Saving Your Receipts = Saving Money

I save my receipts. All of them. How do I keep up with them? I have a little system that I use to keep track of them. I save the current years receipts, and the year before. When another year comes around, I shred the oldest ones and make room for the new ones. For example, I still have all of 2009 filed and 2010 filed, both in separate accordian files. When 2011 arrives, I shred the 2009 to clear out that file for the 2011.

Why do I save all of my receipts?

1. For returns- I make returns if I know I do not need or will not use the product afterall, or if I know that I am not satisfied with the product. Make sure you check the return policy and see how many days after you purchase the item you have to make the return.

*Money Saving Tip: Before you cut all the tags off items and rip boxes open, be sure it is something you really want or may use. In the past, I would rip tags off of brand new clothes, only to find that I didn't actually like or want certain items anymore. It was hard to return items that didn't have tags on them. I don't take tags off of clothes now until after I decide I am for sure going to wear the item. Same thing applies to anything in boxes. Save the packaging until you know you really like the item. Then after you know you are satisfied, you can toss the packaging.

2. Tax purposes- A lot of times I need to find a receipt for tax purposes. I just go to my accordian file and search through to find what I need when filing my taxes.

3. To Monitor Spending Habits- I can usually sort my receipts and be able to tell where I am spending too much.

How to file receipts:

Here are pictures to show you how I file receipts. This requires very little work. Just take a few minutes out of the month to get them organized.

1. Place daily receipts into a photo box. Try to organize them a few times during them month and place in the appropriate month in your accordian file.

2. If you get behind, make stacks for each month. Today I had to catch up on August and September filing, so I made two different stacks.

3. Place the monthly receipts into the correct month in your accordian file.

This is my 2010 accordian file. 



This is my 2009 accordian file.

...and that's how you can save your receipts!

Do you save receipts? How do you organize receipts?