thinking about grilled fish. Childhood kitchen association. We tried it again in the IT office and it’s much smoother, subtler and drinkable. The server did say, it’s a love/hate kind of tea.

Afterwards, we watched The Watchmen. Whooo! I am happy with the rendition, though I admit my biggest expectation entering the theater was “please don’t ruin it!” Given the medium, I thought Zack Snyder did a pretty good job delivering the main storyline in a deliberate, clear, and still entertaining manner without resorting to (too many) superhero movie moments. The one big disappointing feature for me though was how they portrayed Ozy, my favorite character from the graphic novel. For the most part they tried to stay true to his character, but in the ending scenes, there was scorn in his expression as he explained his motives. To me, the success wasn’t about being the grandmaster, but about finding the Perfect Solution, a dream shared by nerds everywhere. I missed the part in the novel when he discovers the results of his plan and rejoices in it. Anyway, there was much debate after the movie, and if prompted I can keep going.

Ah but that movie was just the beginning of the NerdFest! One of K’s friends had invited him to join a D&D game that night. Dungeons & Dragons? Wait a minute, that’s on my GTD101 list! We showed up at his friend’s house as they were halfway into the session. They were six guys and one woman (the wife) around a table in – I could hardly contain my glee – the basement. I was content to just watch, but they let me play an NPC for one of the episodes. My name was Thytus Innocen, a human helmsman on a flying ship. I lost 32 pieces of silver during a card game. Whee! The whole event was just fascinating. There was so much detail — maps, miniature characters, various sizes of dice, character sheets. Behind the Dungeon Master (DM) was an entire bookshelf of reference material. The game ended at 1 in the morning. (Or was it 2 am? Daylight savings kicked in at some point.)

The next day, we went to the park to hang out and read, but we stumbled upon a battle! The local SCA group was holding swordfight practice in preparation for the Crown Tournament. We were welcomed by a lady and her lord consort and two other lord friends. As the men donned their armor and thrust their makeshift swords and spears, our hostess was sewing a tunic using black wool and gold trimming. Could this weekend be any nerdier?

It was actually pretty neat meeting all the new people and seeing the world the way they do. Overall, a fun weekend for learning and experiencing different things!

GTD101 Update:
53. Watch a D&D game
87. Eat out in a restaurant I haven’t tried before.

I accidentally outed myself with a pingback on the ZingIT blog. Darnit social media!

There’s no turning back now.

*sheepishly welcomes visitors to her cove*

30. Host a dinner at my place
January 27, 2009. Dinner party for 6 at Casa Billie. I made chili (with Bells Lager Beer), green chili and Monterey Jack quesadillas and cornbread muffins. Serene and Jude brought a potato and fennel gratin that was absolutely delicious. Must make it myself!

It was a lively dinner with great conversation and good food. I am glad I did it! This wasn’t the first time I hosted dinner at my house. (Wow, it’s almost a year to the date!) But it certainly inspired me to do it some more. Perhaps once a month. I ought to schedule the next IT dinner here in March.

What went well:

• Set the dinnerware out on the table the night before. One less thing to worry about!
• Half an hour before the guests arrive, have beverages and a bucket of ice ready on a separate table.
• Fresh flowers on the table – ties the whole look together!
• Dishes went straight into the dishwasher.

What didn’t work well:

• One guest was vegetarian and the main dish (chili) had beef — oof! Ask food restrictions beforehand.
• I didn’t have coffee for after dinner. I can purchase/borrow a French press for next time.
• Need more tall drinking glasses. IKEA.
• Some way to put away guests’ shoes in the entryway. Stylish shoe cubbies?

36. Get all dressed up for dinner
K cleans up nice, that’s for sure! Hubba hubba.

68. Borrow books from the library
Accomplished February 1st. Got myself a library card. Technology makes this easy!

One of my favorite ways to spend Saturdays is hanging out in Barnes and Noble. I love picking up the books, admiring the cover art, smelling the freshly printed pages as I thumb through them. It’s a struggle not to walk out with half a dozen books to read. However, it’s not frugal to purchase books right then and there, as much as I really want to, member discount card notwithstanding. Instead, what I do is this:

1. Using Amazon Remembers, I take a picture of the book I’m looking at. It finds the corresponding product and saves it in my account. I can then choose to add it to my wish list later. If I really wanted to purchase the book, I could get it at 40% less online than in the store.
2. On my computer, when browsing a product in Amazon, Book Burro informs me when it’s available at my local library. I can then head to the library or place a hold on it online.

83. Do 30 consecutive push-ups
Ha! No sweat. I ought to be doing this instead.

88. Watch a musical/ballet
I first saw RENT as a repertory production when I was in high school. Bought the soundtrack, memorized most of the songs. Seeing it performed again last week, I realized a lot of the musical’s subplots had gone completely over my head. For instance, all the drug references were lost on me. Geez, I was so naive then.

96. Watch season 1 of Lost
Officially count me part of the throng of fans of That Show. How could I not? It starts with a crash, anarchy, learning what it means to exist without the safety of societal infrastructure, and deciding how to proceed. The first ten episodes sucked me in good. I’m still working through the past episodes and am currently in the middle of the third season.Now if only they’d stop playing the trailers for season 5 during the commercial breaks!

99. Attend a BAKE or cooking class
Got myself a cute Threadless shirt to commemorate the occasion. Playin’ in the Sprinkler! Haha sprinkler…

88 to go.