Recently, a post on Reddit’s r/povertyfinance forum gained some serious traction for its practical and simple advice on how to make paying bills a little less stressful. Now, we’re not sure about you, but we’re always looking for ways to make life less anxiety-inducing — and judging by the responses to the bill hack, everyone else is, too.
‘I Don’t Think About Bills Randomly Anymore’
In the post, u/hhhieyaaa99 explains what they did to make their life “significantly less chaotic for free.”
“This sounds so minor but bear with me because the actual impact has been bigger than I expected,” they wrote. We’re intrigued already.
They go on to explain that a year ago, the due dates of their bills were scattered all throughout the month: electric bill due on the 7th, phone on the 14th, renter’s insurance on the 23rd… . You get the idea, because it’s probably something you deal with, too.
They realized that system actually created a lot of undue stress.
“Every week there was something coming out and I had to constantly track what was pending and what had cleared and whether the timing would work with when my check hit… I was always in this low grade mental state of trying to keep track, doing math in my head at random times, waking up at 3am thinking did that payment go through yet.” Relatable!
That’s when the genius hits. They explained that they called each company with a recurring bill and asked them move the due date to the first of the month. “Most of them said yes without any issue at all.”
The result of making that one change? “The mental load reduction has been genuinely significant. I don’t think about bills randomly anymore. I’m not doing math in the shower.”
“Now I know that the first week of the month is when everything comes out and the rest of the month my account does what it does without me having to monitor it constantly.”
How to Change a Bill’s Due Date
If having one due date for all your bills sounds like a great way to organize and plan your finances, there’s good news: It doesn’t take much work at all. Just call the company you’re paying, whether that be a utility company, Netflix, or whatever, and ask them to move the due date. Most will do it without a problem. Some companies will also allow you to change it through your online account, making it even easier.
Some may require a couple calls, and some may require a written request, but overall, u/hhhieyaaa99 said it only took about 45 minutes total across all their bills to move the due dates. If that saves future headaches and worry, then it’s absolutely worth it. “It cost nothing to do this,… and I genuinely don’t understand why this isn’t something everyone does automatically or why nobody ever told me it was an option.”
Well, companies probably don’t tell you it’s an option because they want you to be stressed and miss payments — that’s how they make money from late fees. Many other Redditors in the thread were equally surprised to hear about this hack.
“I never even thought about doing this,” responded one Redditor.
“Same,” replied someone else. “It seems much less stressful than the chaotic shared calendar my wife and I have for bills.”
Other people were excited by the prospect of changing their due dates. “Just spent the last few minutes thinking about all my random due dates scattered everywhere and realizing I do the exact same mental math nonsense at weird hours,” said one commenter. “Thanks for the lightbulb moment.”
Some had already done it, and were happy to report that this hack really does help save stress and anxiety around money. “I did something similar about two years ago and the mental load reduction was immediate,” recounted one Redditor. “This is one of those things that sounds like nothing on paper but changes your entire relationship with money.”
Is this a strategy you’ve used before? Let us know in the comments!
