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Do you save old phone bills, bank statements, etc?

5K views 18 replies 19 participants last post by  cody82414 
#1 ·
If you do, what do you save? For how long? And where do you keep it? I find myself getting to the end of a pile of paperwork that I've hung on too and being torn as to whether I should throw away a bank statement or whatever. I've only once can recall refering back to an old phone bill, but that little nag in me that wants to be a pack rat says, "what if you need that?" Ugh! I so long for that clean and organized house I used to have....seems like centuries ago.
 
#2 ·
I do keep things like bills that I can't access online, but when I do a cleaning of the filing cabinet (usually a couple times a year) I throw out all the oldest stuff. When I pay the bill, I write the online bill-pay confirmation number on it and file it. My bank statements are available online for the last 18 months, so I never keep them.
 
#3 ·
I do.

I have all of my past bills, statements and pay stubs and all of that stuff for the past 9 years.

I don't know what it's staying around for, but I can't bear to part with it. I'm convinced that I'm going to need it. And actually, I have used the pay stubs to remind me what months I started/finished jobs for my resume.
 
#5 ·
In my last office/filing declutter I got rid of things from places that would have all the bills/statements electronically stored (bank, power, phone etc). The only things I kept were from small business owner type places. I spoke to a bank guy when we were talking about our home mortgage as to whether I needed to keep them and he said no as the bank is required to keep them on file if required. Also, my bank has an option to not receive statements anyway, so I don't physically get anymore now.
 
#7 ·
Nope I don't save any of them! I pay all my bills online through my bank - NOT through the billing company (gas/electric, phone co, cable bill) etc.

I can access all my bank info online for eightteen months and can get a print out from the bankfor further back than that if necessary!
 
#9 ·
Right now I save everything however I would like to do like sewsew does!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sewsew View Post
Nope I don't save any of them! I pay all my bills online through my bank - NOT through the billing company (gas/electric, phone co, cable bill) etc.

I can access all my bank info online for eightteen months and can get a print out from the bankfor further back than that if necessary!
 
#10 ·
I only save bills until I see that the payment has been credited on the next month's bill, then I toss it. (So I only have one bill for each utility/service at a time.) I save paystubs for one year, then toss. (I keep the W2s with that year's taxes and save indefinitely.)

DH on the other hand saves every freaking scrap of paper. Boxes and boxes of it. I've slowly started throwing his stuff out without telling him. I don't even think he'll notice until one day the boxes are gone, maybe not even then.
Last week I shredded and recycled his phone bills and rent payment receipts from 1992!!!

FlyLady is great for working through this kind of clutter. I
FlyLady.
 
#11 ·
I used to....but stopped several years back and recently discarded all of my old ones. We do everything electronic now....so thankfully most of my mail is junk mail that goes straight to the trash once it enters the house. =)

ps...most info can be found online at your bank or service provider
 
#12 ·
I only keep tax returns and W-2s. Absolutely nothing else. I figure everyone else in the world files better than I do. So if I need a piece of paper, someone else has it, and can find it more easily than I can. This has been my habit for the last several decades, and it has never been a problem yet. So far; so good, knock on wood.
 
#15 ·
We don't save month-to-month bills (like power bills), but we do save bank statements, records of repairs, and anything related to taxes (receipts for deductions, etc.). Although, we do as much as possible online to cut down on paper statements.

At the end of the year I scan this year's docs, put on CD, and shred the paper.

Who am I kidding - I have a 2-year-old - so there's a mountain of paper "to be filed," a full file cabinet "to be scanned," and the digital records are exactly two years old (imagine that). But in theory it's a good plan. :)
 
#17 ·
I have been saving everything this year in an attempt to better keep track of our expenses. I have one of those presentation folders with clear sleeves, and collect each bill in one page together in a sleeve. I plan to do this next year too and then discard the oldest one. It is really helping, because I am very visual, and can see who I should call for a better deal etc when it's all in front of me.
 
#18 ·
i save for a month and then shred it took me a long time to get to that point as i grew up in pack rat fashion. Someday you will pass away and someone will have to go through all those papers, when my mom died she had tons of papers. I kept the important stuff, and have slowly weeded through the stuff she thought was important over the years. It is a lot of work to maintain your own papers, keepsakes, photos in addition to someone who has already passed on.
 
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