Originally Posted by
FeelingGreat 
giliji and others, the one thing I would add to the excellent advice is don't wait for the bills to come in before you start paying them. For insurance, power, water, council rates etc I have automatic payments coming out monthly so there are very few bills that come as a shock. It also stops me frittering money away just because it's sitting there.
It sounds radical if you're struggling to pay bills now, but it's something to aim for.
Would caution with Automatic Payments -- DO NOT ALLOW this from a primary account. Or even an account that allows "overdrafts." Or even account that can draw from or make claims against your primary account(s).
Mistakes happen. A bill that is routinely around $50.00 can be sent out as a draft for payment for $5000. While that is someone else's error and most likely to be properly resolved, it can place the rest of your operations into crisis as the bank automatically attempts to pay, overdraft, draw from other accounts . . . to pay the error bill. Meanwhile all the other payments that are supposed to auto-drafting from that same account crash, as that payment account is upside down.
What I have found, instead, is that many accounts -- water, electric, gas, etc. -- can be pre-paid or over-paid, so there is always a negative amount due. While that does not draw interest (or whatever other "anglers") would claim against this, it does ensure that the months ahead are already taken care of -- months ahead.
I don't know how you can handle a saboteur though, except to quarantine the money from him.
There is always the power of "NO."
As they say, NO is a complete sentence.
Last week had to tell Mrs. Hammer, "NO" when she wanted to take over the lease and paying the rent. Too great of risk for the kids if some crazy happens. So she stomped and pouted -- and in doing so -- reminding WHY I say NO to crazy.