Find Bill, File Receipt

This is a follow up post from the recent Where is Everything item.

Many of my clients, friends, family and acquaintances struggle with paper. It's everywhere despite our best attempts to go electronic. Organizing paper is probably the number one frustration of almost all my clients.

One of the paper challenges are receipts coming into the household that many of us keep to maintain our household accounts. Some of us have jars, boxes, baskets or folders to keep these daily deluge of little, bitty, annoying pieces of paper called receipts. If you are checking off your credit card bills to ensure all expenses are your own and legitimate then you have a collection of these receipts.

There are many possible solutions but here is one that most of my clients find helpful. Find an expandable file folder - plastic is best - with 13 divisions. They are readily available in a variety of price points at Staples, Grand and Toy and many other office suppliers. Try the local dollar store. Label the divisions by month and then the 13th for miscellaneous.

Presto. You have a place to put those annoying pieces of paper and you don't even have to sort them. When the credit card bill comes in, pull out the folder, check of the receipts. Now if, necessary, you keep the receipts, already organized by month. If not - shred.