Saving Envelopes

Here's a quick thought for the day to get your mind going on how you can repurpose items. Well, this time it isn't truly repurposing an item, but you get the idea.

We choose to receive our bills in paper form. We like to have a hard copy on file to refer to later if needed. Most companies, however, will allow you to pay online for no additional cost. We'll generally go that route to save on the cost of the check and postage. I was throwing away the envelope and inserts until this week.

My 5 year old is often asking for envelopes to put things in. I hate to "waste" an envelope so he has one to use, but I also hate to stifle his creativity. I had an "aha" moment earlier this week. I now pull out any return envelopes from bills and place them in a bin for the kids. They now can use envelopes to their heart's content. I now have less paper waste and am saving money because I'm no longer having to buy so many envelopes. A winner all around!

This must be receipt week!

I don't know why I am doing so many receipt posts this week. I must have receipts on the brain! I'd mentioned before how important it can be to hang onto receipts. Well, it's equally important to check your receipt after each purchase, and here's why:

I've purchased chicken at the grocery store before and was overcharged for all three. I stopped at the customer service desk on my way out. That particular grocery store will give you an item for free if it rings up wrong. They only do that on the first of any particular item, but not only did I get back the extra I'd paid, but I received one of them for free. Wahoo! That saved me (with the freebie and overcharges refunded) about $5.00!

After eating at one of my favorite fast food restaurants, my husband handed me our receipt and pointed out the survey request. I'm guilty about not looking closely at fast food restaurant receipts, but I'll be more observant from here on out. I filled out an online survey in less than 5 minutes and will get a free chicken sandwich for my time. The best part was that my hubby and I ordered our food at different times, so we get two free chicken sandwiches!

Do you check your receipts? What's been the best deal you've received because of checking your receipt?

Funny Thing for Today...

I used to be the type of person who wouldn't buy anything unless I knew for sure that it was exactly what I wanted. I have fortunately been broken of that habit. With kids in tow, sometimes it's more important for me to just grab and go and hope whatever I bought works. This method of shopping has led me to become quite acquainted with the return process.

Recently I was back at Target to make yet another return. I hauled my bag and receipt up to the return counter, went through the return process, then continued on to do the shopping I needed to do that day. I didn't think anything of that day's return until yesterday.

Yesterday I was going through our receipts and breaking them down into the categories in which we made our purchases. (We like to track our spending in each category.) I entered the Target receipt into Quicken and started to file away the receipt until I noticed what it was that I had returned - a toilet seat and a utensil tray. Although the seat was unused and still in its packaging, I had still placed both items in the same bag. Yes, call me strange for even thinking anything of it, but ewww! At least I wasn't going to be needing that utensil tray!

Reusable Grocery Lists

Once a week I have to deal with the dreaded job of grocery shopping. I guess in some ways I don't dislike grocery shopping, just sometimes the preparation can seemingly take forever. You know what I'm talking about if you're a couponer like me - find the deals, plan your meals, make the list, clip the coupons, etc., etc., etc. The time invested is worth it to save a ton of money, but I love anything that allows me to spend less time on the prep work.

To try to streamline my grocery shopping "experience", I made a list of the major items in each aisle at the grocery store. This way, I don't have to write everything down. I can just circle or highlight most of the items I need to buy.

This may sound silly to you, but it bugs me that I am wasting two sheets of paper each week just for my grocery list. The only problem is that if it's not written down, I won't remember it. I think I might have a solution. Here's hoping that it works!

I'm going to pick up some notecards - maybe I'll color-code them - in addition to a metal ring clip and something to help me sort of laminate them. I'm going to have one card per area / aisle, leaving space to write in extra items not on the list. Then I'll laminate them, or possibly just cover them with clear packaging tape. After that, I'm going to clip them all together using the metal ring. Before each shopping trip I'll mark my needed items on the note cards using a dry-erase marker.

The only potential problem I see is the items being wiped off by accident when the dry-erase marker rubs against something else. On the plus side, though as I buy each item, I can simply wipe it off the list. With the metal ring, I'll be able to attach my shopping list / cards to the cart so I won't lose it. I may see if I can attach a pouch of some type to keep the coupons that I'm using that shopping trip together so I won't lose them. (I'll still take my regular coupon pouch with me.)

Alright! I'm ready to get started! Unfortunately I need to wait until I go to the grocery store again to make sure I have all of the items listed in the correct order. Phooey! I'll let you know how it goes and will post a photo once I have it all made.

Do you have other ideas? Please share!

Organizing, Finances, Kids, & Changes, Oh My!

When I started this blog, I did it to encourage myself to get my house and life in order. I love to organize, so I thought this would be fun. Well, while I've been enjoying writing and feeling like I have a daily "job", I'm just not really happy with the direction in which I have started taking this blog. I'm no professional organizer, just a wanna-be, so I really want to back away from the path I was starting to go down - a bossy one! =)

In addition to enjoying organizing, I really enjoy saving money and seeing how far I can stretch a buck. My husband and I currently don't carry any debt other than our mortgage. (We've both been very lucky and very strategic with our money.) At a couple of points, though, we've leaned on our main credit cards. This may sound silly, but I really got a kick out of figuring out how we'd go about paying off the credit card and how quickly we could do it. Now, we were never in debt by much, but I enjoyed the challenge that debt offered.

One other topic I like to talk about and makes me happy is my family. I love to share stories about my kids in addition to hearing stories about others' kids. Our two very different dogs provide a bit of humor from time to time as well.

I guess what I'm saying is that I may take this blog in a whole other direction than I had initially planned. I think I might try to figure out how to mix these three interests of mine. I know, good luck, huh? Unfortunately, this blog itself likely won't be very "well organized" for a while. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable to read with changing things up and me writing more in the same style that I talk.

What do you think? Anyone out there? =)

Receipts can help you save money!

Receipts can equal either clutter or savings. It's all in how well you are able to keep them organized. How can someone save money with receipts? I've learned a lot over the last few years and would love to share my thoughts and ideas with you. Some of these I've learned on my own, others I've learned through reading others' blogs.

Returns

You may not view saving your receipts in case you need to return an item as saving money, but I definitely do. Because I have young children, I don't get to leisurely shop anymore. Now, I tend to find what I think will work, make the purchase, and then return the item(s) if it / they don't work out.

Some stores can do receipt look-ups for you, which is wonderful. You bring the item back to you, and they'll find the receipt for you if the purchase was made in the past 3 months or so. I still recommend bringing in the receipt for returns, though, simply because it can make the return process go a little quicker.

One more reason to save your receipts, is that some stores will accept returns without a receipt, but you can only get in-store credit for your return. In most instances, this works just fine for me. Sometimes, though, you can only get the return valued at what the item is currently selling for. This may mean losing money on the item. As far as in store credit goes, you then have to be sure to save the card the credit was put on, otherwise you're out that money.

Price Adjustments

Price adjustments are a wonderful thing! Some stores will allow you to bring your receipt back in and get money back if an item you purchased goes on sale within a set amount of time. One blogger, Money Saving Methods, suggests keeping receipts in your car so you'll always have it if you're out and an item you'd purchased went on sale. If you already have a lot of stuff in your vehicle, you may want to consider only keeping the few receipts for larger items with you.

Some stores will give you an item for free if it rings up wrong. (They'll nearly all adjust the price of an item if it rings up wrong.) I try to remember to check my receipt before I leave a store. I've gotten free meat because of it ringing up wrong. Yea for receipts!

Medical Receipts

There are so many reasons to hang on to medical receipts. Depending on how detailed they are, they can help you remember what medicines you were given and when in addition to when you were seen for whatever reason.

You may be able to deduct some medical expenses on your taxes. You will need to keep your receipts to back up your claims.

In our house, we save our medical receipts so we can reimburse ourselves for our medical expenses out of our medical savings account. Like with taxes, it's very important to save receipts to be able to back up your claims.

We save our medical receipts in their own file separate from our other receipts. This allows us to find them easily when we need to refer to them.

Rebates

I love, love, love rebates!!! (Can you tell?) Many manufacturers have rebate programs. Manufacturers love them because rebates get you to buy their products, and because many consumers forget to request their rebate. I'm one of those consumers who fills out every rebate offer available to me. With that said, I typically don't fill out the money back guarantee ones, though, unless I truly disliked the product. I just feel that's the honest thing to do.

I suggest making a file for your rebates. As soon as I get home from purchasing a rebate item, I look over what is needed for that particular rebate. If UPCs are required, I try to cut them off immediately so they won't get thrown away accidentally. I also like to attach the receipt to the rebate form with a paperclip so the paperwork won't get lost. Once I've gathered everything I'll need for the rebate, I make copies of everything to keep in my rebate file for my own record. I try to get my rebate forms mailed that same day, or the next one at the latest so I won't miss out of this valuable money back. I will remove the rebate copies from my rebate file and file them with the rest of my receipts once I receive my rebate.

One rebate-type program I like to use is The Caregivers Marketplace. If you purchase items on their list, you can apply for money back. You may want to keep a separate file for this group because you cannot receive your money back unless you send in your original receipts. In the past, I would get money back when I bought Huggies diapers for my little guy. They've changed the eligible items a little, and Huggies items aren't included anymore. I did receive an email, though, saying that they're working on a program for those of us with young children. Yippee! You won't get rich off of the money back, but every little bit adds up. Add these savings to sales plus coupons, and you can save a lot of money! Actually, work it right and you can sometimes "get paid" to take an item.

One note on rebates... Make sure you aren't spending money on items you don't truly want or need just because you can get some money back on the rebate. Otherwise, have fun seeing how far you can stretch your buck by being organized!

Today's task: continue to keep up with organizing those receipts, make files for rebates and medical receipts, look into how your receipts can make or save you money

Getting receipts in order

Before I start, let me reiterate again that I'm not a financial advisor, at all. I'm just a mom who helps manage her family's money. I love finding new ways to make and save money, and those ways typically require being organized with our finances.

To me, being organized with our finances means knowing where my family's money is coming from and going. Today, I'm just going to chat about tracking where the money is going. It's hard to know what the money is being spent on if we don't track it. There are many tools you can use to track your money. We decided to go with a computer program called Quicken because with just a few clicks of the mouse button, we're able to download all of our financial information from our banks to our computer. Talk about a time saver! Of course I also know someone who sticks with keeping track of their finances simply using a notebook. I suggest choosing a method that works best for you and your family so you'll be more likely to stick with it.

Have you been collecting your receipts in one location this last week? Whether you use cash, check, or credit cards, you receive a receipt with all of your purchases. These receipts will allow you to track your expenses. Before we can create a budget to help keep everything in order, we have to know where our money is going. Some people wait until they receive that month's credit card or bank statement to see where their money went. We prefer to take a more proactive approach.

Each day, or at least once a week, I record my (and my husband's) spending in Quicken. We have broken our spending down into different categories such as auto, books, clothing, children, education, entertainment, groceries, medical, etcetera. The computer program then calculates our spending in each of the categories for us. Bonus! If you prefer the notebook approach, simply make charts with columns listing your spending categories. If you prefer, you could also use one page per category. However you choose to track your spending, the important thing is that you know where your money is going. This can take a little time, especially when breaking down receipts into the different categories. It will be very useful later, though.

Once you've recorded your expenses, everyone has a differing opinion on what to do with those receipts. Some people choose to hold onto them in case they need to return something, refer to a receipt later, or "just in case". Others immediately throw the receipts away except for on the big-ticket items. Yet others choose to do a mix of the previous two methods.

One note on the receipts. These can add a lot of clutter if you don't keep them in order. Be sure to select a location such as a small box or drawer to save your receipts until you get a chance to enter them into your finance tracking system. If you're planning on saving your receipts, have a plan for how to file them away. A simple accordion file can do the trick if you want to save the receipts by month, category, or even by what the item is. We prefer to file by month since we can look in Quicken to see when we purchased an item to help us find the receipt.

What does your system look like? What has or hasn't worked for you in the past? Do you have a hint or tip with a method that has helped make this process easier for you?

This week's financial task: choose and start a system to help keep track of the finances and decide how to keep receipts from becoming clutter

Why talk finances?

You may be wondering why I am including finances in a blog about being organized. Well, other than the fact that I really get a kick out of trying to stretch my family's money, having your finances organized goes right along with having an organized life and household. Don't worry, I'm not planning on getting into stocks and all of that stuff. That's definitely not an area I know much about! I'm more into the basics of saving, budgeting, and making our family's money work for us. Before you can start budgeting and saving, though, it helps to get your finances organized.

***Disclaimer - I am not a financial advisor, just a mom who loves finding ways to stretch our family's money.

When we got married almost nine years ago, my husband and I each came into the marriage with different ideas of how we should manage our money. I believed firmly in using checks and cash to make most purchases. (This was more than nine years ago.) My husband, on the other hand, believed very much in using credit cards - responsibly, kept and filed every receipt ever received, and filed away all bills, bank statements, and anything he may possibly want at some other time. In addition to this, he kept track of his money spent on a computer program. It was tough trying to combine our two methods since it would mean streamlining my husband's process while I would have to learn how to work the computer program. Also, I'd have to get comfortable with using credit cards more.

We had the some of same issues when it came to budgeting - I had my ways, he had his ways, and we needed to find a compromise. I'll get into all of this more as we get further into the new year.

If your finances are already organized, kudos! Feel free to share ideas of what works for you as we get more into this on future Tuesdays. If you haven't kept on top of your finances, now is a great time to start!

Your financial task for this week is to start keeping track of those receipts. Select a location to keep your receipts - a simple shoebox or desk drawer will work for now. We'll work on organizing them next week.