#38 OLD RECEIPTS

#38 OLD RECEIPTS
© Copyright Andrea Reynolds 2024

My community offers a free Shredding Day to members once or twice a year. The next one is mid-April, so I'm working toward filling as many totes as I can before then. So far, paper to shred has filled 2.5 totes, like the blue-green one below.

I'd already cleared out the files for
1999 through 2017 and the reduced files take up only one half of a clear plastic file box. I keep the federal, state, and local tax return, property tax receipts, Income Summary and Expense Summary, and bank/credit account summaries (not the entire statement) for each year. I don't need grocery receipts, gas and electric bills, etc., but the amounts are noted on the summaries.

It's wise to keep tax files for 7 years, and I found that keeping prior files as well helped me find answers to questions that have come up.

Shred box

This week and next I'm working on eliminating unnecessary files from my years' receipts for
2018 through 2023.

After I purge
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, the remaining files will likely fill only one file box, not the 14 file boxes I would have today if I had not started to purge pages. Some years's receipts have filled an entire file box; other years, with bigger file boxes I've crammed two years in a file box.

I don't want someone else to dump all my private papers in the neighborhood dumpster for all to see, but I certainly don't want all those file boxes taking up space in my bedroom shelves, or to pay rent to store them one day when I no longer live in my house.

2017-2023

What you see in the two boxes above are 4 years of tax returns and receipts. Eventually they will fill only half a box. It's tedious going through each piece of paper, but I've come across a few little surprises that will serve me well later.
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