Thrifty Thursday: Receipts

My Thrifty Thursday advice for this week is to 

ALWAYS save your receipts.  

1. You'll get the price you paid when returning things instead of the current selling price.

2. You'll be able to take the receipt in for a price adjustment 

if the item goes on sale after you buy it.

3. If you shop at Wal-Mart, you can save your receipts and enter them into their Savings Catcher program for up to one week.  I've currently saved $14.25 just from scanning receipts.

4. All money saving apps require you to keep the receipts and submit a photo of the receipt to get money back.

I have always saved receipts, but just recently got a good system to organize the chaos.   My previous organizer was just a basket where we put all receipts.  We were ready for something a little tidier and user friendly.  The Dollar Tree had several of these five pocket organizers and  they were only $1.

My husband used to save ALL receipts - Starbucks, gas station and dinner receipts.  I do not hold on to those kind of receipts and usually toss them shortly after making sure we were charged the correct amount.  Remember that time I went to Sams and got charged for stamps I didn't purchase??  Luckily, I had my receipt so they could refund me the money.

I was also glad that I saved my receipts because this Nuk set of sippy cups all leaked!  We had only been using them a week or two and they were dripping everywhere.  I found my receipt and was allowed to return the cups for a full refund even though I didn't have the original packaging.  Hooray for receipts!! 

Don't be afraid to take back faulty merchandise regardless of the cost.  I keep returns in bags with their receipts in my car and just return them when I go back to the store.  It isn't much of a hassle when you have receipts.

 I tossed all of our unnecessary receipts and then sorted the others.

I made piles for Target, Wal-Mart, Sams, Kroger 

and then made a miscellaneous category for everything else.

Topher was very helpful with the sorting process...

They fit in nicely and I used the sticker labels that were included in the organizer to name my sections.  Now I put new receipts in the front of each section and it's really user friendly.  Sometimes I'll leave a little pile of receipts in the laundry room and then file them once a week.  Both ways work for me and it's so nice to have my receipts in order.  I plan to clean it out every few months so that it doesn't get too messy.