All bills and receipts that don’t need to be kept for tax purposes are then shredded.

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.

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).

I keep department store receipts for 6 months just in case I need to return something. 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. Also I throw out the grocery, petrol, miscellaneous receipts after 3 months. This makes it easy to find a receipt if needed in the future.

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.I then file the paid bills into my folders, grouping like bills together eg. At the beginning of each week I look at the bills calendar to see what bills need to be paid and pay them.For example if a toy breaks, or I buy some clothes I can easily locate the receipt to return with the item. I sort them like this so I can easily find a receipt if needed. 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.

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.

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.

Keeping everything in the bill organiser meant that it was really easy to locate everything. 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. My hubby had this under control but as I like to do, I created an organised system. Soon after becoming a SAHM I took on the role of managing the household bills. Paperwork in the office can easily become a mess, get lost and keeping on top of it can be somewhat challenging.

How to organize your bills at home