Bill Paying lessons

A little while ago - my eldest, A, asked me - can I learn how to pay bills?

And my first reaction was 'eh - you have to have bills first before you can learn to pay them!' but immediately following that I thought - no. If you are doing it right, you should learn how to pay bills long before you have them.

So I told her that yes, I would take the time to teach her how to pay bills. Tonight was that night.

My bank had done a recent computer update and so I had to renew all my recurring transactions and transfers. (um - don't get me started about that; it was the second one in a few months and I've utterly had it with their 'updates' and 'improving' everything!!!) We sat down together and I explained my intricate method of bill paying...I absolutely hate any money-related chores. We opened bills and I explained to her what each of the bills encompassed and how to read them. We sorted them and then entered the recurring bill payments, topped up the overdue ones and checked out the extra bills that couldn't be paid online.

Then, I went through my credit card bills. I need to take a moment to brag here because not only do I have no credit card balances whatsoever (ahem - it hasn't always been this way) I actually have CREDIT balances on most of them. It enabled me to take a moment and with credibility, explain to her the evils of credit cards. I told her - here's how it works. They let me use $100 of their money but I then have to pay them $120. Her mouth dropped open and she said - what?? That's a scam!

Yes, my dear. It is. And that is why I'm teaching you how to pay bills long before you have bills to pay.

* Natural gas bill: $100
* Dance costume fee: $96
* Paying bills with your daughter: priceless