You’re a lot better at that stuff than I ;) I honestly don’t touch the receipts unless something comes up – I only keep them on file in case I need them one day, not for recording purposes. Since I use my credit card for everything, I track it all online making it nice and easy for us (and I double check the receipts as I’m in the store to make sure they’re good right away).

Then again, we’re also not tracking all the budget categories down to the penny either. We used to track it all pretty hardcore, but over the years we’ve gotten good at hitting the numbers or coming in lower (for the most part), so we don’t worry about it too much. We usually only get hit when bigger, more random, things occur over the every day stuff. But I don’t recommend that for everyone :) If your system’s working well, stick to it!

Don’t all the receipts go directly to wherever you record your spending?
If I need to keep a receipt for warranty purposes I scan it as a back up, then staple it to the manual/warranty info and toss it in a box we keep for all household manuals/warranty info. Otherwise, any purchase needs to be recorded on the spending plan – typically within 24hrs. If it was a planned expense I replace the estimated placeholder number in the spreadsheet with the actual number. If it was an unplanned expense I add a row and have that much less than expected on Friday when I’ll transfer the weekly excess out of the account and either make an extra mortgage payment or contribute to our retirement accounts. Just can’t imagine tossing receipts in a box to be dealt with some day. How would I know on Friday exactly how much has been spent and what is truly “excess”? A delay in getting that recorded means a delay in getting the excess out and workng for me somewhere else. Our normal weekly spending is gas and groceries. So even if I only updated monthly rather than weekly, that would only be 8 receipts. Last week there were also a couple of hair cuts and dog food from the pet store, but that happens only every few months.

Nice. I tried a business card case for a few months myself (one of those old vintage-y ones) but it looked much cooler than it worked. And was also a lot more bulkier so I had to give it up… I’d be down with trying another slimmer one though – I love the idea of it.

Cool! I’m digging the post – well done :)

My kind of woman!

Thanks J$ and Lynn!
I should do the shoebox idea, and I’ll be definitely looking into those options! Getting some good rewards for paying my mortgage sounds AMAZING!!!

DC driver’s license
USAA credit card (spreadin’ the love!)
USAA debit card (turned upside down because the thicker/numbers part of the two cards together wouldn’t fit…)
A couple of business card.
If I have any cash (which is rare), it’s folded together and loose next to the “wallet”. Currently that’s one whole Washington.

LOL, nope. It seems like it takes too much time and stress. I’m full on things to remember, hahaha. I always have my trusty Discover and a Visa of some sort…I just left PenFed because they started a $25 annual fee (bye-bye to my gas 5% cash back). Now it’s a Chase Freedom (hello to all of the same benefits as Discover plus a 10% bonus at the end of the year for having a Chase checking account). :-)