The Agony of Receipts

Honestly, for most of my life the “Art of Receipt Saving” was lost on me. However, having torn out many a hair on a quest for receipts, I have learned over time. 

Holiday shopping sometimes can get the best of even the hardiest shoppers! Make sure you keep careful records in case you have to make returns. Whether shopping in person, online, on the phone or by mail, make sure that you keep good records and keep all receipts.

Identify the receipts on the back for easy reference and always get gift receipts. Something always has to be returned because it was the wrong size, has a piece missing or someone got two of the same thing. Having a correct receipt will save you eons of time, anxiety, disappointment and money. The after-Christmas sales may make your returns 90 percent off if you do not have the receipt! Send me your thoughts and experiences.

Even if you are the most extreme coupon shopper and manage to whittle down your gift purchases to 20 percent of their original retail cost — it’s still crucial to save your receipts.

If you “debit” everything, that helps with budgeting, of course, and tracking where you spent your money is great for peace of mind. But the debit receipts won’t help a whit if you need to return something. Now is the time to make a plan for keeping track of receipts; those for potentially returned holiday gifts, as well as for preparing for tax season.

Best Way to Save Receipts?

Sadly, the most popular methods of receipt organization remain:

1.) The pocket

2.) The purse

3.) The shoebox

4.) The cigar box

5.) The jewelry box

To tell you the truth, when using the pocket or purse method of receipt retention, I lose about 80 percent of the receipts that I try to save. Therefore, I have moved on from the pocket to the purse, moving forward to a special “envelope” within the purse, then depositing the receipts into a shoebox or cigar box. 

The most important receipts of course go into the jewelry box! Although anything is better than throwing the receipts away or watching them blow across the tundra of a Chicago winter parking lot, any envelope or box trumps a pocket. Here are a few tips on receipt saving from other readers:

Suzy O, Peoria, Ill.; “I have a plastic accordion check file for each month and I dedicate it ONLY to receipts. My Christmas (December) file is Red which helps remind me to deposit all receipts into it immediately!”

Adam R, Tampa, Fla; “I’m a guy; I keep all receipts in the top drawer of my dresser; However if the receipt is for a gift I always write the name of the person I gave the gift to on the back JUST IN CASE.

Phoebe P, Tucson, Ariz.; “Scanning receipts is the only way to go. Then I organize the scans by month on my desktop.”

Allan J, Buffalo, N.Y.; “I use a digital system called shoeboxed.com. You have to pay for it, but it actually changed my life and reduced my stress.

It really doesn’t matter if you are old school (the wallet method of receipt retention) or high tech, shoe boxed. The most important thing is creating a system that will work for you when the situation becomes urgent; your mother wants to return the knockoff bag you got her for Christmas or you just got a letter requesting an IRS audit for last year. Take an evening and develop a system that works for you, organize all the receipts then — have a drink!