Monthly bills are easy to remember because they come around so often. It’s the once-a-year ones that catch people out. Use this checklist to find every annual (and quarterly) bill in your household, then put each one on your calendar.
Tip: open your bank statements for the past 12 months and search for each item below. If you paid it once in the last year, it’s probably coming again.
Car and transport
- Vehicle licence (rego), which you can renew for different lengths of time
- Warrant of Fitness (WoF), annually or every six months depending on your vehicle’s age
- Road user charges (RUC) if you drive a diesel or electric vehicle
- Car insurance, whether comprehensive, third party or third party, fire and theft
- Roadside assistance membership
- Driver licence renewal (every few years)
- Car service and tyres (not a bill, but predictable)
Home
- Council rates (often paid in quarterly instalments)
- Water rates or water bills, depending on your council
- House and contents or renters insurance
- Body corporate levies
- Chimney, heat pump or gutter servicing
Health and family
- Health insurance (if you pay annually)
- Life or income protection insurance
- School donations, activity fees and uniforms
- Dog registration with your council
- Pet insurance
Subscriptions and memberships
- Annual streaming or shopping memberships
- Software, cloud storage and app subscriptions billed yearly
- Gym, club or sporting memberships
- Professional memberships and licences
- Domain names and website hosting
Money and tax
- Accountant or tax agent fees
- Provisional tax, if you’re self-employed
- ACC levies, if you’re self-employed
- Annual credit card fees
- Bank fees charged yearly
What to do with your list
- Add each bill to a calendar with its usual due date and amount.
- Set a reminder a few weeks early for the big ones, so you have time to compare prices before they renew.
- Divide the yearly total by 12 and set that amount aside each month, so the bills are already covered when they arrive.
More on this in 6 mistakes people make with annual bills and our guide to keeping track of bills.
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