We moved all mail to a 'Private Mail Box' (PMB) & did as much auto pay as possible. I even pulled the mailbox out of the ground so we didn't get junk mail sitting in a curbside box overflowing.

Once a week, a friend who had a secreterial service would pick up our mail at the PMB and go through it paying what was critical and not on auto pay. She would also send us weekly emails about anything she wasn't sure about (both SSB & our primary email). We'd cruise for about 4 months at a time and would leave her with a few signed checks she would use to pay urgent bills out of the $2,000 we'd put in the account before we left. When we came home we'd go over the stack of non urgent mail she kept.

She would bill us (reduced rate as a friend) for her time which was usually about $75.00 a month.

Of course, you need a good friend you trust but it worked really well and our friend appreciated the extra cash. In our case, the fact that she had a secreterial service helped. Paying for the service also kept it a business arrangement instead of taking advantage of a friend.