Do you file your receipts in date order or alphabetical order of store names?

[2015mom]

Do you file your receipts in date order or alphabetical order of store names?

File..? The only thing I file is my nails .

I only keep those relating to electrical/big purchases , increasingly less though as most are stored on email.

I keep them in polypockets labelled by the room in which the thing is kept. Some rooms have more than 1 polypocket. Instructions go in there too.

Have excel, one sheet for each paycheck (eg 1st Jan-31 Jan) and purchases are entered.

Purchases where I need to keep receipt are highlighted on excel.

Receipts are then split into keep (ie garantees) and chuck.

At end of month double check I have got all the keep receipts against excel and chuck are shredded. The keep receipts for that paycheck are put in an envelope.

Envelope is marked stating the pay period it came from and lists the items on the receipts.

Envelopes are stored in boxes marking the year eg 2016. After X amount of time receipts where guarantees are no longer valid will be discarded.

Sounds OTT but it means I find receipts for returns very quickly.

Fuck, no!

And I agree. Most of the important ones have online documentation, anyhow.

The thing is, I very rarely return anything and if I do it is almost always in the first few days when the receipts are still in my purse (tends to be clothes or shoes). Anything online has details in email. The shove them in a box file system has never let me down on the odd occasion something I've bought in a shop has broken a few months later.

This kind of question makes me panicky. I feel sooooo inadequate

God no. I take the view that you need to look at the return on investment of any filing system. To me, the more complex the system the less likely I am to stick at it.

I have to be meticulous with receipts for my business, which means scanning and logging each one for my accountant. At home I either scan it (using my phone) and then put the receipt into my folder for this year, or just put it straight into the folder if I'm unlikely to need it again (and thus don't need a way of searching for it easily).

My system has failed me, though - I can't find the service record for my boiler, which is bloody annoying.

I recently (august) started managing my receipts in a different way. Up to then I had tried dated envelopes, attaching to instructions etc.
I now staple them into a diary on the day the purchase was made. I think it is so simple and easy to stick to. In terms of finding the one I need, it's also easy. I know I bought the item in X shop so I flick through and just check the receipts for that particular shop when I need it.
The best part is that all those annoying slips of paper are now stored in the small space that an a5 diary takes up, and when I need to return something, the receipt is still legible rather than the ink all rubbed off a crumpled piece of paper.

I shove clothes or shoes ones in a drawer and throw out every do often. Large electric items I put the receipts in the empty appliance box in the attic. I recently returned a microwave from Next which had gone rusty and was able to retrieve box and receipt from attic to take it back

Staple them in a notebook? One page per receipt in date order? Check them against your bank statement then chuck. Important ones can be restapled in another notebook.

I only keep important ones for white goods, gifts, things I may need to return.

I keep most receipts long enough until they show up on my credit or debit cards, or in the case of clothes or shoes, for a month past their sell by date. I keep receipts for expensive household items in my household file, along with their guarantees and manuals, and for any jewellery in a receipts tin (I currently have 2 for Pandora items in it, as they come with a 2 year warranty).

Big / expensive / warrantied items - filed in the study.

Normal purchases - scrunched in the bottom of my bag and chucked out when they annoy me.

Thank you everybody for your input. Everybody has great ideas.

I recently put my manuals of all electrical items and manuals for things around the house in two Lever arch folders with dividers A to Z which will make it easier to find manuals! They were previously just thrown in a big box and finding was so annoying.

I am going to staples the receipts for these items with the manuals because if they are required it will be after looking at the manual.

Everything else I will file in alphabetical order for years preceding 2017 so it will be easier to find in the future if required.

This year I will file in date order in three separate files as follows:
• General 2017
• Groceries 2017
• Diesel 2017

Groceries are purely filed separately because there are so many and I can review ways of saving money in the future.

Diesel file is useful because use them to claim mileage.

General 2017 covers all other receipts.