What System Do You Have For Saving Receipts?

[nyboy]

I happen to find a receipt for some trees I bought in March that died. I returned the trees and because I had the receipt I got all my money back. Finding the receipt was pure luck, I was looking for something else lol. How do you keep track of your receipts? Do you return things that break or die?If so for how long do you keep a receipt? Thanks

 

[Wifezilla]

I am terrible at it, but have a wicker basket that I toss bigger ticket receipts in to. Every couple of years I clean it out

 

[freemotion]

Tax receipts for our Schedule C go into a box near the computer. Plant receipts go into a clothespin on the shelves in the garage where all small gardening things are kept. Household receipts, including those that would be useful if we ever sell the place and need capital gains stuff go into a file marked "Household receipts" and everything that is household and non-tax-deductible for our business goes in there. Except anything that comes with an owner's manual. All owner's manuals go into a drawer together and any associated receipt goes in there, unless it is tax deductible. So there are only a few places that I have to look for receipts.

 

[beerman]

It seems like the more I put thing up so they don't get lost the more I lose them

 

[TanksHill]

I'm supposed to save um???

 

[lighthawk]

Tax receipts for our Schedule C go into a box near the computer. Plant receipts go into a clothespin on the shelves in the garage where all small gardening things are kept. Household receipts, including those that would be useful if we ever sell the place and need capital gains stuff go into a file marked "Household receipts" and everything that is household and non-tax-deductible for our business goes in there. Except anything that comes with an owner's manual. All owner's manuals go into a drawer together and any associated receipt goes in there, unless it is tax deductible. So there are only a few places that I have to look for receipts.

I usually staple the reciept inside the owners manual. Everything else goes in a stack on the top shelf of my computer stand and gets filed after December 31st. I don't run a business so I only have to save and file check stubs. Bank deposit slips are kept until the monthly statement arrives with the deposits recorded then they are discarded.
Anytime I replace an appliance I find the owners manual for it and see what I paid for the old one. I often get a very rude awakening.

 

[DianeS]

I am tracking our spending (as part of our budgeting) , so all our receipts have to be saved for each month and entered into a spreadsheet at the end of it. I often just save them in my purse or hubby's wallet for that month. If something needs returned quickly it's easy to find the receipt. At the end of the month all receipts are sorted, labeled, grouped by category, and entered into the spreadsheet. Then they're put in an envelope and filed.

I just don't have that many receipts. Maybe 3 for groceries. 2-4 for gas. 2 for animal supplies/feed. I still have September's receipts on the coffee table, looks like less than 20 altogether.

If I had a large expense like an appliance, or something that related to taxes, I would find somewhere to store the original receipt and keep a copy for my monthly records. But those purchases are so rare I haven't run into that in the last year.

 

[Marianne]

We have folders in a file drawer - business expenses, house building expenses, appliances, big stuff, car stuff...Same here, I staple the receipt on the warranty/info booklet for the big ticket items.
To make it easier to keep track of what we have spent on building the house, I have a spreadsheet online.

Any online payment I make, I just write down the confirmation # in my check book with the amount of the payment. I usually don't buy stuff online, but when I do, I usually make a printed copy of the order #, etc. UNLESS it's some place like Amazon where I have done business before and know the routine. Otherwise, I try to not have receipts and printed stuff to store. I used to keep ele bills until I saw that it had our ele usage for the same time period a year ago, which is the only reason why I kept 'em originally.

I usually toss grocery receipts when I clean them out my purse (uh, which isn't as often as it should be). I can't remember the last time I had to have a receipt to return something, or even had to return something.

My mother takes great joy in looking up what she paid for her furnace, refrigerator, whatever...20 - 30 years ago. Every receipt is properly placed in the correct, labeled envelope in a file box.

 

[Leta]

Step one for us was to get new wallets that had two bill compartments- one for cash, one for receipts. I got a Big Skinny and DH got an ALL-ETT.

Then I got one of those plastic file dealies, you know, with the rubber band that loops around a button on the front. It was $4 at Office Max.

We save our receipts in our wallets, and then, when they get full, once a week or so, we put them in the plastic file. The current month is always the front pocket. Around the first of the month, I sit down with a calculator and some paper clips. I organize them into four categories: Food, Non Food Consumables, Durable Goods, and Gas. The difference between Non Food Consumables and Durable Goods is, "Do we A) use this up or B) wear it out?" A = NFC, B = DG. I define food the way the state does- if it's untaxed, then it's food. (So beer is NFC.) This whole thing takes me about 15-30 minutes. I usually add up what we've spent in each category, and write the total, category and the month on the front receipt. Then I stick all the paper clipped piles in a back pocket of the folder.

At tax time, I send them to our accountant (wonderful SIL), who uses them to get us a better tax return. I usually write down totals on the dossier that we keep our tax copies in, i.e., "In 2009 we spent $2186 on gasoline, $2876 on food, blahblahblah."

What's nice about this is that I know just where our money is going, and if we need to return anything, I can almost always find the receipt in five minutes.

 

[me&thegals]

I have a big 3-ring binder with plastic sleeves in it to track my expenses. One sleeve is "egg chickens," another "bees," another "CSA," etc.