How to Organize Your Receipts for Budgeting Purposes

Organizing your receipts is one of the best ways to establish your budget, and to track your spending habits. Many people have a variety of ways to organize their receipts but the easiest and most affective ways are sometimes over looked. Having all of those receipts lying around can get a bit messy, and it can be difficult to keep track of what goes where. It may seem a bit extreme to organize your receipts this way, but if nothing else has worked, it may help. The tips below describe a simple filing system that anyone can organize. Feel free to alter the tips and suggestions to suit your own personal needs. Below is a simply way on how you can organize your receipts.

Divide by store

Create folders that can divide up your receipts by store. You can have one folder for the supermarkets that you frequent, and even your wholesale clubs, and fruit stand purchases. Basically any store that you go to on a monthly basis will need to have a folder. Those stores that you may visit once in a while will also need a folder for those occasional purchases. Be sure to take the time, and label the folders to make them easy to sort through. Keep your folders in a small portable box, or bin. Keeping your files in this one bin will make things easier to find and sort through.

Combine by months

Once you have reached the end of the month you will want to staple all of the receipts from the month together. This way when you want to track your spending habits, you will have an easier time finding them. Or you can just paper clip them together if this is what you prefer.

Highlight the store name on the receipts

I also like to highlight the name of the store on each of the receipts so that it makes s it easier to file when you are ready to. If you need to look through the file at the end of the month to check the receipts along with your spending habits records. You will also want to highlight the date as well.

Clean out the files after six months

Unless you need the receipts for tax purposes it makes sense to clean out the files at the end of six months. Make sure that the information has been entered into any tracking system you are using, and then get rid of them. This will help you to keep from having a folder that is bursting with receipts.