Financial and Paper Organization

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Several people have listed some tips for this, but no one has mentioned some of my methods of keeping track of the paper in your life. So here goes, and feel free to add your own items below.

I have a desk and a big 4 drawer filing cabinent. These are essential for me! In my top drawer of my desk I have a folder. I keep all of my current bills in this folder. I have a sheet of paper for each month with the bills that I must pay that month. As I pay them I cross them off the list for the month. I also have a paper for my monthly grocery amounts, savings amounts and any bills I pay on monthly. This way I can know instantly what the amounts I owe are.

ON my desk is one of those flat calendars, I could not function without this! I write anything important on this calendar. How much I spend on groceries, Cale's work hours, when I pay a bill, addresses for things I order over the phone. Any business clients I must see, appointments I have etc... At the end of the year I save these and have a record of the entire year.

I keep stamps, envelopes, a calcualator, my address book, cards and stationary at my desk as well. This makes it quick and easy to write out a bil or send a letter.

On thursday afternoon, I look through my folder and any bills that must be sent I get them ready to mail on Friday, as we are paid on Friday. I get my items ready for the bank and make out my shopping list at this time.

Every pay no matter what I stick a set sum of money (about 20% of the pay) in the bank. I don't touch this for anything except a drastic emergency. So far this past year I have not had to use this money for anything. The rest of the pay is divided between some cash for groceries and gas, and the rest in the checking for paying bills. I try to never let my checking go below a set amount. Which for me is the equivalent of 2 months expenses.

I really have no "set" budget. I have goals and I am always working to lower my bills, but there seems to be a point at which you just can't go any lower! My phone bill is at the minimum, as we make very few long distance calls, and I have eliminated most frills. The electric sems to stay about $80-100 depending on the season, and I can't seem to get it any lower. Since our bills aren't too much in total,I try not to worry too much about if a light gets left on!

Now to the other things, I have a box on my desk that I throw receipts, statements from bills, letters I want to save anything like this in. If it is junk mail I burn it instantly, or in the summer, I throw it on the fireplace and light it once in a while. Once a month, when I get my bank statement I go through my checking account, and I file all of these papers in my files. I even marked one Christmas this year so I could put any receipts in there all together. This also gave me a better idea of my spending.

When I do my checking account, I mark off all the checks that have gone through the bank. Then I turn to a clean page, and rewrite the checks that have not gone through and any deposits that haven't showed up yet. I write the banks balance at the top of the page, subtract any outstanding checks, add any deposits, and my balance should match up to the balance I had in my checkbook. This way you can start fresh each month, without having to search back through all the old pages. I have showed most of my tax customers this method and they love it.

Ok, now to the filing system. I have a lot of things to file, so each drawer is independent of the other. I have tax items for customers in one, I have my tax records,a nd bank statements in another, I have personal files, and pre-school and library items. the main thing is to save anything you think you might need later, and keep it all in alphabetical order. I use a black marker to write the titles as it is easier to see.

I hope this helps some. It takes very little time, once you have established a routine. I hate to see people who lose their hard-earned money by not knowing when to send their bills, and having to pay late fees. So take a little time and set up a system that works for you!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 07, 2002

Answers

Here is something that I do that does not cost much of anything and helps me out a lot.

I save junk mail if it is an eight and one half by eleven inch sheet, and if it has one blank side. I unfold it and put it in a box, flat with the clean side up. Then when I have a recipt for something that might be deductible or that I might just want to keep track of, I staple the recipt to a clean sheet usually in the upper left corner. I write the category at the top in the middle (like the word Farm), and the kind of expense in the upper right corner (like the word Feed). Then in the lower left corner I make a 3 line entry. Date, how paid (cash or check number), and the amount. Then the sheet is ready to go into a file, and there is plenty of room on the sheet for any notations that I might want to make.

Also I always have a sheet of paper handy (with one good side) for making notes, and this is recycling.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.


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