Paperwork in the office can easily become a mess, get lost and keeping on top of it can be somewhat challenging. Soon after becoming a SAHM I took on the role of managing the household bills. My hubby had this under control but as I like to do, I created an organised system. I needed a system that was easy to use and wasn’t going to let me forget to pay a bill, as being on one wage I didn’t want to incur any extra overdue fees. Keeping everything in the bill organiser meant that it was really easy to locate everything.
This is my process
- When bills arrive in the mail, I write the due date into my bills calendar, I then clip the bill to the inside of my bill organiser folder cover ready for when it needs to be paid.
- Throughout the week I empty the receipts from my purse into my receipts bin, each week I add these receipts to the ‘actual spending’ tab in our household budget
- Once I have entered them into the budget I then file them into a plastic wallet in my bill organiser (each wallet is categorised) Eg grocery bills, department stores (for clothing, toys etc), healthcare, kids/sporting, other and my business expenses. I sort them like this so I can easily find a receipt if needed. For example if a toy breaks, or I buy some clothes I can easily locate the receipt to return with the item.
- At the beginning of each week I look at the bills calendar to see what bills need to be paid and pay them. I then file the paid bills into my folders, grouping like bills together eg. phone, electricity, etc. Review the system here.
- At the end of each month I then staple all the receipts in each wallet together and write the month and year at the top of the first receipt. This makes it easy to find a receipt if needed in the future. Also I throw out the grocery, petrol, miscellaneous receipts after 3 months. I keep them for this period of time just in case there is a discrepancy on my credit card statement I have the receipt to look back on. I keep department store receipts for 6 months just in case I need to return something.
- At the end of the financial year, I then place all the receipts that we need to keep for tax purposes in a labelled box (labelled for each financial year). We keep these receipts for 5 years. It is a good idea to photocopy receipts for large ticket items such as TV’s, fridges etc just in case as they may fade over the years.
- All bills and receipts that don’t need to be kept for tax purposes are then shredded.
READ MORE: A few steps to create a ‘non-filing cabinet’ organised filing system for your paperwork.
Currently I am using these folders found at Kmart for my office paperwork, found at Kmart.
Over the years I have also use a large folder with clear cover to insert front page from OfficeWorks
add the due date to the calendar
I use the A4 Marbig Expanding Binder Wallets from OfficeWorks to store the receipts.
What is included in the Bill Organiser
The 2017 Bill Organiser includes – Front cover, spine label, calendars from August 2013 to December 2014 and pages to keep all details handy for bank and other accounts such as electricity, phone etc and a debt repayment plan to track how much you still have owing on a loan.
